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Rethink Productivity – think managing energy instead
Using energy strategically begins with recognizing that not all hours carry the same weight, and that trying to treat them as interchangeable tends to flatten both the work and the person doing it. It becomes less about doing more within a fixed schedule and more about placing the kind of work that requires clarity, judgment,…
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How to Bridge the Gap Between Better Work and Getting Hired
The work itself is often not the issue. The difference shows up in how quickly someone on the other side can understand what you are proposing, see how it connects to what they are dealing with, and feel confident enough to move forward without needing to pause and work it out for themselves. In most…
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Why Smaller Contractors Lose Work to Larger Firms (Even When the Work Is Better)
I was sitting in a room yesterday with a group of technical leads. It was an industry event, and the conversation was around projects that kept looping. Work would be done, reviewed, then redone. Adjustments would be made, only for the direction to shift again. Not because new data had emerged, but because the decision…
Business Alignment, business strategy, Client experience, consulting, decision making, execution, Leadership Thinking, organization alignment, perceived value, StrategicAlignmentJournal BusinessAlignment DecisionMaking Consulting LeadershipThinking ClientExperience OrganizationalAlignment BusinessStrategy PerceivedValue Execution -
Is worst-case consequence analysis actually useful in business?
The easy answer is yes, and that’s usually where most explanations stop, somewhere around resilience and preparedness and better decision-making, all of which are true in a general sense. However it’s not particularly helpful when you look at how decisions are actually being made in real time… under pressure, with incomplete information and a room…
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Good Business Practice: Trust… but Verify
“First off, don’t let the force of the impression carry you away. Say to it, ‘hold up a bit and let me see who you are and where you are from—let me put you to the test’ . . .” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.18.24 Epictetus is pointing to a moment we often miss… the split second where something happens,…
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What If the Real Leadership Discipline Isn’t Decision-Making…But What Happens Before It
We have built an entire leadership ecosystem around decision-making. Business schools, executive education programs, and coaching circles have invested decades refining how leaders assess risk, weigh trade-offs, and choose between competing priorities. Institutions like Wharton School and Yale School of Management have elevated decision-making into something rigorous, structured, and worthy of serious intellectual attention. In…
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Ambition and Achievement are not the Same Thing
Ambition and achievement are often spoken about as though they naturally belong together, but they are not the same thing. Ambition is desire. It is the internal pull toward something bigger, better, further, more meaningful, more impactful, more expansive. Achievement is evidence. It is what can be pointed to after the fact. One lives in…
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Succession Planning is not just Skills Transfer…and should NEVER be an Afterthought
I’ve long admired Warren Buffett. He’s been a bit of a mentor to me… not in the literal sense, but in the way someone can shape how you think simply by how they move through the world. I’ve read The Snowball, that long, patient biography that traces not just Buffett’s wealth, but his temperament, his…
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Know Yourself Before it’s Impossibly Late
Most people believe they know themselves, and that confidence is rarely questioned. It feels reasonable to assume that living inside your own mind grants you privileged access to who you are, yet psychological research and lived experience both suggest otherwise. Self-knowledge is not a natural byproduct of adulthood. It is a discipline, and one that…
Clarity BEFORE Execution. Structure BEFORE Speed
If you could better understand one thing about your business right now….
Most costly decisions begin with
an inaccurate understanding of the situation.
I help leaders understand what is actually happening before major decisions are made or
resources are invested in solving the wrong problem.
Giselle Hudson | Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor | Sensemaking for high-stakes business decisions 