Lead Well! with Christine Schickinger

What are you chasing, and why?

For years, Sonny Garg had an impressive answer to the first part of that question. Harvard, a White House Fellowship, executive leadership and ever greater professional success. But eventually he realized that achievement had become closely tied to his sense of self-worth.

Sonny is the author of *Desi 2.0: My Family’s American Dream and the Cost of Never Being Enough*. In this conversation, we talk about achievement addiction, inherited expectations and what happens when external success no longer feels like success.

We explore the difference between ambition and the need to prove yourself, how...

Why do we so quickly look for someone to blame when something goes wrong?

I started thinking about this after the devastating glacier collapse in Nepal. While scientists were still trying to understand exactly what had happened, explanations and accusations were already spreading online.

And it made me wonder: Why is “we don’t know yet” so difficult for us?

In this episode, I explore the psychology behind blame and why having a culprit can sometimes feel more comfortable than living with uncertainty. We look at the difference between fear and anger, what happens when we lose our sense of control,...

We see behaviour and almost instantly create a story around it.

The aggressive horse. The difficult employee. The defensive manager. The uncooperative teenager.

But what if the behavior is real, while the story we tell ourselves about it is not?

In this episode of Lead Well!, I share what struck me while watching Trust Technique creator James French work with horses in Mongolia and, more recently, with elephants in Nepal. Animals considered difficult or even dangerous began responding very differently when the interaction itself changed.

That raises a much bigger question, one that applies far beyond animals:

What happens when...

When does professional adaptation become self-abandonment?

Self-leadership coach Ruth E. Andermatt joins Christine to explore what it takes to preserve your integrity when expectations are high and your position may be at risk.

Ruth recounts a defining leadership decision. She refused an order to dismiss an employee unfairly, choosing instead to tell him the truth and give him the opportunity to step up. Within 90 days, his store was performing at the top of the country.

The conversation also examines quiet leadership, honest feedback, conflict avoidance and the responsibility leaders have to connect with people who think and communicate differently...