Instead of just "winging it" as you lead your team through its next project or change process, consider leading more deliberately.

You can’t control your team, but you can create an environment that supports them. 

You can’t prevent the changes, but you can give the team the foundational cohesion to process and integrate the changes.

Talking about complex issues is essential to navigating slowly toward a resolution.

One powerful tool used in coaching is the metaphor, which offers not only a visual but a description to point to in order to more fully understand an experience. 

I remember a handful of times this spring when I connected with colleagues about feeling overwhelmed by the workload. I joked that I was "stifled by my own ambition" as a way to articulate that I brought this on myself. The ironic image evokes laughter because the words seem incongruous. Why would anyone stifle themselves?

The goal is to always be able to answer the question, “what am I doing right now?”

Leaders, if you want to encourage your team to develop in a certain way, gain a certain skill, or create some other change, you can't just talk about it once.

We weren't just attending "another meeting" out of obligation, but instead, we made a conscious choice to be invested with a clear, mutual, and relevant purpose.

The idea of constant growth is not only overwhelming and unsustainable, it disregards the natural cycles of ebb and flow, of order and chaos, of action and rest.