The Findley Companies

I am an anxious person. Not always, but there have been moments in my career when anxiety has taken hold. One of the biggest culprits? Imposter syndrome - that persistent voice telling you that you don’t belong, that you’re unqualified, and that sooner or later, everyone will figure it out. Even after 20 years of experience, publishing books, and leading in top organizations, I still occasionally think, they’re going to realize I don’t know what I’m doing. The most vivid ex

Early in my career, a change in leadership left an indelible mark - for all the wrong reasons. Our team had celebrated our boss's promotion, hopeful about the future. When his replacement arrived, we were cautiously optimistic. That optimism crumbled during his first meeting when he announced his mission to “upgrade” the staff. He proudly recounted replacing 95% of his previous team with “better fits,” leaving us wondering, “Am I next?” What followed was a systematic disman

If you think workplace anxiety is just about deadlines and difficult bosses, you’re missing the bigger picture. Anxiety isn’t just creeping into work - it’s crashing through the walls and it’s not just about performance pressure. The world itself is feeding our stress. Global events. Political chaos. Social upheaval. These aren’t just headlines, they’re shaping how we show up, how we focus, and how we lead. I used to think anxiety was for other people. People who panicked

Don’t hire your clone. That was a painful lesson I had to learn in my first leadership role. When I took over the team, I hired people who matched my profile and had a similar set of strengths. In the interview process, I made sure they thought like me and would approach problems in the same way. In my naivety, this approach made sense. I was seen as a top performer (hence why I got promoted to team leader), so it made sense to me to build a team of only MEs. For a time, it

When I was in my 20s, I pursued jobs because they made me look good (i.e., loftier titles, higher salaries, more responsibilities, etc.). After many hard life lessons, I learned that picking jobs based on those factors led to more stress and misery than happiness. In my 30s, I only went after roles that I knew I would be good at. While better than my 20s, I still felt like I hadn’t cracked the code. Now that I am in my 40s, I only look for jobs that I believe I can be truly g

Over my 20-year career coaching and developing leaders, one of the most powerful lessons I ever learned was that I need to play to my strengths. There are some things I am naturally good at, and they just come easy to me. At the same time, there are some things that require a lot of focus and effort for me to do. I can deliver OK results on those things, but they aren’t great. And worst of all, there are some things that I just cannot do, no matter how much effort I put into