A client called me Friday afternoon. She had an offer in hand. A good one. A role she’d been working toward for nine months. The company was strong, the comp was right, the team had been everything she hoped for in the interviews. And she was about to turn it down. Not because of anything…

There’s a version of executive presence that almost nobody on LinkedIn talks about. It isn’t posture. It isn’t voice. It isn’t the way you take up space in the room. It’s how you handle being uncertain in public. The senior leaders I’ve watched build the most durable authority are the ones who’ve gotten comfortable saying…

One of the most common questions I get from senior leaders is some version of: “How do I know when it’s actually time to leave?” They’ve been restless for a while. They keep talking themselves out of moving. They wonder whether the discomfort is real signal or just the inevitable friction of any job. They…

I get one question more than any other in my DMs. It goes some version of: “I’ve been reading your posts for months. I’m thinking about reaching out about coaching. But I don’t know if I’m the right person, or if my situation is the right situation. How do I know?” Here’s my honest answer.…

There’s a leadership skill that gets harder, not easier, the more senior you become. Almost no one warns you about it. It’s not in the leadership books. It doesn’t show up in the 360 reviews. But in 20+ years of watching senior careers play out, I’ve come to believe it’s the single most important difference…

Senior leaders tell me all the time that they have a strong network. Then they start a job search and discover they don’t. What they have is a list of contacts. That’s not the same thing. In 20+ years on the hiring side, here’s the difference I’ve watched play out: A list of contacts is…

Senior leaders almost never lose authority all at once. They lose it in small phrases, repeated over months, that they don’t even know they’re saying. Five I’ve watched undermine smart, capable executives and what to swap them for. 1. “Sorry, can I just add something quickly?”Translation to the room: I’m not sure I deserve to…

There’s something I tell every senior leader in their first session with me. Almost word for word. I tell them: I’m not here to make you into someone different. I’m here to help you see yourself more accurately.Because here’s what I’ve learned in 20+ years of doing this work. Most of the senior leaders who…

Two senior leaders. Same industry. Same starting point ten years ago. One is now a SVP at an household-name company. Big title. Public profile. Speaking at conferences. The other is a VP at a less-known company. Quieter. Smaller team. Most people would tell you the first one has won the decade. Here’s what I’ve learned…