Resources

I frequently refer to these resources in my coaching and consulting work.  If you have any questions about them, please contact me.

Top Posts

Here are a few key posts that continue to resonate with me. Topics include executive coaching, personal and professional development, leadership, management, motivation and organizational culture.

 

Self-Coaching Guides

I've compiled posts from over the years into a series of Self-Coaching Guides on the topics of Communication, Leadership, Motivation, Change, Learning and Happiness.

 

Slides

I'm a visual learner, so I occasionally create slide decks to provide another way of understanding and communicating the concepts I'm writing about.  Here's a compilation of those posts with direct links to the PowerPoint files.

 

Reading List

Here's a reading list of books that inform my approach to coaching and consulting, along with links to related posts.  This list isn't exhaustive, but it's comprehensive enough to be useful.  (Although note that it omits many other resources to be found among the blogs I read or things I tweet about.)

 

Blogs I Read

Here are several lists of blogs I read, ranging from Management to Miscellaneous, written by people whose work I admire and from which I draw inspiration on a regular basis.

 

Don't Break the Chain

Don't Break the Chain is an incredibly powerful and simple motivational tool that I use personally and recommend frequently.  Create a calendar for any activity or practice you'd like to pursue on a regular basis, and when you're successful just click on that day to fill it in and extend the chain.

 

Managing Oneself

Peter Drucker's Managing Oneself, from the March-April 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review (reprinted by HBR in January 2005 and the closing chapter in Drucker's Management Challenges of the 21st Century) is one of my touchstones, an invaluable essay to which I refer clients and students regularly (and which I re-read each year to gauge progress toward my goals and assess my life both professionally and personally.)

 

Leadership Architect Sort Cards

Lominger's Leadership Architect Sort Cards are a useful tool for defining the skills and capabilities possessed by an individual or required in a specific job or work environment.  They're helpful in identifying untapped strengths as well as areas for improvement.  They can also be used to understand where a person's capabilities and their responsibilities are aligned (and where they're not) and to determine whether a particular position or organization is likely to be a good fit for an individual.

 

"What Should I Do With My Life?"

Po Bronson asked himself What Should I Do With My Life? while going through a profound personal crisis.  As a way to answer the question for himself, he posed it to some 900 people and got to know about 70 quite well--the 2003 edition of the book includes just over 50 of their stories.  Each chapter describes an individual's circumstances, their dream, their struggle, and their resolution.  Most end happily, or at least peacefully, but not all.  This is an affirming book, and if you're wrestling with the question it poses, you'll find encouragement to pursue the process, but Bronson never pretends there's a pat answer.

 

Pema Chödrön

Pema Chödrön is a Buddhist nun who teaches at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery established in North America for Westerners.  Although I'm not a Buddhist, I've learned a lot from Chödrön's writings and have often found guidance in her work while facing professional and personal challenges.  Several of her books are on my reading list, and I've written about her several times.