Why the Same Problems Keep Surfacing

Sometimes problems keep surfacing. Decisions that should be straightforward become complicated. Changes that should stick don't. Patterns repeat despite your best efforts to break them.

What I've learned: Sometimes the hardest part of a problem is addressing how we are contributing to it, often without realizing it.

Because we don’t always have perspective on ourselves and the patterns we’re creating. This is why self-awareness and self-leadership are essential. You cannot change what you cannot see.

Self-awareness cultivates self-leadership. Self-leadership drives wise agency. 

When you develop the capacity to notice your own patterns (how you respond under pressure, what you avoid, where you default to control or accommodation) you gain the ability to make different choices. To lead yourself differently. To exercise wise agency: making wise judgments in the moment, recognizing there's often no perfect choice. 

Better self-leadership creates better organizational leadership. Better leadership shapes better culture. Better culture drives better operations. Better operations produce better business outcomes.

Self-awareness comes from practice.

These practices share common elements: they create feedback loops, they put you under healthy pressure, they require presence, they make you uncomfortable in ways that help you grow.

For me, this has meant movement practices: running, skiing, biking, yoga. These have taught me how to notice my inner dialogue, how to hold myself accountable, how to lead myself when there is no external structure. For you, the practice might be different.

In my work, I bring self-leadership to help you see the whole picture: business performance plus the leadership and cultural elements, including what you might be contributing to without realizing it.  

Self-leadership is the foundation of business leadership.

When you develop self-awareness, you develop the capacity to lead yourself differently. When you lead yourself differently, you lead your organization differently. When you lead your organization differently, outcomes change.

This is what practice teaches. This is what self-awareness enables. This is what drives wise agency and sustainable performance, at work and in life.