Since there has been a defined world, someone has been talking about the end of it. Those that organize under a Christian worldview have been particularly guilty. Planning of the impending inevitability of that end has had some pretty horrendous outcomes. Do I need to remind anyone of Jim Jones, David Koresh, or the Heaven’s Gate whack-jobs?!

One of the things we like best about working with our corporate clients is that we get to know all the key stakeholders. Sometimes when just working with an individual executive, there are parts of their companies or even partners that we never get to really engage. Almost like a counselor working with a challenging marriage and never meeting the other spouse…

In a coaching conversation last week, I was asking what made this man really come alive in his relationship with God. What fed his soul. When did he feel most connected to the heart of the Father.

Like many of us, this pandemic season has done a number on him. Working at home from his bedroom with the kids screaming in the background, managing this crisis from his new leadership role at work with the added bonus of a neighbor doing lawn work for 4 straight hours outside of his window every day, had sucked the life out of him. He knows this is a season…

We all know how to draw a pine tree, right? You’ve likely been drawing them since grade school. It was sort of an elongated green triangle with a couple of ridges down the side and a simple trunk extending from the bottom to attach it to the ground. At a distance, even a photograph of a pine tree would reflect something similar…

In A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Lloyd Vogel is a reporter to be feared. No one wants to be interviewed by a guy who is known to take a hatchet to everything and everyone he chooses to target with his writing. But Fred Rogers not only doesn’t fear him but relentlessly pursues him. The hunter becomes the hunted…

When it comes to surveying employees, no one comes close to the Gallup organization. They’ve been doing it for more than 80 years, they have 35 million workers in the survey database, and 90% of all Fortune 500 companies use their CliftonStrengths. When they say something about what the average employee is thinking or feeling, we would all do well to pay attention.

We reference their annual engagement survey all the time. You could read more about in our blog post, Drag. You should really be familiar with that if you aren’t already…

We’ve been watching “The Messiah” series on Netflix. No, I don’t think it is or was intended to be strictly biblical truth. In fact, like much of the bible, there is some interpretation required if you are going to try to bring some of that narrative to life. I am trying to watch it not as gospel, but as a thought-provoking interpretation.

One interesting thing I am wakening to is the precise way Jesus applied his life. Clearly, he righted some of the wrongs the first time he showed up but also walked right by many other significant things that needed to be done. This second coming of him on…

We haven’t felt settled. There are many obvious things we could point to over the last six months: moving to a new area of town, getting settled and reestablished, a very disruptive trip to South Africa, welcoming a third grandchild, raising three teenagers, the normal business dissonance to accompany the beginning of a new year, etc…

I was a child of uncertainty. There weren’t a lot of clear boundaries placed on me from an early age. We moved numerous times and our economic situation felt very feast or famine. Life felt arbitrary and unsafe.

And I didn’t know what to do with those degrees of freedom. I made really bad choices and would describe my early adolescence and teen years as pretty chaotic and destructive. I had no answers to my bigger questions and no clear understanding of the right way forward…

We sent this communication to many of our coaching clients this morning. We are preparing something similar for all our corporate clients as well. We felt compelled to share it with you:

Dear Friend:

The world, at least for the moment, has changed. All of us, despite our opinions about the severity of COVID-19 are going to be forced to change as well. We, like many of you, were a bit skeptical…

I’ve got some really bad news to share with you, things are never going to get any easier. In fact, the stakes are just going to keep increasing as you go through your life. And there is a paradox that I am beginning to highlight in many coaching conversations…

Our team has a Monday morning phone huddle. Just thirty minutes or so, but we solidly connect and jumpstart our week. We follow the same agenda every week.

• verse, idea, or question that we all share our thoughts around

• check-in from our weekend and a general check on how we are doing heading into the week

• review any calendar issues that need addressing for the week

• discuss any pressing issues that need addressing

Last week we started by asking everyone: What burdens or fears were we carrying that we needed to set aside? I know, a pretty big question right out of the gate on a Monday morning, but that is sort of how we roll. We’re all pretty used to responding to big questions on a moment’s notice…

The world is very noisy and that seems to be increasing exponentially. It is angry, busy, divided, assaulting, inundating, encroaching, ever-present, and unrelenting.

It seems like helping our leaders simplify and quiet their lives is becoming an essential part of our coaching. A necessary first step before they can even begin to think about the idea of focusing and solving their business issues.

Almost every intentional planning process we take them through, whether it is personally or organizationally, has to begin with some process for getting quiet…

Okay, that quote doesn’t sound anything like the language a 19th-century Scottish minister would use, but since I couldn’t locate this quote, I am sure he said something similar that has been translated to this version. Someone I respect deeply references it often and it comes up in my coaching conversations now as well.

The premise is pretty self-explanatory. Think about how your life might be shaped by each of these:

How do I retire early and comfortably?

How do I make the most measurable impact on the world while I am here?

Pretty extreme examples, but you get the point…

I am hearing frequent references to the idea that we are currently in a “moment.” It usually comes with a sentiment or feeling that things are going particularly well or horribly due to prevailing political attitudes or cultural ideas.  

Regardless of whether or not you believe this “moment” is a particularly good one or not, it is hard to ignore the fact that this time in history feels weighty and significant…

We are feeling a little stretched.  It is not only the start of the new year with a recalibration of commitments to existing clients but establishing relationships with a bunch of new ones.  Add to that a destination Life Plan retreat in Missouri and one for couples in Utah this year.  Oh yeah, and there is a little expression of what we do breaking out in several cities in South Africa with the prospect of much more beyond that.

And I am not currently monitoring, but I think my heart rate pulsed up a bit just typing that…

I have been sort of obsessed with the concept of MasterClass since I first heard about the platform.  An online annual subscription I started last year allowed me to dive much deeper into what they offer.  I have been through several “classes” now, but one of the ones I particularly enjoyed was how some great storytellers demystified the film-making process…

Tyler is on an expedition and the crazy bush pilot Rosie is trying to figure out what part of the treasures available in Alaska he is after.  When Tyler evades the question, Rosie says something profound and very holy.  He identifies that the most valuable thing is not oil, gold, or manganese, but people.  And that treasure is not being sought but is being squandered all around us….