When Change Isn’t an Option

We’ve all encountered situations at work that feel stuck—difficult dynamics, organizational red tape, or systems that refuse to budge. Often, our first instinct is to figure out how to fix things: change the people, the processes, or the circumstances. While this can be powerful, sometimes change simply isn’t possible—at least not in the short term.…

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Balancing Speed and Process

In every organization, there’s an ongoing tension between speed and process. In a recent discussion with an executive coaching client, she shared the problems she was facing managing this tension on her team. With speed, you move fast, maybe you break things, but then you fix them, learn and move. But without solid processes in…

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System Failure or One-Time Error? 

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership system failure vs one-time error the images shows a hand holding an icon with a exclamation mark

Sometimes things at work don’t go as planned, but the important question to ask is whether it’s a “system failure” or a one-off error. Recently, a client of mine rushed to prep a deck for a meeting, only to realize they hadn’t done enough preparation because they didn’t know who was attending. This prompted my…

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Feeling Stuck? 3 Steps to Move You Forward

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership on feeling stuck the image shows a woman in front of a laptop, rubbing her temples.

This article originally appeared in Forbes. I was on a coaching call this week with someone who felt very “stuck.” Outside of my work, most people I chat with generally use the word ‘busy’ whenever I ask them how they’ve been, yet as an executive coach, the most common word clients use to describe themselves,…

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No pain, no gain. Not always.

I’ll be honest here. I have a love/hate relationship with the phrase “No Pain, No Gain.” On the one hand, as a leader, you need to do hard things. That’s not only part of your leadership remit, it’s part of being human and learning, growing, and developing. It’s not easy work but you don’t get…

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Time to Reset Boundaries

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership on reset boundaries the images shows a line that appears on a football pitch or court to delineate the boundary.

At work, we often train people to treat us a certain way—by always being available, or by letting small requests slide. It’s easy to create these patterns without even realizing it. But here’s the truth: you have the power to reset boundaries whenever needed. Let’s say you expect an agenda before a meeting, but you’ve…

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AI is here. What Does It Mean for Your Team?

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership on what AI means for your team the image shows a robot hand.

I just finished a webinar that was over an hour of AI tips and tricks, and I won’t lie – some of it blew my mind. In minutes, AI generated social media videos from LinkedIn posts; it built simple websites and then “made them even prettier.” And that was just the beginning. When I watched…

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When a Postmortem is the Right Move

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership on postmortems the image shows the hands of business people gathered around a table sharing reports.

When are postmortems the right approach for the team, and when are they no help? The other day, I was discussing the design of an offsite with a client and we talked about how much time to allocate to looking backward at what went wrong, and what didn’t go well versus thinking about a new…

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Celebrate January Wins

For this article by Jo Ilfeld, CEO of Incite to Leadership on celebrating January wins the image shows a woman saying "yes" with a fist pump.

It’s already 2025, and January is in full swing. If you’re like me, the holidays feel like a distant memory, and your team is likely feeling the same way. They’ve jumped right back into work, and the hustle is real. But here’s the thing: your team has already achieved January wins—don’t let them go unnoticed.…

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