ImpactForward Strategies LLC

08/31/2026

One coaching skill can completely change a difficult leadership conversation:

Don't decide your next question before you hear their answer.

Instead, let their response lead you to your next question.

Why?

Because the real issue is often hiding underneath the first answer.

In my coaching with leadership teams, I've also seen how adding simple coaching skills and practice can be a game changer.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with a leadership team on exactly this.

They put the coaching skills they had learned into practice—and a very difficult conversation became a much better one.

And it led to a good result.

One idea made a particularly big difference:

Let the person's response to your first coaching question lead you to your next question.

Why?

Because you're not just waiting for your turn to talk.

You're actively listening between the lines.

What are they really saying?

What's underneath their answer?

What haven't they said yet?

That deeper listening helps you uncover the real issue.

And when people feel genuinely heard, something important happens:

Connection becomes possible.

That's when a difficult conversation can shift from:

"How do I get this person to change?"

to:

"How do I understand what's really going on here?"

Healthy teams aren't teams without difficult conversations.

They're teams willing to have them—and skilled enough to navigate them well.

What conversation is your team avoiding right now—and what might become possible if someone had the skills to navigate it differently?

If you're working through communication, accountability, or difficult conversations on your leadership team, let's have a conversation.

08/28/2026

What would happen if I asked your leadership team to explain your company’s vision?

I’ve asked that question at the beginning of strategic planning sessions.

And sometimes…

Crickets.

Not because the leaders didn’t care.

Not because they weren’t committed to the organization.

And not because they lacked passion for their work.

They simply couldn’t clearly articulate the organization’s vision, mission, or core values.

And that got me thinking:

How can a leadership team align their personal purpose with the organization’s purpose and mission when they don’t even know what it is?

And how can they possibly lead their teams in alignment?

They can’t.

Alignment starts with clarity.

It’s easy to assume your team understands the vision because you’ve communicated it.

But hearing the vision isn’t the same as owning the vision.

If I asked five people in your organization:

“Where are we going, and why does it matter?”

Would I get five different answers?

Or would I hear a common story?

When people aren’t clear about where the organization is going, they naturally create their own priorities.

Departments start moving in different directions.

Decisions become harder.

And leaders spend more time getting people back on track.

I recently worked with a leadership team that was committed to their organization and passionate about their work.

The problem wasn’t a lack of vision.

It was a lack of shared understanding.

Each leader could articulate the vision differently—and connected it to their team’s work in different ways.

So we worked on creating a clearer connection between:

Purpose → Vision → Priorities → Daily Decisions

The result wasn’t simply that people could repeat the vision.

They began to use it.

That’s the difference between having a vision statement and having a vision that actually drives the organization.

Your vision should help your people answer three questions:

Where are we going?

Why does it matter?

How does my work help us get there?

Alignment is vital.

That’s why our mission is the foundation for everything we do.

If I asked everyone on your team to explain your organization’s vision in their own words, how aligned would their answers be?

And if the answer makes you pause…

Maybe it’s time to have the conversation.

08/27/2026

Sometimes the problem isn't that leaders don't know they need to have the conversation.

It's that they don't know how to have it well.

I've seen this happen with leadership teams again and again.

A difficult conversation gets delayed.

Tension builds.

People make assumptions.

And the original issue becomes harder to solve.

But a few simple coaching skills can change the entire conversation.

In my coaching with leadership teams, I've also seen how adding simple coaching skills and practice can be a game changer.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with a leadership team on exactly this.

They put the coaching skills they had learned into practice—and a very difficult conversation became a much better one.

And it led to a good result.

One idea made a particularly big difference:

Let the person's response to your first coaching question lead you to your next question.

Why?

Because you're not just waiting for your turn to talk.

You're actively listening between the lines.

What are they really saying?

What's underneath their answer?

What haven't they said yet?

That deeper listening helps you uncover the real issue.

And when people feel genuinely heard, something important happens:

Connection becomes possible.

That's when a difficult conversation can shift from:

"How do I get this person to change?"

to:

"How do I understand what's really going on here?"

Healthy teams aren't teams without difficult conversations.

They're teams willing to have them—and skilled enough to navigate them well.

What conversation is your team avoiding right now—and what might become possible if someone had the skills to navigate it differently?

If you're working through communication, accountability, or difficult conversations on your leadership team, let's have a conversation.

08/26/2026

The conversation you're avoiding may be the thing slowing your team down.

Most leaders know when a conversation needs to happen.

The performance issue that hasn't been addressed.

The tension between two team members.

The leader who keeps missing commitments.

The decision everyone keeps circling but nobody wants to make.

And still...

The conversation gets postponed.

Usually because the leader doesn't want to create conflict.

