Site logo
The focus in every aspect of my work is helping others discover, expand, and apply their talents for leading.


I help people with the skills most essential to the development of influence, trust, and effectiveness. These include:

• Self-reflection and profound personal inquiry
• Speaking up courageously
• Creation of personal vision, direction, and life-change
• Conceiving of self as an instrument for organizational or social change
• Thinking and acting from a strategic standpoint
• Development of personal meaning, joy, and a sense of fulfillment through leadership work
• Asking for and utilizing feedback from others
• Overcoming patterns of blame, self-limitation, or mistrust
• Best deployment of personal capabilities and gifts
• Embodiment of deep personal integrity
• Skills in nurturing human differences and identities
• Effective performance management and realtime coaching skills
• Creation of personal vision, direction, and life-change



As part of my work, I often assist leaders to diagnose and improve organizational systems and structures that inhibit productivity and a sense of community. I frequently teach inclusive ways to manage organizational change, focusing on positive means to build personal and organizational trust.



I am co-author of Driving Fear Out of the Workplace and The Courageous Messenger. (Please see the Books page on this website.) These books are about creating high performance workplaces by overcoming the “undiscussable” issues that erode productivity.

Driving Fear Out of the Workplace won the 1992 national book award from the Society of Human Resource Management and was republished in a revised and expanded form in 1998. I also authored chapters on conflict management and employee development for Advanced Supervisory Practices, a text for public sector managers published by the International City Management Association.

My clients are in all types of industry: manufacturing, professional services, health care, utilities, government, schools, non-profits, and research. Some of my past and present clients are Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Springs Window Fashions, University of Wisconsin Business School Executive Learning, Con-Force Structures, PTI Communications, the National Park Service, Meriter Hospital, Cellular One, and many other organizations.

I am a founder and co-facilitator of “Beyond the Edge,” a deep learning experience held in Jackson, Wyoming for anyone who wishes to clarify his or her life-work and develop personal and unique talents as a leader.

Prior to embarking on my consulting career I spent ten years providing professional HR services for the City of Bellevue, Washington

I graduated from Yale University in 1973 and hold a Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Colorado at Boulder.





Philosophy

A leader is anyone (without regard to formal job title or position) who wants to use personal potentials to make a conscious and positive impact on the world. Personal leadership, if only of and for ourselves is part of our birthright as human beings.

The wisdom to solve our greatest problems is frequently already within us.

There are many theories of leadership against which a person may be judged. The most important theory, however, is always the one we privately, at times unconsciously, use to evaluate ourselves. This is more likely to be the product of our “conditioning” and experience than it is to be the result of formal training or anyone else’s view of what leadership is all about.

The most important energy any of us can tap is our own itch to learn and grow as people and as leaders. The more we are genuinely aware of this energy -- and act on it -- the more others can also be aware of their own energy to change and grow, as well.

Recovering what we have “thrown into the shadows” of unconsciousness can be a path to profound joy and leadership capability in work and life.

Viewing a conflict or dilemma in the context of a life journey can dramatically reframe our response to the challenge. We can discover how we invite certain experiences toward us in order to address them as part of a process of life change.

A leader’s abilities to learn from others’ feedback and to face his/her insecurities are signs of profound strength and personal health. Going “down and in” to address inner conflicts is a test of both how we lead ourselves and how we are best able to lead others.

Leadership’s greatest tool is self-knowledge. To be truly conscious – of ourselves, of others, of our world – is a gift of immeasurable value and influence.