LEADERSHIP & IDENTITY

I spent last week in a few different rooms, surrounded by amazingly interesting and accomplished people. People who have built businesses, led teams, navigated change, and achieved plenty in their own right. And, inevitably, the conversation kept coming back to AI. Which tools are you using? Have you tried the latest version? What are you automating? How much do you trust an AI agent to run parts of your life? There were fascinating conversations, plenty of recommendations, a

Since coming back from my summer break in Austria and throwing myself back into the pace and energy of New York, I've been out and about a lot - having conversations with different people across fashion, business, technology and leadership. And there's something I keep noticing that I wanted to write about today, because it’s been coming up – one way or another – in almost every conversation. It’s a shift in what people seem to want, what they’re craving, and what they’re sta

I remember the exact moment I realized I was in over my head. I was sitting at my desk with a job brief in front of me, a list of target companies on my screen, and the phone — feeling, in that moment, like the most terrifying object in the room. I had been working in executive search for a few years by then. I knew the industry. I knew the process. I had sat in on hundreds of candidate conversations, managed the logistics of searches from beginning to end, supported senior c

We were in Austria when it happened. My husband — born and bred in Brooklyn, a lifelong Knicks fan who has lived through every heartbreak this team has so generously provided over the decades — was not in New York for the moment he has been waiting for most of his adult life. We were in Vienna. The trip had been planned long before we could ever entertain the possibility of the Knicks actually making it to the Finals. And so there we were, over 4,000 miles away, watching from

I once worked with a senior leader who told me he did his best thinking in the car. Not in strategy sessions. Not in offsites. Not in the back-to-back leadership meetings that filled his calendar from 8am to 6pm. In the car. Alone. On the drive home. That thirty-minute window — no agenda, no notifications, no one needing anything from him — was where things clicked. Where the tangled problem from Tuesday's meeting suddenly had an answer. Where he'd realize what he actua

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

“It’s lonely at the top.” I was reminded of just how true—and how heavy—that can feel in a conversation last week with a senior leader I’ve been coaching. Our work often centers around solving real, tangible challenges—decisions, team dynamics, competing priorities. But just as importantly, I serve as something else: a sounding board, a mirror, a thinking partner. A space where he doesn’t have to perform leadership—he can simply be. This time, he paused mid-conversation and s

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 middle

At the beginning of a new year, excitement is supposed to be the default emotion. Fresh calendars. Clean slates. Big intentions. But for many people, the feeling is quieter than that—almost muted. Not because nothing is happening, but because they’ve just lived through a year filled with noise. Constant advice. Endless opinions. Metrics telling you what matters. Expectations you didn’t choose. Other people speaking with certainty about paths you’re the one expected to walk.

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 20

As a society, we’ve decided to follow AI wherever it leads—even if that means walking ourselves over the edge. I know this opinion might not be popular. In fact, it might even sound a little naïve, cynical, or “anti-progress.” That’s fine. Because someone needs to say it — out loud, without the spin and without the hype. We’re all being swept up in a wave of AI "enthusiasm" that feels unstoppable. The momentum is intoxicating. Everyone’s talking about transformation, disrupti

This weekend, I found myself watching back some of the recorded sessions from the UN General Assembly in New York. And one thought kept coming up again and again: Courage is missing at the top. And I don’t just mean politics. I mean CEOs, business leaders, and anyone who holds influence and power. We live in a world where power is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small group of people—people with visibility, access, and a platform. And yet, too often, we see that pow

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 wh