Hala Batainah 
We’ve all had them. The people who make your day longer, your energy lower, and your patience thinner than you thought possible. The ones who somehow suck the colour out of a meeting without even trying. And yet… we still have to show up. Like the professional we are, and the leader we want to … Read more
Some weeks, leadership feels like standing in full sunlight: bright, intentional and alive. Other weeks, the colours are dull. Not because you have lost them, but because life has shifted the light. The red that once fuelled your courage now feels like overdrive. The blue that helped you connect now feels heavy. The green curiosity … Read more
Yesterday, I looked up and saw a full rainbow stretched across the sky. Not just a partial arc, but one of those rare, perfect, horizon-to-horizon rainbows that makes you stop mid-step and just breathe it in. I know rainbows often get pulled into analogies about hardship. You know, the storm passes, the rainbow appears, hope … Read more
Last week, I wrote about lazy thinking across generations and why it trips leaders up. I introduced emotional agility as the antidote, and a lovely number of you reached out asking: What does that actually look like in practice? It’s a fair question. Because “emotional agility” sounds a little abstract for many of us. It … Read more
Lately, I have noticed a theme emerging in conversations with leaders. They are not just tired (it is the last quarter stretch, and it has been a big year for many), but they are also tired of managing across generations. Some of the comments I hear often sound like this: It is the same regardless. … Read more
The day you become a CEO, you don’t just get the big office, the executive assistant, and the awkward LinkedIn messages from people who suddenly want to “grab coffee.” You also inherit three circles of community. Whether you like it or not, you are building them every single day. Ignore one, and the whole thing … Read more
When you think of a CEO, what image comes to mind? Is it a solitary figure in a corner office, signing off on deals and occasionally emerging for a “town hall” speech no one remembers? Or is it someone who actually knows what is happening in their own corridors: walking the floors, listening carefully, and … Read more
In my last post, I talked about why meetings often drain us rather than energise us. This week, I want to show you how to change that and how to design meetings that actually matter. Meetings do not have to be soul-draining marathons where everyone pretends to look engaged while secretly planning dinner. They can … Read more
Same characters, same punchlines, same sense of regret at the end. We show up, shuffle papers (or mute ourselves on Zoom), and wonder why we even bothered. Ok, maybe not all meetings, all the time, but most of them are. But meetings don’t have to be this way. In fact, they could be the exact … Read more
Last week we talked about the maverick mindset, that spark that can jolt you out of autopilot and helps you question the defaults and help you reset. And like all good things, sparky, this can have a catch: disruption, if done badly, does not inspire. It irritates. Safe to say, we have all seen it. … Read more