It’s normal to want friends at work. In fact, it can be crucial to your career success. According to this Gallup survey, having friends at work can make you up to seven times more likely to be engaged in your job.

How often do you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list? While in theory, to-do lists can be an effective tool to get all of your daily tasks completed, more often than not they can also leave you feeling more disillusioned and not as productive as you hoped.

One of the most important qualities of great leaders is curiosity.

Curious leaders aren’t afraid to stretch beyond their comfort zone, listen intently, and show that they’re attuned to everyone’s diverse perspective no matter how different it might be from their own. Today, we’re going to focus on the conscious work it takes to shift into a more curious leadership style and the powerful benefits it can bring to you and your organization.

It's been one year since I packed a tote to quarantine in Connecticut for two weeks.

Who remembers that brigade of red Ferraris I wrote to you about in our first newsletter?

At the time, the uncertainty was crippling. It left my feeling stressed, anxious, and powerless over so many directions in my business and life. More on that, here.

I love this story about feedback by Kim Scott, a professional coach for tech companies like Twitter and Qualtrics, because it’s a perfect example of the nuances of feedback.

I’m so proud of the strategies we use in our business to help our clients suffer less at work. Our approach to coaching is individualized, meeting each leader where they’re at, while also creating more collaboration and success for the team and larger organization.

But don’t take my word for it. Hear from one of our Activate members, who is only in week two of our program….

What do you do when you’re feeling depleted but life must go on?

Something we’ve been hearing since last March, is that the pandemic is a marathon not a sprint. While we understand the words in that sentence, it can be more difficult to understand how we apply that in our personal and professional lives.

One of the most popular topics in positive psychology is resilience. In a nutshell, resilience is the mental reservoir of strength that people call on in times of need when things are falling apart. It’s such a hot topic for good reason: having resilience has been shown to improve overall well-being, can lower depression levels, and - perhaps most important of all - it can be improved.

At the beginning of Activate we ask each member to share who they idolize most as a leader.

Here are some answers we've received in the past: Michelle Obama, Nelson Mandela, Sara Blakey, and Andrew Cuomo.

Now it's your turn: Who do you idolize as a leader and why? Write us back and let us know. We love hearing from you!

“But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

Have you ever been that fish? I know I have. I’ll never forget sitting in a conference room during my first job being surrounded by graphs. Graphs that confused me and made me wonder if my career was going to be limited because entering data into excel wasn’t something that came naturally to me or that I remotely enjoyed. Anyone else allergic to excel?

This time always gets me thinking about my word of the year. Since I started my business six years ago, I’ve always welcomed the New Year by choosing one word I want to focus on.

So much happens over the course of a year. Especially this year. Lessons learned. Hardships. Special moments. Personal growth. Victories. Failures.

While I’m just as eager to ring in 2021 as you are, it’s difficult to know where we’re headed if we don’t know where we’ve been.

Let’s be real, despite it being dubbed “the most wonderful time of the year,” between the pandemic, financial pressure, and family drama...it also might feel like one of the most stressful times of the year.