by brandirichardthompson | May 22, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
Every year, on the last Monday of May, we pause. We fire up grills and set out lawn chairs. We drive to lakes and gather in backyards. We say “Happy Memorial Day” to each other in ways that would have confused the people who created it, because there is...
by brandirichardthompson | May 5, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In plain language: the legal tool that has protected the voting power of communities of color for six...
by brandirichardthompson | May 1, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Crisis Leadership
What the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Decision Reveals About Institutional Failure, Civic Preparedness, and What We Owe You remember the last…or the current government shutdown. Maybe you remember the lines at the airport, TSA agents working without pay, their...
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 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...
by brandirichardthompson | Mar 2, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Executive Coaching & Career
She knew exactly what she needed to do. That’s what she told me in our first coaching session. Senior executive, fifteen years in her industry, reputation for getting results. She’d been passed over for a promotion she deserved, and she knew why. Her boss was taking...
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