by brandirichardthompson | Apr 27, 2026 | Executive Coaching & Career
What the hardest career decision I ever made taught me about integration, ambition, and what we owe ourselves Someone who had known me for years asked me a question I was not prepared for. I had just been offered a significant promotion. The kind of role that would...
by brandirichardthompson | Apr 20, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Executive Coaching & Career
Why the distance between knowing and doing is the only leadership gap that actually matters I was coaching a senior executive — let’s call her Diane — who had known for fourteen months that a direct report was underperforming at a level that was damaging the...
by brandirichardthompson | Apr 13, 2026 | Crisis Leadership, Executive Coaching & Career
What Katrina’s aftermath still teaches us about the leadership failure hiding inside every protocol In August 2005, the United States federal government had a 426-page plan for a catastrophic hurricane striking New Orleans. The plan was called the Southeast...
by brandirichardthompson | Apr 7, 2026 | Crisis Leadership, Federal Service & Public Policy
I want to tell you something that took me 20 years in federal service to fully understand, and a front-row seat to what’s happening in Washington right now to finally say out loud. Most Americans are operating with a dangerous assumption about emergency...
by brandirichardthompson | Apr 6, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Executive Coaching & Career
On communications subterfuge, market uncertainty, and the leadership cost of blaming the machine My mother asked me a question recently that stopped me in my tracks. She had been watching the news. The layoffs. The headlines. The corporate announcements about...
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