Ordinary Hope vs Mature Hope
Coaches often say hope is not a strategy, and about one kind of hope, they’re right. Reading Frank Ostaseski’s The Five Invitations, I found a distinction that has stayed with me. Ordinary hope waits for something outside us to deliver. Mature hope asks something very different of us.
What is Parts Work?
We already talk this way: part of me wants one thing, part of me wants another. Parts work takes that seriously. Through a client who yells when she’s angry, I walk through naming a part, getting curious about it, and finding what it’s trying to protect. It may surprise you.
Excuses, Excuses – Learning About Accountability
Accountability is the foundation of everything I teach. But a question came up recently that deserves a real answer: if you miss a deadline and tell your boss why, are you making an excuse? The circumstances were real. You didn’t make them up. So where is the line between an excuse and ownership?
​Coach-Style Leadership: Moving from a Traditional Management Style Toward Empowerment and Collaboration
Most managers were never trained to lead. They default to what they’ve seen: telling, supervising, disciplining. There’s another option. Coach-style leadership asks instead of tells, and empowers instead of directs. Starting with letting go of judgment and assuming people are doing their best. Here’s the model, step by step.
The Window and The Mirror
The question that comes up in nearly every organization is how to make other people more accountable. The honest answer frustrates people: you can’t. You can only make yourself accountable, and trust that others model what they see. Jim Collins called it the window and the mirror — and it starts with you.
Reflective Listening – Dealing with Anger
Anger shows up — at work, at home, in the middle of a coaching call. The instinct is to smooth it over and move on. But people who don’t feel heard don’t move forward. Here’s how reflective listening acknowledges both content and emotion, plus the well-meaning responses that shut people down.
How we Remember is How we Create
Our memories feel like truth, but they are often shaped by interpretation rather than objective reality. Drawing on insights from The Five Invitations, this post explores how coaching helps us examine the meaning we attach to our memories, opening the door to new perspectives, greater freedom, and lasting change.
Grace & Accountability
After a costly lesson involving a cat, a cup of water, and a computer, Cami reflects on the relationship between grace and accountability. This post explores why true accountability isn’t about self-criticism, but about curiosity, learning, and making new choices—all while treating ourselves with kindness.
What I love about coaching | Sylvia Fox
What if the thing keeping you stuck isn’t what you think it is? In this personal reflection, a coach shares how discovering coaching transformed her relationships, mindset, and daily life—and how a simple coaching conversation revealed surprising barriers, leading to profound breakthroughs in health, family, and self-care.
On Motivation
Why do some goals feel energizing while others leave us stuck in cycles of procrastination and frustration? This post explores motivation through the NLP concepts of “toward” and “away-from” thinking, helping readers understand how their focus shapes their behavior, mindset, and ability to create lasting results.