Author: Rachel Hanson

The vast majority of leaders give lip service to excellence. Few live it and create cultures that live and breathe it. There's a large disparity in that gap between saying and doing. The doing is exceptionally hard. As with most things, the pursuit of excellence starts with clarity. Are you crystal clear on a definition … Continue reading Living excellence

I listened to an interesting podcast recently (thanks, OB) where a BUDs (Navy Seal training pipeline) instructor talked about BUDs as a laboratory for failure. Instantly had my attention. Every single BUDs candidate believes strongly on day 1 that they'll make it to the end and that nothing could deter them from this singular life … Continue reading Enduring

Play the game the right way to the final out. I learned this lesson the hard way as a young coach. We were playing our conference rivals and were up a few runs in the 7th - a healthy lead. I started mentally planning what I'd say to the team after this win. Sure enough, … Continue reading The final out

Fault and responsibility are cousins, with some big differences. You CAN be at fault for an event or issue regardless of whether you admit to and own that fault. You cannot be at fault if you didn't cause something. If you caused it, it is your fault. If you didn't, it's not. Very black and … Continue reading Fault and responsibility

As a fairly new parent (a 15 month old), I'm learning a ton at each new stage. A lot of things TO do, and just as many NOT to do. Here's one of the big ones that has become clear to me, and seems to be counter cultural. I believe we do more harm than … Continue reading Less feelings focus

Artists create. They create - books, paintings, a performance, a cabinet - and they usually put it out for public consumption. I work with a couple of creatives, and the biggest needle I see them work to thread is reminding themselves that they are most obligated to the work itself. Not to the acclaim, or … Continue reading Creatives

Chosen and unchosen suffering. It hit me in a team practice the other day that they align quite well with the concepts of becoming and belonging. What is chosen suffering if not becoming? Learning to do hard shit in order to increase our capacity to do and handle hard shit. Becoming a stronger, better version … Continue reading Chosen and unchosen suffering

The more clarity we have on any given topic, the more we compel ourselves to action. It's hard to take action on a fuzzy objective, a fuzzy topic. Need to have a hard conversation but you've been delaying it? Great. Slow down first. Write about it. Why is it bothering you? What's at the root? … Continue reading Clarity compels