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Career satisfaction, Coaching, Executive Presence, Happiness, productivity, Stress Management, Success Strategy, Time Management, WorkLife balance
Are You Sabotaged By Your Inner Hyper-Achiever?
A tech leader, let’s call him Jason, said, “I can’t relax; I always have to do something useful. Nobody makes me do so; it’s me. This is how I am”. Jason is not alone. Many of us have such hyper achievers in us, pushing us to do more. This trait may have helped us be where we are, yet its…
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Empower Your Teams With 4 Coaching Questions
Six-skills are in demand in the post-pandemic workplaces, said Gwen Moran in her fast company article. Five of those six, self-direction, adaptability, empathy, communication skills, and motivational skills can be cultivated through a coach approach. Leading organizations are staying ahead by investing in coaching skills for their leaders. It will be a strategic advantage when the leaders could use coach-like conversation…
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Visual Metaphor: How Coaching Helps
Coaching can be hard to explain—until you experience it. Whether it’s executive coaching, life coaching, or any other form offered by an ICF-certified coach, the essence is this: coaching helps you tap into your inner strengths to navigate challenges with clarity and confidence.Describing coaching is a bit like describing an elephant to someone who’s never seen one—complex, powerful, and different…
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Rational Thinking Falling Short? Harness Your Emotional Signals For Better Results
Why emotionally aware leaders make better decisions under pressure. You’ve built a successful career. You can analyze complex problems, create effective solutions, and work diligently to deliver results.And yet, you may find yourself baffled when others don’t “see the right thing to do”—when colleagues play politics, get defensive, or react emotionally. That can feel frustrating. As a VP or a…
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Influence in the Workplace: From Self-Promotion to Shared Purpose
Influence is often defined as the capacity to affect the character, development, or behavior of an individual or entity. In the workplace, influence shows up every day — in decisions, conversations, and the way people rally around ideas. Most of us care about influence because we want to be recognized as leaders, gain promotions, or take on larger roles that…
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Behavioral Feedback is Like a Bug Report: A Software Engineering Approach to Leadership Development
Summary: As a former software engineer turned executive coach, I often see parallels between debugging software and improving human behavior. Engineers follow a disciplined process to identify, investigate, and fix defects in code. Yet, when it comes to behavioral change, we often skip that rigor. In this post, I share how leaders can approach behavioral feedback with the same thoughtful…
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The Surprising Key to Strategic Leadership: Pausing
The Busy Leader’s Dilemma “My days are filled with back-to-back meetings; my inbox is a mile deep, and I am always behind,” Adrian, a senior director at a Fortune 100 company, told me during one of our sessions. He was constantly firefighting, trapped in a cycle of reactivity. Despite the appearance of productivity, Adrian felt stagnant. On top of it,…
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Computer Science Graduates: How to Thrive Beyond Hiring Freeze and Layoffs
Computer science (CS) graduates face some of the highest unemployment and underemployment rates among recent graduates. While the unemployment rate is reported as 6.1%, the underemployment rate is also relatively high, at 16.5%, according to some contributors on Reddit. Since the pandemic, the number of entry-level hires in Big Tech has plummeted, leaving many young professionals and their families disheartened. If you’re…
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Executive Presence for Analytical Leaders: Balance Your Strengths and Show Up with Impact
Why Analytical Strengths Can Become a Barrier? What makes a great engineer or technical leader? The answer is usually one word: analysis. Analytical thinkers excel at breaking down complex problems into manageable parts, modeling them in real-time, and identifying gaps that others might miss. This superpower is what makes products reliable, systems scalable, and innovations possible. But here’s the catch:…
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Beyond Geography: Why Lasting Change Requires Deeper Work
Leadership Lessons from the Movie Pretty Woman. In the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, there’s a memorable exchange between Edward, a wealthy businessman, and Vivian, a prostitute he has hired for the night. When Edward suggests that he would arrange a luxury condo for Vivian, which would “get you off the streets,” Vivian responds with a line that lingers: “That’s just…
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From Exhaustion to Empowerment: How Jessica Transformed Her Leadership Mindset
Discover how a high-performing woman of color shifted from exhaustion and burnout to strategic, confident leadership—and built a healthier, more fulfilling life. When Jessica began her coaching journey, her life looked flawless from the outside. She was the go-to person for her team and manager, the reliable high-performer who delivered no matter the challenge. Her open-door policy was legendary, and…
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Integrate Inspiration and Assertiveness – Increase Your Leadership Impact
Summary/TL;DR Leaders often feel they must choose between being inspirational or assertive, but real leadership impact comes from blending both. This article shares the story of Kumar, a senior director known for his warmth and positivity, who struggled to hold cross-team peers accountable. Through executive coaching, he discovered that inspiration and assertiveness are not conflicting traits but complementary strengths. By…
