In my work with my executive coaching clients, one of the most important aspects of sustainable change and getting into flow is to create daily habits that support our energy and focus. One of those habits that I encourage is daily reflection. The impact of a daily reflection exercise is to connect more deeply with ourselves and what matters. 

In this podcast episode, I share two 5-minute guided coaching exercises. The first is a morning journaling exercise. It helps you create focus for yourself for a productive and energized day. It helps you focus your energy toward your purpose and aspirations. It helps you practice gratitude which has been shown to grow resilience. 

The second is an evening journaling exercise. It helps you process your day so you are not bringing the stressors of the day to your home life. It helps you release challenging emotions, get new perspective, and bring a calmer and more compassionate you to the people and activities that matter at home. It also helps you practice self-compassion which has been shown to grow resilience, confidence, and connection.

My recommendation is to start with the morning practice. See if you can add it to an existing morning habit you have. Then add the evening practice.

If you decide to try this practice, I would welcome your feedback.

- Sign up for leadership tips to thrive in disruption

- leave a review on Apple Podcasts

- Follow podcast host on LinkedIn

Our current state of burnout is a call for us to evolve our leadership, individually and collectively. In my work with leaders and their teams, they are increasingly asking for ways to create more trust and connection so people can feel safety in navigating the challenges of disruption. The cause of burnout is lack of connection to ourselves, our individual and collective purpose, and the people we work with. 

In this short podcast episode, I have created two practices for teams. 

At the start is a 5-minute practice for teams to arrive and create the conditions for collective flow to happen: to bring their attention to now, to grow connection and trust, and to align on their intention for contribution toward collective goals. I recommend this as an essential practice. Many of my clients say it super-charges the quality of trust and ideas in the room.

The second practice (after a 30-second pause) is an optional 2-minute practice done just prior to aligning on next steps and concluding the meeting. It's a way to bring individual and shared attention to the learning and progress during the meeting, to drive clarity and commitment toward inspired and aligned action. 

The topic of my next book is how teams can create breakthroughs in collective flow and I am looking for 15 mighty teams to be part of my Collective Flow Experiment. If your team chooses to use these practices, I would welcome your feedback on how this works for you.

- Sign up for leadership tips to thrive in disruption

- leave a review on Apple Podcasts

- Follow podcast host on LinkedIn

Many teams struggle with burnout, belonging, and breakthrough innovation. Silos, matrix reporting and disconnection get in the way of results. What if we could navigate some of our most important collective challenges by accessing collective flow? I sat down with Dr. Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius, who is a pre-eminent researcher on this topic and worked directly with the “father of flow”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Dr. Keith Sawyer, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity.  He has published 18 books and over 100 scientific articles. His research has been featured on CNN, Fox News, TIME Magazine, NPR, and other media.  A popular speaker, he lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world on creativity and innovation.  

In this episode Keith discussed some of the most important activators of group flow based on his own experience playing in a jazz band as well as extensive study of improv actors and large teams and organizations that regularly create conditions for group flow. Some of the activators include meaningful shared goals and risks, close listening and attention, trust and connection among the members, blending of ego’s and giving up personal agendas. We discussed both the benefits and the challenges of this in leadership teams. 

If this topic interests you, reach out as collective flow is the topic of my next book and I’m interested in working with leaders and teams who have high stakes challenges that need breakthrough thinking and alignment.

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

- Sign up for leadership tips to thrive in disruption

- leave a review on Apple Podcasts

- Follow podcast host on LinkedIn