Clear expectations and micromanaging can look remarkably similar on the surface. The difference lies in what you control and how much ownership you leave for your team.I was working with a client recently who was struggling with what she thought was a simple...
Podcast Appearances
Patrick Farran: Proven Frameworks for Leadership
May 2025 | The Influential Nonprofit
Leading with Purpose: Transform Your Team and Results
May 2025 | Success, Secrets, and Stories
The Intentional Nonprofit Executive: Strategies for Sustainable Leadership
June 2025 | The Nonprofit Show
Leveraging the Power of Co-Creation with Dr. Patrick Farran
July 2025 | Productive Joy
Purpose, Agency, and the Real Work of Leadership with Dr. Patrick Farran
August 2025 | Leadership From The Heart
Work Matters S6E6: Patrick Farran – The Power of Co-Creation
August 2025 | The Work Matters Podcast
Inviting Input: A conversation about co-creating the workplace
November 2025 | Comfy Chairs
The Intentional Executive w/ Patrick Farran
January 2026 | Drive Thru HR
Leadership Development
Stop Making This Costly Delegation Mistake (It’s Hurting Your Career)
Why 'it's faster to do it myself' is the most expensive mindset in leadership.As a leadership coach, there are a few phrases I hear frequently. Here is one of them: “I could delegate this, but it would take longer for me to explain how to do it than just do it...
Breaking the Interruption Cycle: How to Be Available Without Being Always Available
You teach people how to treat you. Be careful what you're teaching them.During a recent coaching session, my client David (name changed), a VP of Marketing, shared his frustration with me. "Michelle, I want to be there for my team. I tell them my door is always open,...
Speak Up with Confidence: Tips for Intimidating Situations
When you’re in a room that feels intimidating, remember: you don’t have to know everything to add value.In every experience I had with Maya (name changed), she was a confident and self-assured person. Her mind worked fast; I’d seen her share sharp insights without a...
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Team Development
Mastering the Art of 1:1 Meetings: Why Your Team’s Growth Depends on It
The conversation is the relationship. And most leaders are missing the mark on this critical connection point. Last month, I was working with a VP of Operations who was struggling with team performance. Despite having talented people, projects were stalling, morale...
Wrap It Right: The 5 Essential Questions to Close Every Meeting
Try using these questions in your next team meeting. You don’t need to wait for permission or a formal process—just ask. Tyler was exhausted. He’d recently been promoted to a new level in his organization, and his responsibilities meant he was serving on multiple...
Getting Past the Drama at Work
Resolving conflict at work means you have to address the task and relationship challenges honestly and directly, with thoughtful language, curiosity, and a spirit of compromise. But none of that can happen if you don’t let go of the drama. Kayla and Will work...
SuperCharge Your Team’s Growth with these Four Reflection Questions
Here’s the simple but powerful 4-question framework to reflect on difficult situations with a new lens. In a recent coaching conversation, one of my clients shared her frustration with a team member who failed to complete a critical project task and then subsequently...
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Organizational Strategy
SWET the Details: Why Your Strategic Analysis Needs a Reboot
The difference between good strategy and great strategy often comes down to the rigor of your foundational analysis. SWET isn't just a reordered acronym—it's a discipline that separates data-driven decisions from expensive guesswork. I've reviewed more than 200...
The Strategic Plan Death Spiral: Why Your 47-Point Plan is Killing Your Results
The most successful leaders I work with aren't the ones with the most comprehensive plans—they're the ones with the clearest focus.You're three months into the fiscal year. Your leadership team is reviewing quarterly progress, and someone pulls up the strategic plan...
Budget Season is upon us. Here’s how to make planning less scary.
This approach will boost the amount of collaboration, support, and buy-in that will benefit you not just during the remainder of the budgeting process, but also throughout the year as you execute the plan. Everyone’s favorite season is finally here and I hope you are...
