How We Will Reach Our Potential in 2018
Every January our team at The Potentiality engages in our New Year’s tradition of making public commitments about how we will realize our potential as professionals, parents, partners, and human beings. For 2018, Godfrey, Michael, Kurt, and I are leveraging our...
The Best Potentiality Articles from 2017
Another year is wrapping up. 2017 has been tumultuous (holy geopolitical landscape, Batman!), inspiring (#MeToo), tragic (you will be missed, Tom Petty), and enlightening (Lady Bird and other pinnacles of our culture). Amidst it all, this humble website has also...
Six Leadership Lessons from Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Last night Kurt and I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We are still feeling conflict deep within us. Your work and life will also generate mixed feelings that blend the dark and light within you. We're here to help you find peace and purpose. Here are six leadership...
Why Conflict is a Good Thing
The Potential of Dialogue Meaningful dialogue is an elusive thing in our communities. Having a respectful conversation with someone about something on which we do not agree isn’t common. Yelling opinions overtop of someone else or building a newsfeed that reinforces...
Three Professional Tips I Learned from Cooking in the Backcountry
This September, John, Godfrey and I along with a gaggle of other fellows headed north of Vancouver to hike Elfin Lakes in Garibaldi Provincial Park. That day we had a lot of fun climbing to the top of an ancient volcano setting up our alpine camp and recalling...
Eight Professional Lessons from the Movie Chef
Last week I re-watched Chef – written, directed and starring Jon Favreau – on Netflix. The film is about Carl Casper, the head chef at a high-end Los Angeles restaurant who loses his cool, loses his job, loses a lot of peoples’ respect, but then finds himself on a...
Three professional lessons from your favourite college films
This week millions of students all over the world will be heading back to school. Most peoples’ experiences at university bear little resemblance to the Hollywood hijinks in films like Old School. But there are pearls of truth in plenty that’s popular these days. Here...
10 Better Things to Say than “Be a Man”
“Be a Man”. We’ve heard the phrase jabbed at a dude caught in a circle of dudes (sometimes women are there, too) who are using peer pressure tactics. Or it’s a classic movie line aimed at motivating male protagonists to realize their potential. Some of us might’ve...
Four Professional Lessons We Can Learn from Gawker (RIP)
This week, Gawker posted its last story. The snarky, gossipy website was the scourge of the New York media establishment, Hollywood and Silicon Valley (among other communities). Plenty has been written already about who killed Gawker and whether we should mourn its...
What I am Learning from Dinner Conversations about Gratitude
Having dinner together as a family is one of the simplest things that you can do to build a healthy community at home. Whether you share a meal with one person or twenty, taking time together to reflect on our experiences enhances everything from happiness to...
How to Show Up for a Grieving Colleague
It might be a death in the family, a miscarriage or a new life situation that hugely alters their life trajectory. Whatever is the event, it plummets your colleague into grief. While many workplaces offer short term bereavement leave, it’s never enough time. Sooner or...
Five Lessons about Learning from Home Renovations
Last weekend my family moved into our new home, which needs many minor renovations. Things like re-sealing toilets, gutter cleaning and caulking, fence-repair, dimmer-switch-installing, and many similar tasks me uncomfortable because I suck at them. A recent HBR...
Three Ways to Make Someone’s Day
Great leaders – the ones who can really get the best out of people – understand the importance of working with folks holistically. It’s essential to treat people as human beings, not just employees, because human beings get pushed on the subway, dumped by a jerk,...