Some time ago, my client — let's call him Steve — came to me disappointed, angry, and confused all at once, which is a particular kind of exhausting. Steve is a founder. Sharp, self-aware, genuinely good at what he does. Some of the people he had invested most in — developed, advocated for, stayed late with, comforted when they confided in him about personal issues — had left the company the minute a competitor came calling. Not just left. They brought some of his client book

A few years into a senior role at Google, a more senior colleague pulled me aside after a meeting. "You're the smartest person in that room," she said. "But you're not landing the way you think you are." That sentence stayed with me for a long time. Not only because it stung (it really really did) but because I knew she was right, and I had no idea what to do about it. I had the skills, the track record, the ambition. What I didn't have was anyone who could help me see myself

It's one of the most common questions I hear from senior leaders, HR professionals, and founders navigating their next stage of growth: "Should I invest in coaching — or just send people to a training program?" It sounds like a simple either/or but of course in reality it's more complicated than that. And getting this decision wrong is expensive - not just financially, but in time, momentum, and trust. After 11 years at Google leading teams across sales, partnerships, Cloud,

In one of the most iconic storytelling examples from Mad Men , Don Draper faces a tough task: Sell a slide projector from Kodak — the...

Two weeks ago, I ran a leadership training with a group of newly promoted managers at a well-known global tech company. The group was...