S.P.A.C.E. to Lead
When work becomes painful, we often need someone to be wrong. But it’s possible to struggle deeply with a boss and still acknowledge they may be effective elsewhere. Holding both truths doesn’t erase harm, it simply widens the story beyond blame.
S.P.A.C.E. to Lead
After years of trying to help our beloved cat heal, we learned she needed a different environment to thrive. Watching her flourish elsewhere taught me something about leadership: struggling in a role isn’t always failure. Sometimes it’s a mismatch — and letting go can still hurt.
Team Truths
Psychological safety is often treated as a leadership responsibility. In reality, it is co-created—or eroded—by teams in small, everyday moments. This article explores how safety lives in the space between people, not at the top.
Team Truths
Team challenges are rarely individual problems. They are patterns shaped by unspoken agreements that protect comfort, power, and stability. This article explores why naming these dynamics is the first step toward healthier, more accountable teams.
S.P.A.C.E. to Lead
When pressure rises, it’s easy for leadership to become transactional. Yet today’s complexity calls for balance: clear accountability alongside presence, judgment, and relational leadership. Leading well isn’t about doing more. It’s about leading differently.
Team Truths
Most team challenges aren’t caused by individuals — they’re sustained by patterns no one names. Team Truths is a weekly series that surfaces the unspoken agreements, systemic dynamics, and emotional undercurrents shaping team performance and culture.
S.P.A.C.E. to Lead
We use the word authenticity often, yet rarely mean the same thing. This article unpacks the competing definitions — from true self-expression to performative “realness” — and why teams need a more grounded approach.
Team challenges are rarely individual problems. They are patterns shaped by unspoken agreements that protect comfort, power, and stability. This article explores why naming these dynamics is the first step toward healthier, more accountable teams.
When pressure rises, it’s easy for leadership to become transactional. Yet today’s complexity calls for balance: clear accountability alongside presence, judgment, and relational leadership. Leading well isn’t about doing more. It’s about leading differently.
Most team challenges aren’t caused by individuals — they’re sustained by patterns no one names. Team Truths is a weekly series that surfaces the unspoken agreements, systemic dynamics, and emotional undercurrents shaping team performance and culture.
SPACE to Team helps groups slow down, see themselves more clearly, and act with intention. By creating Stillness, expanding Perspective, Assessing patterns, Clarifying decisions, and Engaging purposefully, teams build trust, alignment, and sustainable performance.
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A reckoning in the literary world raises deeper questions for settlers in coaching. As a gay white male practitioner, I explore how we navigate responsibility, avoid taking space that isn’t ours, and meaningfully support Indigenous leadership.
SPACE to Team helps groups slow down, see themselves more clearly, and act with intention. By creating Stillness, expanding Perspective, Assessing patterns, Clarifying decisions, and Engaging purposefully, teams build trust, alignment, and sustainable performance.
Teams don’t move through neat stages—they flow like waves. Just as a body surfer reads the ocean’s rhythm, leaders must sense the patterns beneath team dynamics. Tuckman’s model still guides us, but today’s teams evolve continuously—riding change with awareness, adaptability, and trust.
Every month, we listen to leaders, teams, and coaches navigating complexity — and together, we notice patterns. The rise of performance pressure. The call for more space to lead. The desire for deeper connection in systems that move fast and expect more. These aren’t isolated stories; they’re signs of
High performers often get rewarded with more work, not more support. This “performance punishment” turns success into strain — promoting doers into leaders without space to lead. It’s time to rethink reward systems and help our best people grow, not burn out.
Leadership isn’t about control—it’s about behavioural intelligence. In Being BRAVE® as a Strategic Advantage, Cindy Benning reframes strength as awareness, showing how composure, vulnerability, and authenticity create trust, alignment, and lasting performance.
When a strike ends, the real work begins — rebuilding trust, restoring connection, and leading with empathy. Returning to work isn’t just operational; it’s deeply human. Leaders who approach this moment with care can turn disruption into renewal.
AI won’t replace coaching—it can extend it. By reframing AI as a third voice in the coaching relationship, we create a reflective triad of client, coach, and AI—each bringing presence, curiosity, and insight to deepen awareness and sustain growth between conversations.
A team being stuck is not a sign of failure — it’s where innovation and understanding are born. Learn how to hold space for the messy middle and turn conflict into collaboration.
Words hold history, identity, and emotion. Before we judge what someone says—or how they say it—what if we paused to ask why we’re reacting? Sometimes the power isn’t in the word itself, but in the space we create to understand it.
Teams grow most when certainty is scarce. The Stacey Matrix reminds us that innovation and collaboration thrive in complexity—where answers aren’t obvious, but learning and collective strength emerge.
In this newsletter, we explore the real challenges leaders face today—from balancing stability and agility, to setting healthy boundaries, to rethinking feedback. Each article offers fresh insights and practical tools to help you and your team thrive