By Julie Benezet: Two years ago, my doctor told me to face facts: if I continued to run, my knees would turn into sponge cake, or words to that effect. Feeling the sponginess already coming on, I begrudgingly doffed my running shoes and moved into the gym. There I made the acquaintance of the elliptical […]
By Julie Benezet: Two years ago, when I first wrote about mindfulness and executive presence, it was near impossible to live in the modern world and not to have seen the barrage of articles, books, blogs, conferences and weekend retreats devoted to the topic of mindfulness. The barrage continues, only it no longer talks about […]
By Julie Benezet: A familiar lament heard among senior leaders these days is, “I can’t get my leadership team to propose, let alone champion new ideas to beat our competition and attract new customers. They just submerge themselves in ongoing projects and leave me to do the heavy lifting.” Whether the comment comes from senior […]
By Julie Benezet: You dreaded this moment, and yet it has arrived. The leader to whom you report has launched another initiative to pursue a new client that has everyone charging down the wrong road. How do you know? You have been down that road before and what you found at the end of it […]
Dear Friends, After two years in the making (not counting four years of thinking), I can answer the question, “WHERE is the book?” with, “The Journey of Not Knowing: How 21st Century Leaders Can Chart a Course Where There Is None is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble & eBooks everywhere.” I now understand what authors mean when they describe writing and […]
By Julie Benezet: Is there something in the water that heralds different thinking? Over my entire working life, I have listened to leaders as clients, colleagues and friends talk about their careers, what they want from them and what struggles they face. Those all are normal attributes of executive life. In the last month, a […]
By Julie Benezet: As I watch mesmerized at the fallout from the Brexit results I can’t help thinking about the power of anger and how it insulates people from its impact. In today’s landscape, there seems to be no shortage of anger and its omnipresence is deadening forward movement by leaders and their constituents. The […]
By Julie Benezet: You have decided that collaboration is an important company value and critical to its culture. However, what does that mean in practice to a leader? Consider the following scene: Leader: Okay, how are we doing on the Xerxes project? Engineer, how is the programming going? Engineer: It’s going, but it would go a whole […]
By Julie Benezet: “I know I have to work for him,” complains a young executive. “He runs our company but he seems so judgmental. Whenever we talk he just looks at me levelly as if waiting for me just to go away. That’s a problem when I need him to approve the restructuring of our […]
By Julie Benezet: Success for a leader requires embracing the unknown. Only by seeking out new ideas can leaders reach new strategic directions for their organizations. That is, after all, the job description of a leader. By their very nature, new ideas are untested. You will not know how they will turn out until you […]