Articles
A library of reflections on leadership, consciousness, and the work of awakening to a more aligned way of being.
These essays are for leaders navigating the frontier between inner stillness and outer impact.
A library of reflections on leadership, consciousness, and the work of awakening to a more aligned way of being.
These essays are for leaders navigating the frontier between inner stillness and outer impact.
My attempt here is to create a new possibility for you. You might be thinking of integrity as a moral act - keeping your word, being honest, acting ethically. These are all vital. But I've come to see that this is only a shadow of a much deeper reality. So I want to offer to you the possibility of a different kind of integrity: structural integrity or ontological integrity. It is the state of our inner
I spoke with an IT leader in his late 40’s this week. Amidst the news of industry-wide layoffs and economic shifts, we discussed the precariousness of the future. "The problem," he said, "is that our plans are becoming obsolete." He was talking about the five-year plans, the career ladders, the retirement timelines, the structured narratives we build to make sense of the world. But then he added a crucial insight that gets to the heart
After sitting in confidential conversations with leaders for a few thousand hours, I’ve come to fully appreciate that the unseen work of leadership is not in finding simple answers, but in developing our capacity to navigate complexity. Complexity isn’t just about having many moving parts. It’s a state where those parts are interconnected and unpredictable, where cause and effect are unclear, and where contradictory forces are often at play simultaneously. Basically, it is our reality. Reality
In the world of leadership and coaching, one can’t help but notice the noise of numbers: the "7-figure coach", the "8-figure entrepreneur", the leader who speaks of the "$100k investment" they made in their personal development. We often see these numbers as proof of success on a universal scorecard. But this is based on a total misunderstanding. Money has no inherent meaning. Its value is a story we've all agreed to believe, and the rules
The Intelligence Beyond Your Mind Being a smart, analytical leader comes with a burden of always needing to have the ‘right’ answer. As I wrote in my reflections on 3,000 hours of coaching, this search for the right answer is often a trap. I know this weight intimately. For most of my early life, I relied exclusively on my calculating mind. It's the part of us that uses data, frameworks, and pro-con lists to de-risk the
There comes a time when you’ve moved beyond simple productivity hacks and have come to understand that real performance comes from presence, not just frantic effort. You’ve tasted the clarity that comes from stillness. But this awakening brings a new, more sophisticated dilemma. You find yourself standing with one foot in a new inner world of clarity, and the other in an outer world—your organization, your team, your career—that hasn't changed. How do you operate
Have you ever felt a tension between the “textbook” way to lead and what you know works in the messy reality of your role? It’s a common feeling for any seasoned professional. You’ve read the books, you’ve taken the courses, and you have the certifications. Yet, you find that in the most critical moments, the real work happens in a space where the playbook has no answers. This isn't just a personal struggle; it’s a
Earlier this year, I took an entire month off through the end of June, island-hopping across Southeast Asia. No client calls. No calendar reminders. Just long walks, quiet swims, and space to be. It was in that spaciousness that my whitepaper began to take shape. When I came back, in the remaining three weeks of July, I immersed myself into my coaching practice, holding 46 client sessions: 43 professional, 2 pro-bono, and 1 exploring a potential partnership. It
The Journey So Far This week, I reached a modest but meaningful milestone: I delivered the 3,000th coaching session of my career. It’s a moment that might have passed without public reflection, had it not been for the encouragement I received from Ed Batista to pause, look back, and take stock. The Early Years I first started having conversations that could be called a rudimentary form of coaching in 2015 when I was the Vice Chairperson for