Ultimately, leadership is about effective decision making, under pressure. And, as much as we don’t like to admit it, most decisions come down to feelings.

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES THAT INFORM MY APPROACH:

Leaders and teams speak directly to each other, not about each other.
Leaders lead with both intellect and emotion. It’s a myth to believe we can effectively compartmentalize our feelings; emotions (whether we want to admit it or not) drive the majority of our decision-making. Leaders need both forms of intelligence and encourage their teams to hold that tension as well.
Leaders use authority as a resource -- they don’t abuse or avoid it -- to create committed and coordinated teams to achieve results.
All teams have patterns that are co-created among the members, including the leader. Some are constructive and need to be emphasized and reinforced. Some patterns need to shift to become more effective. Patterns are ingrained and difficult to change. Live team coaching is one of the most productive ways to shift team patterns.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

Behavioral Science is by definition focused on behavior, that is readily observable responses to external stimuli. This discipline is informed by anthropology, sociology, and psychology, all of which involve a careful analysis of human behavior. In the study of human behavior, the past and present are windows to the future—coaching and consulting dips into the past to inform the present and future but does not dwell there. What we can learn from people’s decisions and actions help us draw conclusions and make predictions. The more we learn, the more we understand, and the more we can take action to improve the lives of those around us.

Industrial & Organizational Psychology is an applied discipline within psychology. It is the scientific study of human behavior in organizations and the workplace. The specialty focuses on deriving principles of individual, group, and organizational behavior and applying this knowledge to the solution of problems at work.

Sustainability, at its core, deals with organizational and personal values and their expression in business decision-making and behavior. It has become a part of life for many companies and is administered across a wide spectrum. For some, it is about meeting demands from customers seeking socially responsible goods and services. For others, it’s about addressing pressure from stakeholders—including investors—or pursuing their own corporate values. For still others, especially those in a resource-constrained environment, it’s a strategic imperative. Whatever the impetus, sustainability has become sufficiently pervasive that defining it and executing business programs, products, and practices with an eye to their environmental and social implications has become a demanding managerial exercise.