Even Our Brains Need Zoomies Sometimes

Our brains need unstructured time. Just as our bodies need movement, rest, and sleep, our minds also need space to wander, reflect, connect ideas, and work through problems in the background.

In this final installment of our “Listening for the Signals” series, we explore the value of unstructured thinking time and mental white space. Drawing on research related to the Default Mode Network and Task Positive Network, this article considers why our best ideas often arrive when we are walking, showering, driving, or stepping away from the task at hand.

For individuals, leaders, and organizations, the challenge is in learning how to create the conditions for both focused execution and deeper strategic thinking.

Crying in Coaching: When Emotions Enter the Chat

Nearly every time a client cries during a coaching session, the tears come with an apology. But emotion is not out of place in coaching, and it does not automatically turn the conversation into therapy. Tears may simply signal that we’ve brushed up against something important, even when we don’t yet know exactly what that is.

“I Just Need To”: The Coaching Red Flag That Tells Us There’s More Going On

When we say “I just need to,” we may be flattening a complex challenge into a simple task. That little phrase can be a clue that something deeper needs curiosity, not self-criticism.

Opening the Year with Intention (and Black-Eyed Peas)

This last day of 2025 has been a sunny one here in Maine. Sunny and cold. For the past week and a half, Two Piers has been closed for the holidays. As many people experience, it can take a week or more to actually feel the benefits of a break. So as I watch the ice floes drift along the mirror-flat Kennebec River, I feel like I am finally accessing some of the creative space we talk about so often on this blog. The space we need to think strategically and with vision.

A Thanksgiving Reflection on Gratitude, Leadership, and Savory Bread Pudding

A Thanksgiving Reflection on Gratitude, Leadership, and Savory Bread Pudding

Thanksgiving can be a complicated holiday. The history is whitewashed. The family dynamics can be messy. The expectations to perform warmth and connection are real. And the intense barrage of consumerist messaging can be absolutely exhausting.

And yet… it remains my favorite holiday of the year. 

This Performance Cycle, Ditch Gold and Go For Platinum

‘Tis the spooky season, y’all. The “Performance Cycle Season.” Whether this is the “mid-year” check-in point, or the year-end rack-and-stack exercise of deciding who gets a slice of the bonus pie, it’s that time of year when folks are doling out feedback and assigning ratings. The performance cycle is often viewed as a necessary evil: administrative, exhausting, and of low value. Something leaders try to survive rather than leverage.

Resilient Leadership: Lessons From Physics and Practice

Resilience is one of those concepts that gets tossed around a lot in leadership circles. Too often, it’s boiled down to toughness, grit, or the ability to “power through.” True resilience, however, is NOT about grinding ourselves into the ground. Instead, it’s about adaptability, responsiveness, and sustainability.

As both a coach and a former engineer, I can’t help but see the parallels between how we talk about resilience in leadership and how it’s defined in material science.

Confidence, Compassion, and the Power of Perception — Part 3

Confidence, Compassion, and the Power of Perception — Part 3

In Part 1, we explored how safety and compassion allowed two foster cats, Ophelia and Mr. Twisty, to reveal who they truly were, and how that mirrors the way humans behave under pressure. In Part 2, we unpacked how confidence is cultivated and how advice like “fake it till you make it” often undermines the very self-assuredness it aims to promote.

Now, in this final part, we turn our focus outward: How do our perceptions shape performance? What power do we hold, as leaders, mentors, colleagues, or community members, to either cultivate confidence or quietly diminish it?