Inner Leadership

In my last article, I wrote about AI as a consensus machine. About how the race to adopt, integrate, and optimize for AI might be producing the opposite of what we're hoping for — smoothing away the rough edges of original thinking, replacing instinct with output, and delivering the most agreeable answer when what we actually need is the most honest one. The response surprised me. Not because people disagreed. But because of how many people wrote back and said some version of

A reader wrote to me after the last edition of this newsletter. She said she'd tried it. The Courage Challenge — one hour of complete presence with someone she loved. No phone. No half-attention. Just her, fully there. And she said it was harder than she expected. Not because she was distracted. But because when the distractions fell away, something else surfaced. A restlessness she couldn't quite name. An urge to fill the silence. A strange discomfort with just... being ther

I recently attended several panels about the job market. Different industries, different speakers, different perspectives. And yet the message was surprisingly consistent. The market is tough. AI is accelerating change. And many of the rules we used to rely on are dissolving. Again and again, the discussion turned toward the same question: What actually makes someone stand out now? Not surprisingly, the answer wasn’t just technical expertise. The people who will thrive in th

Uncertainty has a way of changing any room. A difficult email lands in your inbox. A decision shifts above you. A market changes. A plan falls through. A client pulls back. A conversation doesn’t go the way you expected it would. In those moments, it can feel like something is happening to you. Pressure rises. Your chest tightens. Your thoughts speed up. You move quickly—because you feel the urge to defend, explain, fix, withdraw. And it all feels automatic. But in the midd

As this year comes to a close, it’s impossible to ignore how heavy it has been for so many. We’ve seen continued reductions in force. Shifting priorities. Persistent uncertainty. Even the most seasoned leaders have felt it — that quiet pause, that recalibration, that question beneath the question: How do I keep leading when the ground keeps moving? And if we’re honest, all signs suggest this environment isn’t resolving anytime soon and a similar climate will follow us into 2

We often talk about burnout in terms of external forces — crushing workloads, relentless demands, toxic cultures. And yes, those things are very real, as I just explored in my recent article The Cult of Overwork - Burnout as a Badge of Honor. But after 20+ years working closely with leaders, creatives, and high performers in fashion and lifestyle industries, here’s something else I’ve learned: Sometimes, burnout doesn’t just come from what’s being done to us. It comes from w