How Past Trauma Affects Leadership Quality

woman with a psychologist for therapy, trauma and mental health support

We want better leaders and we want to become better leaders. Unfortunately, commonly referenced statistics suggest that the majority of leaders are falling significantly below expectations. Improving our leadership and that of others should be a priority. In this series I am going to make a bold claim that I believe is key to transformationally […]

How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Leadership Development Programs

two women in an office evaluating their progress and goals

For a journal article I am working on, I have been combing through the academic research on leadership development. You might be interested to know that given the amount of time and money organizations spend on leadership development, there is relatively little research in academia on leadership development. It is definitely seen as a concern […]

The Five Best Business/Leadership Books I Read in 2023

The Five Best Business/ Leadership Books I Read in 2023

For the past several years, to close out the year, I have identified the best books that I read throughout the year. And, I always get good feedback from doing so. So, I am back at it again. By the end of 2023, I will have read/listened to 85 books. I want to share the […]

What is Character? And How Do Leaders Develop It?

Last week, I presented an idea that we have two sides of ourselves: a DOING Side and a BEING Side. The DOING Side represents our talent, knowledge, skills, and abilities. The higher we are on the DOING Side, the more capable we will be at performing specific tasks that are aligned with our talents, knowledge, […]

Current State of Leadership Development

A great place to work. Cropped portrait of a young businessman working in the boardroom.

This week, Raymond Lee (President at CareerMinds) sent me a recently-released article published by Josh Bersin on the current state of leadership development. There are three key findings from Bersin’s research that I think are valuable for you to understand: What HR Investments have the Biggest Return on Investment? Of a long list of HR […]

Why Leadership Development Needs to Focus on the Brain

stressed female at work

Over the last week, I have had two very similar percentages rolling around my head: In my blog post last week, I reported a finding that people with ADHD generally operate at 30% reduced ability across self-awareness, self-restraint, hindsight/foresight, time management, emotional self-control, self-motivation, and planning and problem-solving. In one of my most favorite TED […]

The Connection Between Leadership, ADHD, and Vertical Development

brain pathways

If you haven’t followed my writings, here are some key things to understand: We have an internal operating system that dictates nearly all of our perceiving, thinking, and operation. Vertical development is a form of development that focuses on upgrading our internal operating system. The quality of our leadership is dictated by the quality and […]

Thought-Provoking Ideas from “A Failure of Nerve” by Edwin Friedman

Edwin Friedman - A Failure of Nerve

I recently read one of the most thought-provoking books on leadership that I have ever read. It is titled, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, written by Edwin Friedman. In this article, I want to share some of these thought-provoking ideas. What the book is about (Page 19) “[This […]

The Impact of Vertical Development on Organizations

Ryan Gottfredson Workshops

A few weeks ago, I surveyed my newsletter subscribers and asked them what they would like to see me write about. A common theme from the responses was that they wanted to learn more about my business and the impact that it is having on the leaders and organizations that I work with. So, over […]

The Impact of Vertical Development on Individual Leaders

Ryan Gottfredson Speaker Reel 0 24 screenshot 1

A few weeks ago, I surveyed my newsletter subscribers and asked them what they would like to see me write about. A common theme from the responses was that they wanted to learn more about my business and the impact that it is having on the leaders and organizations that I work with. So, over […]

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