No suits. No slides. Just dust, fire pits, bourbon - and conversations they’d been avoiding for a year. That’s what it looked like in Wyoming, where I brought one of the most high-performing yet misaligned leadership teams I’ve ever worked with. They didn’t need another strategy deck - they needed something real. And they let me take them there.

What if that confident silence you’re seeing isn’t a sign of trust… but a symptom of survival? I’ve coached inside many high-stakes...

A  Chief of Staff in a national defense organization  once asked me:   "Why is it so hard to get people to take ownership? We have clear...

I watched the Astroworld documentary the other night. The chaos was horrifying - but what struck me most wasn’t what happened. It was what didn’t. Security was overwhelmed. Medics were begging for help. Audience members were screaming for the show to stop. And still - no one pulled the plug. That moment - when people know something is dangerously wrong but stay frozen in place - isn’t just a tragedy of poor logistics. It’s the consequence of a leadership culture that quietly

The quiet truth about many high performers? They’re already halfway out the door - but still in the room. After my last post, a senior leader messaged me: 💬 "I’ve mentally left, but I don’t want to wreck my reputation on the way out. I just… can’t bring myself to care anymore." That’s the real risk in the “checked out but not out” phase.

She was a high-performing senior manager, leading a successful team and delivering results. But when she applied for a VP role, she was passed over - twice. Her frustration was clear: "I don’t get it. I’ve been doing everything right. Why am I still stuck?" The answer? She was executing, not leading. She was seen as a high performer, but not as a strategic leader - and in her organization, that distinction made all the difference. Hard work alone won’t get you promoted. A