How Past Trauma Affects Leadership Quality

woman with a psychologist for therapy, trauma and mental health support

We want better leaders and we want to become better leaders. Unfortunately, commonly referenced statistics suggest that the majority of leaders are falling significantly below expectations. Improving our leadership and that of others should be a priority. In this series I am going to make a bold claim that I believe is key to transformationally […]

A Measure of Your BEING Side: Your Relationship with Feedback

Novices vs Experts look for & listen to different forms of feedback

We have two sides to ourselves: Our DOING Side: Our knowledge, skills, talents and abilities Our BEING Side: Our character, mindsets, and psyche For most people and leaders: We are more advanced on our DOING Side than our BEING Side Almost all development efforts (across education, athletics, and organizational development) focus on the DOING Side […]

The Impact of Vertical Development on Individual Leaders

Ryan Gottfredson Speaker Reel 0 24 screenshot 1

A few weeks ago, I surveyed my newsletter subscribers and asked them what they would like to see me write about. A common theme from the responses was that they wanted to learn more about my business and the impact that it is having on the leaders and organizations that I work with. So, over […]

Why Organizations Need Vertical Development

entrepreneur growth

Organizations are increasingly recognizing that the complexity of the world their leaders are facing exceed their abilities to effectively navigate this complexity. The consequence of this is that most leaders are operating at a leadership deficit, with consequences that include exhaustion, burnout, turnover, and poor decision making.

Going From Mind 2.0 to Mind 3.0

fog lifting

Over the next several weeks, I want to share examples of people I have worked or interacted with that are at different stages of their personal vertical development journeys.

The purpose of doing this is to help you:

Better see what vertical development looks and feels like
See the value of focusing on your vertical development
Be inspired, as I have been, by the courage of others who are letting go of who they have been and embracing an elevated version of themselves

What Context Struggles to Create Space for Learning? The Workplace

brick wall

I want to share with you an excerpt from Decoding Greatness by Ron Friedman that I found incredibly powerful. He writes: Growth requires strain. A moderate degree of difficulty is essential to both mental and physical development. Teachers know it. Bodybuilders know it. Athletes know it. Yet what’s the one place where stretching our limits […]

Vertical Development & Hermit Crabs

hermit crab

Hermit crabs live in shells. As they grow, they need to move into bigger and bigger shells. The process of upgrading shells is called “molting.” The molting process takes 4-8 weeks and hermit crabs will molt every 12-18 months. Since hermit crabs can live for more than 30 years, this means that they can potentially molt 30 times in their lifespan.

Trauma & Leadership – Part 7 – Bottom-Up Approach to Trauma Healing

boxing

Thus far in this series, I have communicated what trauma is (Part 1), how trauma affects our mind (Part 2), and how trauma inhibits leaders’ abilities to be emotionally intelligent (Part 3) and agile (Part 4). Knowing all of this, if we want to elevate our ability to be effective leaders, we need to heal […]

Trauma & Leadership – Part 6 – Top-Down Approach to Trauma Healing

man meditating

Thus far in this series, I have communicated what trauma is (Part 1), how trauma affects our mind (Part 2), and how trauma inhibits leaders’ abilities to be emotionally intelligent (Part 3), and agile (Part 4). Knowing all of this, if we want to elevate our ability to be effective leaders, we need to heal […]

Trauma & Leadership – Part 5 – Understanding Trauma Healing

shaman

Thus far in this series, I have made the case that leadership ineffectiveness is rooted in leaders’ trauma. In Part 1, I described trauma, not as events that occur to us, but on the effect that stressful situations have on the wiring in our brain. We have all experienced trauma, and it is the effects […]

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