But here's the problem:

**Avoiding a difficult conversation doesn't eliminate the problem.

It gives the problem more time to grow.**

In my coaching with leadership teams, I've also seen how adding simple coaching skills and practice can be a game changer.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with a leadership team on exactly this.

They put the coaching skills they had learned into practice—and a very difficult conversation became a much better one.

And it led to a good result.

One idea made a particularly big difference:

Let the person's response to your first coaching question lead you to your next question.

Why?

Because you're not just waiting for your turn to talk.

You're actively listening between the lines.

What are they really saying?

What's underneath their answer?

What haven't they said yet?

That deeper listening helps you uncover the real issue.

And when people feel genuinely heard, something important happens:

Connection becomes possible.

That's when a difficult conversation can shift from:

"How do I get this person to change?"

to:

"How do I understand what's really going on here?"

Healthy teams aren't teams without difficult conversations.

They're teams willing to have them—and skilled enough to navigate them well.

What conversation is your team avoiding right now—and what might become possible if someone had the skills to navigate it differently?

If you're working through communication, accountability, or difficult conversations on your leadership team, let's have a conversation.

08/25/2026

Ask yourself when you are triggered by lack of communication, tone of communication, or misunderstanding of communication...

1. Do you have enough facts to freak out?
If not, get those facts.

2. Once you have enough facts to freak out, will it help?
Answer is always NO.

From Brene Brown's Book "Dare to Lead" - Highly recommend.

https://youtube.com/shorts/3KlOOKGnqEg?feature=share

DM "Freak out" to continue the conversation.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

08/24/2026

🚀 Leadership Question of the Week

When was the last time your team was completely aligned on priorities?

Alignment isn't just everyone agreeing in a meeting—it's everyone leaving the meeting with the same understanding of what matters most.

I've worked with organizations where every leader was busy, committed, and working hard. Yet each department had a slightly different view of the top priorities. Sales was focused on growth. Operations was focused on efficiency. Customer service was focused on solving immediate problems. None of those priorities were wrong, but without alignment, people were pulling in different directions.

The result? More meetings. Slower decisions. Frustration. Missed opportunities.

Once the leadership team took the time to clarify their shared priorities and communicate them consistently, something remarkable happened. Teams became more confident in their decisions because they knew what mattered most. Collaboration improved because everyone was working toward the same goals. Instead of competing priorities, there was a shared purpose.

One of the greatest responsibilities of a leader isn't creating more work—it's creating clarity.

When people are clear on the priorities, they make better decisions, stay focused on what matters, and move the organization forward with greater confidence.

So here's my question for you:

If I asked every member of your team to write down your organization's top three priorities, how similar would their answers be?

If that question made you wonder whether your team is truly aligned, let's have a conversation. I help leadership teams create clarity around their purpose, improve communication, and align priorities so they can collaborate more effectively and achieve results faster.

Click here for the 15-minutes that could change your organization: https://info.impactforwardstrategies.com/strategy

08/21/2026

Turn Culture from a Conversation
into a Measurable Strategy!

The Maxwell Leadership Team Culture Health Scorecard™ gives leaders a clear, data-driven picture of how culture is actually showing up across the organization. It replaces assumptions with evidence — so leadership teams can make strategic decisions with confidence instead of guessing.

When to use it
→ Before launching a leadership or culture initiative
→ When alignment feels off — but no one can name why
→ When ex*****on is inconsistent despite strong leadership
→ When leaders want clarity before a major decision

08/20/2026

Where do you see the biggest communication breakdown across your organization?

I have found that communication never ends. And, even when you think your are communicating well - there are still gaps that lead to misunderstandings.

Recently, I had an employee hand in her resignation - all because of a misunderstanding. Neither one of us had all the facts. And what happens when we don't have all the facts to make a good decision, we make up a story to fill in the gaps. The problem comes when we are making up the story based on our fears, past experiences, triggers.

I am happy to report that having a conversation to get to the bottom of the problem, we were able to fix it and this employee is still with me. And, we had a conversation about assuming the best and asking questions / communicating BEFORE making big decisions.

I'm sure we all have similar stories of how a small misunderstanding can blow up into a volcanic eruption of emotions.

Wouldn't it be grand if we had a tool that could diagnose the issue and give us concrete, practical tools to move forward in a new culture / paradigm?

I am excited to announce, I now have such a tool that is revolutionizing organizations. DM "TOOL" to learn more.

08/19/2026

What is your biggest Leadership Challenge?

What if I told you that I have a tool that will take the guesswork away and clearly diagnoses the problem so that we can, together, strategically move forwards in alignment, which will lead to elevated performance on your team? Wouldn't it be wonderful to spend your staff development & training budget on exactly what is needed?

DM "challenge" in the chat to find out more information.

08/18/2026