Top of Mind
Lori's Latest Articles
"What you said was so powerful, I wish I’d written it down…!"
How many times have you said that to someone?
Here Lori shares an excerpt from the latest thoughts she doesn’t want you to lose.
5 Fears of Mid-Level Leaders — Fear of Failure
“Please don’t tell anybody, but I’m scared. My organization has invested $100M in this new initiative, and the outcome will brand my career. If it succeeds, I’ll be a hero. But if it fails, people will look at me as the person who squandered all the work hours, all the...
5 Fears of Mid-Level Leaders — Fear of Rejection
“I really didn’t expect this. I’ll admit that I’m used to being liked by the people around me — and I’m used to people going along with my proposals and my ideas on what should be done. But I’ve run into a wall. I’m hitting obstacles that I’ve never encountered...
5 Fears of Mid-Level Leaders — Fear of Incompetence
“I just got promoted, and I was really excited about the opportunity. But things just aren’t working out as well as I thought they would. It seems like every time I want my team to go one direction, they all end up going the other way. I’m trying really hard,...
5 Fears of Mid-Level Leaders — Fear of Disconnection
“Why did I say ‘yes’ to this job? Why have I invested so much of my life into my work? Why did I trust everyone around me so much? I never saw it coming. No one gave me a warning. They’re edging me out, pushing me aside—and it’s painful. I...
5 Fears of Mid-Level Leaders
Over the past two decades, I’ve worked as an executive coach with hundreds of leaders across the United States and around the world. I have discovered that many leaders—in spite of their very different titles and job responsibilities, situations and work locations—have something in common: their fears. Ironically, most leaders...
Return to Work Policy through the Lens of Vertical Development
Mandate a return to work? Continue to allow people to work from home? In the wake of COVID, the Chief People Officer I was coaching knew that she and her Head of HR had to resolve this contentious issue, but they didn’t know how. Unilaterally imposing a one-size-fits-all policy covering...
Teams In the Squeeze
All of the leaders I work with believe in “the power of the team”—at least in principle. However, in practice, they often find it difficult to access and leverage that power when their teams are under intense pressure. One such team, formed by a client I worked with recently, is...
A Transformative Decision-Making Practice for Business Leaders
As a business leader, decision making and problem solving are in your DNA. These skills are, rightly, lauded and developed in the corporate world. But what do you do about those intractable problems and unresolvable dilemmas that keep you awake at night? Perhaps it is no surprise that mindfulness—the capacity...
If the world would dance together…
I just finished a leadership development event in Washington DC that turned out to be one of the coolest examples of cross-cultural diversity and global citizenship I’ve ever experienced. At this multinational gathering, I was one of the very few native English speakers. The participants, members of my client’s entire...
5 Characteristics of Globally Resilient Leaders: Global Outlook
Leaders with a global outlook feel “at home” wherever they are. They aim to understand and function effectively in the whole world, rather than a few select parts of it. They think of themselves as a “citizen of the world”, rather than as a citizen of a particular country or...
5 Characteristics of Globally Resilient Leaders: Nimble Ease
In previous articles in this series, we have looked at relentless curiosity, pragmatic fearlessness and suspended judgment. All three characteristics help leaders get their bearings when they move into another culture or region of the world. “Nimble ease” is what helps them navigate the complexity and uncertainty they encounter with...
5 Characteristics of Globally Resilient Leaders: Suspended Judgment
Globally resilient leaders temper their pragmatic fearlessness with a mix of relentless curiosity and the ability to suspend judgment. They are fully aware of their country-of-origin predilections, yet detached from it as a default position of “rightness.” They understand that what’s “true” and what’s “acceptable” varies by culture. Rather than...
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