Lead Well! with Christine Schickinger

Time may create distance from a traumatic experience, but it does not necessarily resolve the guilt, fear or grief attached to it.

In this episode, Christine speaks with clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Cortman, author of The Guided Imagery Cure. Drawing on more than 40 years of clinical practice, he explains how guided imagery can help people actively process unresolved experiences and reach a sense of closure.

The conversation explores:

Why avoidance can keep traumatic experiences emotionally active
What happens when the brain continues to respond from fear and hypervigilance
How guided imagery can change the meaning attached to a painful...

Why can we recognize that something is not working, yet still hesitate to change it?

In this episode, Christine speaks with Andres Kuusk about the thinking patterns that quietly shape our decisions. Andres is a seven-time World Pentamind Champion, former game theory professor, business executive, and author of Unlocking the Success Puzzle.

The conversation looks beyond motivation and productivity advice. Instead, it examines how assumptions, cognitive distortions, and survival-oriented shortcuts can make us overestimate difficulty, avoid uncertainty, and limit ourselves before we have properly tried.

They discuss:

why believing you are inferior can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
how early learning...

For the first time in 26 years, Christine no longer has a horse determining her daily routine.

Although Maggie has moved to what Christine considers the perfect home, saying goodbye revealed something unexpected. It wasn't only the horse she would miss, but the structure, movement, rhythm, and responsibility that had quietly organized her life.

Reflecting on the seven weeks of intensive care while Maggie recovered from illness, Christine explores how deeply our identity can become connected to the responsibilities we carry.

This isn't only true for horse owners. The same questions arise when we retire, finish an important project, change...

Many (leadership) challenges are approached as problems to solve.

But some aren't problems at all.

In this episode, Dr. Tracy Christopherson and Michelle Troseth introduce the concept of polarities: interdependent pairs of perspectives, values, or priorities that appear to be in conflict but actually need each other to achieve a greater purpose.

We discuss:

Why we often default to either-or thinking
Common workplace polarities such as managing vs leading, hierarchy vs partnership, and individual vs team
How different perspectives improve decision quality
The difference between healthy tension and destructive conflict
Why psychological safety is essential for navigating disagreement
How partnership...