Whitepapers

The very earliest days of our lives, and our closest relationships, can offer clues about how we cope with adversity. A few years ago, an unimaginable thing happened in my life. I wanted to help someone I cared about, someone who was sick with an illness he was hiding. I went to his house, intent on a rescue operation that would end, I thought, with a trip to the emergency room. Instead, it…

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” — Khalil Gibran When we experience disaster, trauma, or distressing psychological events in our personal or professional lives, we usually react with grief and a range of negative emotions. Which is, of course, a natural reaction to having our hopes dashed or…

A small but intriguing new survey by a pair of British consultants confirms the importance of resilience to business success. Resilience was defined by most as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and keep going in the face of adversity. But when Sarah Bond and Gillian Shapiro asked 835 employees from public, private, and nonprofit firms in Britain what was happening in their…

Have you ever truly had a coach and mentor? I have asked this question in groups for more than two decades now. At this stage, to tens of thousands of people. Amazingly the response is always the same. Only about 10% of people will have had someone who made such a profound difference in them that they feel compelled to speak about that person. Only 10% have ever had a great coach and…

As we argued in one of our previous columns, coaching has become an essential component of leadership in the work place. Pragmatic leaders--those interested in the practical aspects of execution--understand that the key to success is enhancing the capacity, competence, and skills of those they work with. They appreciate that they have to be there for the people they lead. They have to…