The most common question I get from my clients in leadership these days is, “It seems like there is something going on with generational differences beyond the usual misunderstandings and “kids...
Bridging the Generational Divide
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Blog
From Corena
Self-Awareness is Hard
Self-awareness is hard. My work with people requires loads of it; a real willingness to dig in and question themselves and think about all the implications of how they are behaving and getting...
Women’s Day 2022; Group & Individual Identities
Today, International Women’s Day 2022, I decided to go back and read what I had written on this same day in 2019. I wrote this: I am always concerned in addressing women as a whole, about who won’t...
What Lifts Us Up & What Takes Us Down
What are the rules, habits, cultures, situations, and structures that help “you do you” in the most gratifying ways? Who are the people and what are the circumstances that help you thrive or that...
Leadership & Belonging
Humans have a deeply wired need to belong. We live in a time when divides between groups are deepening; lines drawn to establish who belongs in each tribe are more vivid than ever as we sequester...
Navigating our Pandemic February
In recent weeks, a common response to the question, “How are you?” has been: (Long pause) “I don’t know.” I love this answer because it acknowledges all the ups and downs we are pulling ourselves...
The Benefits of our Virtual Platforms
In the early days of our transition to everything virtual, I believed the work I do as an executive coach and leadership development facilitator would be undermined. My clients and I usually met in...
Video: Thinking About Work Life Balance When You Don’t Have It
In this video, Corena looks at work-life balance.
Awareness, Action and Accountability
Image created by Louise Swander I don’t have much to say beyond what has already been said in the wake of the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. This is a time for we white people to...
Some COVID-19 Lessons About Perception, Empathy and Decision-Making
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed much about who we are, our resources, our strengths and limitations. We will be dissecting our responses for years to come and hopefully, doing some profound...
Who Can You Go Talk To About This?
“Who can you go talk to about this?” is one of my most frequently asked coaching questions. Often when we get stuck, feel unsure about something or like things are not going well, we go inwards...
Video: Multitasking Isn’t a Thing
Kindness Matters
The value of being kind to oneself and others is often underemphasized in our daily life. Last year I wrote ten dating guidelines (and did a fun podcast on them). The first guideline is: Be Kind- to...
The Power Our Stories Hold
I was raised with the myth of Santa, a story I held onto longer than you would think a rational human could. I was a serious kid who cringed at baby talk and looked grown-ups in the eye but by...
Curiosity!
It was nice to see a playful kitten with the spirit of Curious George on the cover of The Harvard Business Review about a year ago. My colleagues and I have long touted “curiosity.” From my...
In Search of Simplicity
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about simplicity. My dad was visiting a couple months ago and at some point said in an off-hand, loving way, “Boy, you sure know how to make things more complicated...
Being Busy
This summer when I’ve been asked, “How are you?” my initial response has mostly been, “I’m busy!” This response is true, but not totally accurate. “Being busy” has many different meanings. It’s...
Growth And Fixed Mindset
At the heart of any attempt to learn or strive for continued growth is the concept of growth mindset. I’ve had zero coaching engagements where this doesn’t come up. It is core to our ability to be...
How to Give Up
I’ve been working on a blog post for the better part of two days. The topic I chose just isn’t coming together. I checked in with the perfectionism part of my brain to see if it was sabotaging me...
Be the Change
One of the most common things I hear from leaders working on ways they can be more effective is, “The problem is, the levels above me don’t work in this way. It’s very hard to implement these...
Multi-Tasking Isn’t a Thing
I was at a party this weekend and a gentleman complimented me on my multi-tasking skills. His compliment stemmed from the fact that I referred to an obscure fact he’d mentioned several moments ago...
Let Yourself Be Surprised
When my best friend and I met over 25 years ago we actively disliked each other for over a month before an all-night talk changed our minds and led to a life time of love and support. You’d think...
Thoughts About Our Thoughts
I often hear my inner voice saying, “You are one good reframe away from a better day.” There is almost always a quick other way to view something that will make me feel a little better, give me the...
Personal Branding
I really don’t like this term “personal brand.” I find it de-humanizing. Companies need brands. But individuals? It implies a sort of crafting and maintenance of how we are presenting ourselves...
The Spectrum
I learned an invaluable lesson my second year at drama school that I find myself sharing with my corporate clients all the time. I was doing a scene from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, playing the...
Thoughts for Women’s History Month
It feels appropriate to write something about women for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. I’m reminded of when I was a kid and turned to my dad while shopping for Mother’s Day to...
Receiving Feedback
Over the past several years I’ve spent hundreds of hours working with people to become more effective deliverers of feedback. It’s a topic most organizations are willing to invest in because what...
Impostor Syndrome
I love impostor syndrome. I love it not for what it is, which isn’t super fun, but because it gives a name to something we all experience. It usually goes something like this: a client is admitting...
Evaluating Lessons Learned and My Dating Guidelines
(Image courtesy of https://www.funderstanding.com/educators/classroom-assessment/) A topic that comes up often in coaching and leadership development is what people and organizations are doing to...
Do Your Homework–and Throw it Away!
I was a good student. I did my homework on time, studied zealously for tests, and actually read everything I was assigned to read. Math was a hard subject for me, so I took summer class to try to...
Power without Aggression
I have a memory from my early twenties, standing at a table in the New York City restaurant I worked in with a dirty glass in my hand, chatting with a customer. I don’t remember how we got to...
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is an especially insidious issue to tackle because so many aspects of it tend to be tied to people’s success. Most of the perfectionists I work with are extremely high achieving and...
A Novel Idea
As an executive coach it’s important that I bring research based tools to the table. In order to encourage people to integrate new ideas and information into their existing frameworks, I introduce...
Why Mindfulness Matters; answering some basic questions about Mindfulness
Why is everyone talking about this Mindfulness thing these days? Over the past few years there has been a significant increase in interest from executives and Learning and Development departments...