Previously published in Forbes

“Can I give you feedback?” It’s interesting how five simple words can make your heart beat faster and your blood pressure rise. Feedback conversations can activate a social threat response, where the brain thinks you’re in danger and gets you ready to react. This state of stress results in a decrease in cognitive functions, rendering it impossible…

Empowerment is being surrounded by women who disrupt industry norms, women who rise to the challenge and pave the path for others to follow. I recently had the opportunity to be in conversation with a group of these empowering female leaders from various global hi-tech companies to find out what contributed to their success. One…

Confidence equals security equals positive emotion equals better performance. – Tony Schwartz, President & CEO, The Energy Project Confidence is the belief in oneself and one’s unique abilities. When we’re confident, we trust ourselves as we move forward into the unknown. The work I do with high-performing female leaders in STEM consistently shows that women…

Here are four tips to make sure your whole team doesn’t succumb to burnout.

“It’s tough keeping the team motivated when we keep hitting brick walls,” a client recently said. “We sure could use a win.” I noticed his surprise when I asked, “What if the brick walls were part of the solution, rather than just taking you back to the drawing board?” Then, I elaborated: “These brick walls…

“How did I not see this coming?” a client asked as they shared that a high-performing employee resigned because the pandemic stress had become “too much.” “Missing what’s right there” and “hitting the pandemic wall” are phrases that keep coming up in conversations with clients as further regulations, restrictions, lockdowns and uncertainty have impacted everyone’s…

Leading is about achieving results with great impact, right? The reality is that this is true and untrue. Ultimately, the results you pull out of your people come down to one thing: your self-awareness. Your intention as a leader may be to deliver results within a specific timeframe set out by your company. Yet, unless…

Feedback is an incredibly valuable tool that can help your employees grow and reach their full potential. But it can also have the opposite effect if that feedback is pointed and negative. There’s a fine line between constructive criticism and harmful criticism, and as leaders and colleagues, it’s important to understand the difference. We asked…

Let’s face it, we are all being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early stages, leaders I work with found themselves scrambling with nonstop demands while trying to resolve complex problems they’d never seen before. Rethinking health and safety for their people, figuring out work-from-home logistics and trying to work out how to keep…

“I’m so annoyed,” Tom, my coaching client, said. “The perfect situation came up, just like we talked about. Charlie asked how he should get the data we needed, and rather than ask him what he thought he should do, I told him exactly how to do it!” Tom and I had been working on developing…