TALES FROM THE PATH

I want to share with you a short workshop I did recently on the topic of resilience.  I was honored to be invited by longtime client Erik Gensler, President of Capacity Interactive, to present this at CI’s live-streamed boot camp on April 23rd for leaders in the Arts. If...

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. —Ralph Waldo Emerson In speaking to clients over the past couple of weeks, almost everyone has asked the same questions: How should I be using this time now that the goals and plans I had suddenly no longer seem...

I’m writing this post on the plane home from Summit LA18, an eclectic and inspiring ideas festival that someone I met here aptly described as the love child of Burning Man and TED. Many of the featured speakers need no introduction, like Vice President Al Gore, CAA co-founder Michael...

Question:  What do coaching and doing a handstand have in common? Answer:  They both allow you to see things from a different perspective. Often, clients come to coaching because they feel blocked or stalled around a personal or professional developmental goal.  And although I don’t ask my clients to...

At Clear Path, we work with clients to help them build resilience so that they can more effectively respond to change, adversity and other challenging circumstances. Researchers like Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth have written extensively about the fact that the ability to maintain a growth (vs. fixed) mindset and build “grit” are attributes...

One of the many reasons I love coaching is that I’m constantly learning from my clients.  Erik Gensler, Founder and President of Capacity Interactive is one of those clients.  His enlightened leadership philosophy has taught me that a company can be just as committed to upholding values as getting...

Networking. I can actually see the word sending shivers down some peoples’ spines. While everyone understands that networks provide tremendous professional value, investing time in the activity of building and maintaining a vibrant network of relationships is something many of us tend to put on the back burner – ...

With networking, as with any endeavor, you’re more apt to do it if you make it enjoyable.  However, as Jessica notes in her post many of us have negative feelings about networking and need to shift our mindset to overcome resistance. This is especially true when you’re networking as part...

We spend a lot of time talking to our clients about how to strategically nurture and diversify their relationship networks. Some people have an intuitive knack for making connections, and always have their antennae out for interesting new people to meet. Others intellectually understand the value of cultivating robust...

  “I have already settled it for myself, so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.” —Georgia O’Keeffe Full disclosure: in my many years of corporate life, I hated receiving feedback. Intellectually I accepted it as an important and constructive tool for improvement,...

    “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?” – Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success   If you agree that self-improvement is the more worthwhile pursuit, then the next logical step is to figure out what,...

“Jennifer, can I give you some constructive criticism?”

“Sure”

“Try using your brain.”

   — Conversation with my boss, circa 2002

In my coaching practice, I often draw on my training as a yoga instructor to provide tools for clients to manage stress and improve focus, clarity and judgment. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see an endorsement by a presidential candidate of one of the most powerful techniques...

  Coordinated global cyberattacks. A 24/7 viral news cycle. The depletion of natural resources that power our economies. Leading in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world has never been tougher. Challenges that lack obvious solutions abound, the operating environment is in constant flux, and organizations of every...

  Recently my colleague Jennifer and I held a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) debrief at a retreat for a startup. When the results revealed that all the members of the leadership team identified as “Thinking” types versus “Feeling” types, an interesting question arose from within the group: What is...

  “…there’s room to hear more subtle things — that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more… You see so much more than you could see before.  It’s a discipline.  You have to practice...

Jennifer Zaslow interviews client Erik Gensler, Founder and President of Capacity Interactive, #25 on Crain’s list of the 100 Best Places to Work in NYC in 2016.   Capacity Interactive is a digital marketing consulting firm founded in 2008. CI partners with leading arts and cultural organizations in the...

  When things fall apart and we’re on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize… We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is...

  In the days following the recent presidential election, I was an emotional mess. The startling upset of Trump’s victory left me, like many people, overwhelmed by my feelings, and a depressing sentiment of general awfulness fogged my ability to function. If you’d asked me how I’d felt at...

  At work and in life, have you ever noticed how often you say “no” to new ideas or suggestions? And how about “yes, but”, which is essentially the same as no? What would happen if in that moment when your habitual pattern is to reject different or unfamiliar...

  This summer, traveling through a small town in Alaska that had clearly seen better days, we passed a car festooned with what we thought at the time were bumper stickers from the lunatic fringe, including one that read, “It’s too bad Hillary wasn’t married to O.J.” Turns out...