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.

How candid are you really?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | September 6, 2018 |

I’m writing this blog from one of my favorite places in my world which is Carmel, California. Although the weather is cold and overcast today, I can still feel my whole body relax in this cozy coastal town. What are the places where you can feel your shoulders drop and your mind clear of the…

Read More

What are YOUR rules to live by?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | August 8, 2018 |

I read this interesting blog post by Seth Godin several months ago on what are Bonnie’s rules for being a better client of website design services.  They include gems like the following: White space is your friend Be open to things you didn’t imagine Nothing takes a second Tell me the problem, not the solution Then I…

Read More

What I Learned on Vacation

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | July 15, 2018 |

The past two weeks I’ve been traveling with my family through Europe, wonderfully disengaged from work and business mode. It’s the “It’s Monday so it must be Holland, it’s Tuesday so it must be Italy,” type of trip. I wanted to give my brood a sense of Europe in the hopes that they will return later on their own…

Read More

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About 360 Assessments But Were Afraid To Ask

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | May 7, 2018 |

This article was originally published on Forbes.com. “Will I be upset by my results?” my client asks me. “Who knows?” I respond. “I’ve given people critical 360s and they’ve shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘That’s about what I expected.’ And I’ve given others what I would consider an effusive 360 review, only to have them…

Read More

What’s different between you and your CEO?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | April 24, 2018 |

In a recent blog, I asked for podcast recommendations so I wanted to start by acknowledging all of you who responded to my last email with your own podcast recommendations – THANK YOU! I’m trying to upload some of them currently to my iPhone and making my way through so I appreciate the suggestions. Perhaps in…

Read More

Is time flying for you, too?

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | April 17, 2018 |

Raise your hand if you too, can’t believe it’s April. I’m barely used to writing 2018 when I write the date. Sadly it does seem to be true that time slips away much faster the older you get.​​​​​​​ Time is an interesting beast, right?  I think so too – that’s why this blog incites come…

Read More

Three Secrets To Shifting From Busy To Strategic

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | March 21, 2018 |
For this article by Jo Ilfeld, Executive Leadership Coach on being busy, the image shows a man with several arms holding items from a telephone to writing pad to calculator.

This article was first published on Forbes.com. How do you make that shift from being busy to less intense periods of work? How do you stop your mind from working overtime? If you’re old enough, you might remember records. The larger records spun at 33 1/3 RPM and the smaller single records were 45 RPM.…

Read More

Do you prefer Uber or Lyft? I always use…

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | February 26, 2018 |

As we barrel headlong into the holiday season, I wanted to take an opportunity to share my gratitude that you remain part of my leadership community. I love sharing my learnings with you and then hearing yours in return. So please feel free to hit reply (now or anytime) and let me know your thoughts! My last…

Read More

I’m Trying Something New Here

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | February 26, 2018 |

My good friend, the awesome Dr. Sara Gottfried has started doing what she calls 7 bullet Fridays which she stole from the infamous Tim Ferris. Here’s my 5 talking points version: 1. I’ve been reflecting a lot on the nature of fear this past weekend. My family and I, along with several close family friends,…

Read More

My First Advice Column

By Jo Ilfeld, PhD | February 26, 2018 |

 I’ve always wanted to secretly be an advice columnist so I was thrilled when I got this email: “This is NOT urgent, but it is a compliment … Given that you read and listen to everything, (ed note: not everything but I do try to stay up-to-date) I wanted to kindly, graciously request Dr. Jo’s Recommended Top 5 Book (or articles)…

Read More