Not All Transformation Looks Like Change
There’s a version of transformation we expect in stories. Someone hits rock bottom, or as Joseph Campbell would call it, they face “the belly of the whale.” They struggle, rise, and come out visibly, undeniably different on the other side. We love this arc because it’s legible. We can point to the before and the […]
We’ve Confused Bouncing Back with Never Landing
Last week in my Vistage meetings, I passed a box around the room. I had placed an object in it and told the attendees that they had to guess what was inside the box. People shook it, smelled it, tilted it, watched each other’s faces, listened to one another’s guesses, and glanced at me to […]
Resilience as a Practice, Not a Trait
Nobody arrives resilient, at least not with a tiny emotional tool belt and a laminated certificate that says, “Congratulations, you are now ready for suffering.” Wouldn’t that be nice? We tend to talk about resilience as if it is a personality trait. Some people have it. Some people don’t. Some people are sturdy oak trees […]
Stop Editing Your Own Story
There’s a story you’ve been telling to others, maybe for years. You know the one. It has a beginning, a middle, and a tidy lesson tucked neatly at the end. The rough parts have been smoothed over and the embarrassing details have been quietly removed. The moment you fell apart completely is only mentioned briefly, […]
You Can’t Perform Your Way to Authentic
Here’s the thing about authenticity: the moment you start performing it, you’ve lost it. I’ve been sitting with this idea for a while, and it keeps coming back to me in coaching sessions, in conversations with leaders, and honestly, in my own life. We live in a world that has turned authenticity into an aesthetic. […]
Hardship as a Teacher (Not Just Backstory)
We often talk about hardship as though it were a chapter we had to survive before the real story could begin. We reference it as “the hard season,” or “the awful year.” In our minds, it becomes the thing we got through. I think that’s fair – 2009-2010 and 2016-2018 were those hard seasons for […]
Hardship with a Capital H
Hardship Is the Crossing Between Who We Were and Who We Become We are weirdly obsessed with the shiny ending and I think there are a few reasons for that. In this day and age, a shiny ending feels like relief with everything going on in the world between wars, politics, gas prices, and the […]
Courage Is Not Bravery (It’s the Next Step Anyway)
When we picture courage, our brains love a dramatic montage. Firefighters racing toward danger. A kid walking into a school where they are not wanted. A leader taking a public stand that could cost them everything. Those “big” moments matter, and they belong in the courage hall of fame. But most of the courage required […]
CHART: A Roadmap for Stories That Move People
Most leaders already know story matters. It rallies a team, sells a vision, restores trust, and reminds people why the work is worth doing. The problem is not whether to tell stories. It’s how to tell them in a way that’s both powerful and usable. Not a rambling memoir (though I have a particular soft […]
Story Is a Change Agent (and CHART Keeps It Honest)
If you have ever tried to change someone’s mind with a spreadsheet, you already know the painful truth: data is useful, and while persuasive, it doesn’t hold a candle to the power of story. Story is how we make meaning. It is how we remember. It is how we decide what matters. It is how […]