Leadership Blog

Incite to Leadership logo icon favicon

From Incite to Leadership founder and CEO Jo Ilfeld, read the latest on strategic vision, leading change amid complexity, and honing the way you communicate and collaborate with others. Get resources, practical strategies, research, and more.

Do You Dissect Success?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | April 27, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on dissecting success the image shows some building blocks being put together to create the sign of an up arrow.

Is it important to dissect your success? Do you ever stop to celebrate your wins or are you one of those people who move on to the next thing immediately? I believe that taking the time to dissect your success is extremely valuable. Ask yourself what helped those successes? What behaviors did you change that…

Read More

Does Your Team Have A Hero Or A Martyr?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | April 20, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on team performance the image shows a pair of crutches leaning against a white wall.

Breaking my ankle and relying heavily on my family led me to think about how loss and vulnerability affect team performance.

Read More

Relationship Building in Virtual Meetings

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | April 13, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on relationship building virtually the image shows a woman smiling and waving at a laptop.

Relationship building in a virtual setting is not always easy. What are some ways to improve relationship building virtually? Firstly, no one wants another Zoom happy hour, I can assure you. But how can you build relationships between team members who have never met in real life? More importantly, how can you build relationship building…

Read More

How Can You Improve Strategic Thinking?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 31, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on strategic thinking the image shows a woman's hand with a pen writing in a journal.

How can you develop better strategic thinking skills? Write it down! I’m sure you have those times when you know you need to think more deeply about something, you know it needs more strategy and work. If you’re like me, you probably tell yourself, “I’ll think about it when I’m in the car picking up…

Read More

Can you increase your creativity?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 24, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on becoming more creative the image shows a woman sitting thinking at a desk in front of a colorful, creative background.

Do you tell yourself you’re not that creative? Then, today’s post is for you. You can become more creative by looking at the components of creativity and seeing where you can push yourself to be better. In this video, I share my creative process to help you define and refine yours. The first step is…

Read More

Life-Work Balance: Setting an Ending Time

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 17, 2022 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on life work balance and creating work boundaries, the image shows a large ticking clock.

These days when the lines between life and work are not clear, I want to know if you set an ending time? Not only can it help your life-work balance, it can also make you more productive. Back when I was writing my Ph.D. thesis, I took a “How to Finish Your Dissertation Class”. The…

Read More

How can you find compassion when frustrations are boiling over?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 10, 2022 |
For this article on frustrations and compassion by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach, the image shows a frustrated woman with her hands on her head.

How do you find compassion the next your team leader, colleague or manager snaps at you? I was traveling with a good friend from college recently and at one point in the day, she started to ask me some questions and I snapped at her. I was in the middle of work emails, slightly distracted,…

Read More

Leaning Into Risk When Decision-making

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 2, 2022 |
Jo Ilfeld | Executive Leadership Coach |Risk|Leaning Into Risk When Decision-making

Do you hate taking risks when making decisions? A bad outcome doesn’t mean you made a bad decision. One great piece of advice I learned from Annie Duke’s book, “Thinking in Bets” is how you need to separate the decision-making process from the outcome. This means you can make the best decision given all the…

Read More

How Long Could You Survive Without Your Cell Phone?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | February 24, 2022 |
Jo Ilfeld | Executive Leadership Coach |How Long Could You Survive Without Your Cell Phone?

Many people now put their cell phone away for at least one day on the weekend. Before Covid, I read a NY Times article on Silicon Valley folks who travel to remote islands without cell phone service to be forced to disconnect. I recently emerged from a four-day cell phone sabbatical. I wish I could say…

Read More

My Favorite Books of 2021

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | January 27, 2022 |
Jo Ilfeld | Executive Leadership Coach | Favorite Books of 2022

I often get asked for my book recommendations so here are my favorite reads of 2021. This article was first published in Forbes. Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management For Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. This is not the time management book that most of us are looking for but it is the time management book that many…

Read More