Balancing Ambitious Strategy with COVID Burnout
If you are anything like the hundreds of executives we have worked with, you are struggling to balance your long-term ambitions with the overwhelming amount of tasks associated with delivering today. It was a challenge even before you began the latest COVID adventure...
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Workplace Culture
Thriving in the Chaos
The role of leadership in all of this is deceptively simple—and incredibly hard: stay calm in the chaos and give your team the tools to navigate it confidently.As we wrap up annual performance reviews and lean into our ambitions for this year, I’ve found myself...
Start with Reflection: A Year-End Pause That Matters
Because the strongest strategies don’t start with data or plans. They start with people.Every year, as Q4 rolls around, most leaders shift into performance mode — wrapping up projects, reviewing numbers, and drafting next year’s plans. It’s a familiar rhythm. But in...
The Culture Equation: Six Elements That Separate High-Performing Teams from Everyone Else
Culture is built one decision, one interaction, and one moment at a time. Every policy you implement, meeting you run, and piece of feedback you provide either reinforces or undermines your desired culture.Tom was surrounded by two of his valued team members in what...
Why ‘Work-Life Balance’ Won’t Save You From Burnout
Burnout isn't just about being busy—it's about misalignment with your values and purpose.Do you ever hear someone say, "I can't help you with that, I'm too busy?" When you hear it, do you think, "there is just NO way you're as busy as I am?" Many with packed personal...
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Career Development
From Anxiety to Action: Building Your Career Network Before You Need It
Every conversation you have, every relationship you build, creates possibilities you can't yet imagine.Sarah, a marketing manager with 8 years of experience, refreshed her LinkedIn feed for the third time that morning. Another round of layoffs. Another company...
Do this at Your Next Performance Review
When it’s time for your annual review, you can either be a passenger or a driver. The key to getting what you need from your performance review is asking the right questions. One of my coaching clients, Eddie*, was preparing for his annual performance review. He...
Classroom Calling: How to Transform Your Professional Expertise into a Teaching Position
If you’ve ever considered teaching in higher education, either part-time or full-time, here is everything you need to know to make the transition from professional life to academia. “I’m not even sure I was an official employee of the university for my first night of...
Advanced Networking Practices for Upgrading Your Job Search
These upgrades deliver newfound reach and turn the tables for you in a positive way. These practices also reward you with an alternative currency – confidence. A May 30th Wall Street Journal article proclaimed, “Landing a Job is All About Who You Know (Again),” and...
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Personal Growth
The Yes Paradox
After reading “The Year of Yes,” I decided to try it for myself. The results were so positive that I’ve kept up a slightly modified effort nearly a decade longer!It seems every time I open LinkedIn or a business publication, I see an article or post espousing the...
Be Wrong with Confidence: Three Mindset Shifts to Turn Uncertainty into Advantage
When we approach scenario planning, we often focus on the mechanics—the frameworks, the analysis, the documentation. But what if the most powerful aspect isn't the process itself, but the mindset it cultivates?Most organizations engage in some form of scenario...
Gratitude is the Secret to “Likability”
Gratitude turns your focus from inward to outward, from reactive to proactive, from passive to active. At dinner recently, a friend mentioned that she would have had no career at all if “likability” weren’t her superpower. She humbly claimed to have almost no other...
Leveraging Positive Visualization for High Performance
Instead of coming at a challenge from a place of fear or with a deficit/scarcity mindset, we can truly view it as an opportunity and have the confidence that will help create the future we really want to realize. In a recent executive coaching session with one of my...
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Communication Skills
Why Your Team Stays Silent (And How to Finally Get Them Talking)
The simple framework that turns polite head-nodding into productive debateThere’s a New Yorker cartoon I recall from years ago. The image shows a conference room full of executives. The CEO is at the head of the table, and he is asking, “All in favor, raise your right...
Plan for High Impact Conversations in the New Year
As you set your sights on next year, now is the time to plan for high impact conversations you should target in the coming months. As a new calendar year approaches, many of us are planning, have a plan, or plan to make a plan for our professional lives. Let me add...
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