I am currently reading   Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell . You probably know the premise by now: it is the story of Shakespeare's son, who died at eleven, told entirely through the eyes of his mother Agnes. What strikes me every time I pick it up is the structural audacity of the thing. The most famous writer who ever lived appears in these pages as a peripheral figure. He is never once named. The novel insists, quietly and firmly, that the woman history forgot is the one worth kn

After 13.5 years in Ireland — and counting — I still smile every time I see a Dublin Bus display its gentle regret: "Sorry, Not in Service." Even the buses apologize here. It's such a quintessentially Irish moment that perfectly captures something deeper about this island nation's culture, one that every leader working in Ireland needs to understand. The Weight of History: How Emigration Shaped a Culture To understand Ireland's communication culture, we need to understand its

Earlier in my career, I flew to Orlando for what was supposed to be a global offsite. The agenda looked ambitious — strategy sessions, team alignment, big-picture planning. We were pumped. After we landed and checked into the hotel, we walked into the conference room for the opening ceremony. That's when they told us: our teams were being disbanded. Our roles were no longer going to exist. I still can't decide what was more absurd — the fact that they flew us across the world

A few months ago, a client came to our second session. She'd always been composed, strategic, the kind of person who thinks three steps ahead. That day, she was exhausted. "I quit," she said flatly. "Sent the email this morning. No backup plan. Just done." She'd been at the company for six years. Senior role. Respected. Good at what she did. From the outside, everything looked fine. But when we unpacked it, nothing had been fine for months. She'd been drowning in admin work t

Every week I sit with ambitious, talented, capable leaders who—on paper—look nothing alike. A founder in Berlin. A director in Dublin. A senior executive in Singapore. A first-time people manager in New York. Different industries. Different backgrounds. Different passports and parenting stories. And yet… the same patterns emerge. High achievers don’t share a personality. They don’t share a resume. They don’t even share a temperament. What they   do   share is the ability to o

Stepping into a management role is already a shift in identity. Stepping into a management role over people who used to be your peers is a different kind of stretch. This is where many new managers get stuck. They know how to do the work. They are less sure about how to lead people who knew them before they were “the manager.”

A few months ago, a founder I coach said something I hear almost every week: "I feel like I'm juggling twenty balls, and none of them can drop." She runs a fast-growing startup.   Her calendar is a wall of back-to-back meetings.   She's managing a team, closing deals, mentoring, hiring, fundraising, fixing ops issues. If this sounds familiar to you, you are not alone.   Whether you're a founder, an executive, or a people manager, the reality is the same: You're constantly pul

There's a Buddhist parable I come back to when I'm coaching leaders who shy away from visibility. A group sits in a room. It starts to rain. A leak appears in the ceiling. Water drips — quiet at first, then relentless. Everyone shifts their chairs. Someone grabs a bucket. The conversation continues, but now everyone's distracted, uncomfortable, trying to work around the problem. One of them is a plumber. She sees the problem immediately. She knows exactly how to fix it. She's

Google didn’t scale to 190,000 employees by micromanaging. Here’s how you can build the same kind of accountability. When Connor (not his...

It was 2:07 AM and I was staring at the ceiling, replaying two paragraphs of feedback in my head for the hundredth time. Earlier that...

Eight years later, she still remembered the message. It was 2016, and I was preparing to welcome a new hire to our team at Google. She...

Why the most successful leaders I coach never mention salary first Last weekend, I found myself at a dinner table with six accomplished...