Feminine energy is when you relax into who you are more deep in your core and take the time to really connect with people. It is not about hard drive or competition. It is looking at opportunities and challenges with an open heart and asking yourself what is possible and using your gut instinct to take steps towards that, being patient with yourself and others along the way. It is caring. Kind. But, also honest.

If a project isn’t going as planned, someone leaning into their feminine energy wouldn’t ignore the issue. They would pause and ask themselves, as much with their intuition as their head, what is going on here? They would then communicate openly with the team from a place of vulnerability (and of not having all the answers) to work together to rally the troops and take steps to get to the goal. The process is just as important to the goal from a feminine perspective. People in this realm feel they are doing the right thing every step of the way and if not, they listen to themselves and others until it is resolved openly.

Resilience is something we develop when we go through tough experiences. I think of my Dad when I describe this. Growing up, we had a lovely,well-manicured yard. My Dad wouldn’t have ever thought about hiring a maintenance crew. He did it all himself with the help of my Mom for planting and watering Other than that, it was all Dad. He would shovel and hoe almost every day. When I looked at the inside of his hands, they had callouses on them from the use of these gardening tools over time. These callouses emerged because tough work had required them to grow to help my Dad’s hands to be able to do everything that his life was telling them through experience he needed to do. The callouses helped him to carry through. To handle the tough stuff better.

And that is exactly how we grow our resilience. We develop this inner strength over time because we have to. This growth does not feel so comfortable at the time and often can feel like pain, but it forces us to shift and change to be able to carry the heavier load more efficiently.

I have worked with a lot of people over my years as an Executive Coach and seen them make amazing transformations. How are most of them doing it? Baby steps!

I know there can be the appeal of waiting for that one life-changing moment to turn things around and propel you to where you want to be. But, the reality is that it often doesn’t happen like that.

Sustainable change happens when we take small steps every single day, which alters our habits and rewires our brains so that over time, a real shift can take place.

Earlier on in my adult life, I seemed to thrive on adventure. I was always going here and there, pushing myself physically and loving the challenges. But, after having kids and more senior roles at work, adventure became about doing the best I could each day to keep all the balls up in the air! And, if I am being honest here, my carefree attitude in life became more about being a responsible adult.

Priorities change throughout the different stages of our lives. But, when I was recently talking to one of my clients about his adventures in Patagonia, Argentina, it lit a spark within me.

When you think about adventure, what comes to mind for you? How can you fit more of that into your life now?

I suffered a severe concussion 12 years ago when I fainted during a stand-up X-ray, smashing my head off the concrete floor of a medical facility.

My symptoms of headaches (made increasingly worse with any sort of noise, movement around me, or thinking), blurry vision that was extremely sensitive to light with a bunch of floaters (black squiggly lines) in my line of vision, physical fatigue, dizziness, short term memory issues (I could remember things from years ago but couldn’t remember the conversation I’d just have with my husband), and a really challenging time multitasking

My continued healing journey has been a long one. But, I have moved mountains in terms of where I am now compared to where I was. My experience has taught me:

This picture was taken recently on the 4th anniversary of my husband’s death. The rough waves and dark sky parallels the emotions I was feeling the day my beautiful 46 year old husband died in my arms after a 23-month battle with esophageal cancer.

To see this man I loved with my whole heart slip away breath after breath was excruciating. Knowing how badly he wanted to stay. And then to have to call our 8 and 10-year-old daughters to come in to see us, them unaware that this would be the moment they would learn their Daddy had died.

I have also faced intense physical pain. So how can we befriend pain and use it as a tool to help us be our best in work and in life?

No doubt you have worked hard to climb your way up the corporate ladder. Probably at times throughout your career, you wished there would be two of you to accomplish what you needed to do.

And then, you made it to the leadership ranks, and voila…an Executive Assistant appears! This is a dream come true. An extension of yourself. Someone to help you free up more time to be strategic and coach your people. But in the work I do as an Executive Coach, I can tell you that this Executive Assistant Fairy Tale sometimes ends up being just that, and the time of the leader and the EA is not utilized as well as it could be. As such, I’d like to share some tips for working with your executive Assistant for the best results!

We all have so many things to do and so much responsibility. I reached a point earlier on in my life when I knew that something needed to shift for me. Doing it all was no longer an option. This led me to create a two-question filter system I use now whenever I am presented with a new work project or a social event. I have found this filter system works so well that I now share it with my clients and they are finding it beneficial too. The good part? It is so easy. It feels like common sense, yet pausing to ask yourself these two questions can completely change the way you work.

If you are running around the clock, it is time to look at your calendar. It doesn’t matter if you are a CEO or a student. If you are feeling flung through the day, you are not setting yourself up for success. It is no longer a badge of honour for leaders to talk about how busy they are. Busyness doesn’t equate to strong leadership. If you have got so many things to squeeze into your day and you are not sure how to do it, here are some tips for you!

am noticing a trend in the Executive Coaching work I do where leaders who are normally intensely focused on the next thing and always striving for more, have hit a lull.

There is nothing wrong with them. Their performance isn’t suffering, yet they aren’t feeling particularly inspired to go guns ablazing onto the next project or career move. And, this lack of goal-setting and intense desire to strive is feeling very weird for them. It is hard to put a finger on what’s ‘wrong,’ except they report just feeling “okay.” What has caused this feeling amongst many leaders?

This week, I gave a keynote speech for a corporation. I had a busy morning juggling a few things so got to the point where I realized I didn't have time to BOTH review my notes for this speech AND take a few minutes for me to ground myself, close my eyes and breathe deeply and visualize my connection with the audience. I had to choose one area to put my focus on for my prep for this speech.

I have learned some great lessons throughout my career about presentations. I was the former speechwriter for the CEO of General Motors, then became a VP of Communications and Business Development responsible for making regular presentations to clients and Boards. I have been a spokesperson for a variety of global and national brands. And, I have been interviewed for more than 5000 media interviews since the time I was 23 years old. Now I am a keynote speaker.

What Tips Can I Share With You to Make Your Talks More Impactful?

This is the conundrum faced by many a Type A workaholic perfectionist who works so hard and likely drives a hardworking, successful team. How do I really make space to celebrate? I mean really celebrate your successes, not just the token holiday party or dinner out for the team to mark the completion of a big projection while you are consumed already by the next thing. This celebration shift is just as much about a state of mind as it is about what you actually do for yourself and/or your team to celebrate.

Recently an article was shared with me entitled, “Welcome to Holland!” This piece was written by Emily Perl Kingsley from her perspective as a mother of a disabled child. But, the person who passed it my way felt it would resonate with me (and it did) and perhaps it will resonate with you, too.

Welcome to Holland!

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan.

I recently led a learning session for a company’s internal coaches on resilience. The topic of vulnerability came up. It is interesting how 15 years ago, vulnerability would have been seen as a weakness for a leader to show. Nowadays, particularly since the COVID pandemic, vulnerability is a highly desirable leadership characteristic.

But, as one of the participants in this training program asked me, “How do you become a more vulnerable leader?”

I love January because it is a great time for new beginnings! A chance to reassess and start new. Yet, statistics show that only 30 percent of people who set New Year’s resolutions actually keep them beyond 3 months. So why are people’s goals falling by the wayside and how can I help you make some important shifts to achieve what you want?