How does one’s character develop? We commonly think of character development as deriving from things like early childhood experiences, modeling by important adults in our lives, the environment and culture in which we were raised, school and our religious affiliations – along with our free will. As I dive deeper into my personal strengths, I see […]
Strengths and The Inner Game of Leadership
My coaching practice focuses on ‘who you are as a leader’ vs ‘what you do as a leader’. There are many talented consultants, workshops and webcasts that are completely focused on ‘what you do as a leader’ – focused on the bottom line. In my 16 years of coaching leaders I’ve found that, while you […]
Why Know Your Strengths?
I was reminded, again, during a conversation with a friend and colleague of how we each have a unique constellation of strengths that show up and work together to be in service of the greater good for all. Each of you bring a unique constellation of strengths to contribute in service of your dream. Your […]
Mining for Passion
All too often I meet with people who have unconsciously fallen into living their life on automatic pilot, doing what is expected of them because they feel obligated. It’s easy to forget what brings us joy and satisfaction in our work and our life. People talk about feeling trapped or stuck in their professions. We […]
Personal Passion : Exploring ‘What’s Next?’
Leadership and the Conflict Blind Spot
Conflict offers such a ripe place for our blind spots to hide. Through the strengths lens our blind spots can appear in different forms. For example, in my top ten strengths I have Command, Self-Assurance and Activator so I am comfortable with conflict and I don’t shy away from naming issues or calling people out. […]
Values and Strategy : 2 More Common Blind Spots
One of the foundations of my coaching with clients begins with identifying their five core values – the values you typically assume you know. In my 16 years of coaching I have met very few people who have ever consciously participated in a contemplative exercise to examine what provides meaning and purpose in their life and […]
Experience and Strengths : 2 Common Leadership Blind Spots
It may seem counter intuitive that there can be blind spots aligned with both success and the use of our strengths. Those blind spot traps can be seductive if you are unaware of their presence. I have experienced both. When I experience success because of the combination of my strengths I have a tendency to […]
2 Minds. 5 Leadership Blind Spots
Along my journey to unravel my blind spots I have explored multiple perspectives on identifying my blind spots, a few that I will share with you over the next few weeks. However, to understand the contributions of my strengths, their needs, their triggers, overuse patterns and my blind spots, I always return to the Strengths […]
Recognizing, Claiming and Managing Leadership Blind Spots
Through my Strengths Strategy coaches training I became intrigued with the many facets of my own blind spots. First, there is the obvious or habitual way of seeing blind spots – We don’t know what we don’t know. Then, Strengths Blind-Spots were introduced adding another dimension to my thinking about blind spots. These are the […]
Diana Gabriel, PPC