profile

The Human Solution

Leadership is a Science. Tactical Emotional Intelligence™ is the Formula.

Leadership isn’t just a title. It’s a skill. And too often, managers are promoted for their individual contributions—then left to figure out leadership on their own. That’s a recipe for burnout, discomfort, and a whole lot of stress. At The Human Solution, we believe management is a professional skill set in its own right. And if you want to build high-performing teams and create a culture that thrives, your managers need the right tools—not just instincts.

PostsLinks
Featured Post

Are We Asking Too Much of Self-Regulation?

I spend a lot of time teaching people how to regulate their nervous systems. It’s the foundation of the work we do at The Human Solution. Understanding what’s happening in your body when you’re stressed, recognizing when your fight-or-flight response has decided to take over the show, and developing the ability to create a little space between what you’re feeling and what you do about it. It is good stuff. Important stuff. Stuff that pretty much all of us could stand to get better at. And I...

8 days ago • 2 min read

Therapeutic language was supposed to help us understand ourselves. Somewhere along the way, we started using it to manage everyone else. As a person who 100% believes that every human would benefit from a little therapy, I also believe that the weaponization of therapeutic language has gotten a little out of hand. Words that were designed to help us name complicated internal experiences have escaped into the wild. I blame social media, but whatever the reason, therapy language is now...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Confession time. I am in a little bit of a funk. I scan the headlines, open LinkedIn, and feel nothing. Not excitement. Not rage. Not jealousy. Not even the useful kind of irritation that occasionally sparks an idea. Just meh. I love reading. I love learning. And there is plenty of content. So much content. Leadership content. AI content. Leadership content about AI. AI content about leadership. Five ways to build trust. Seven questions great managers ask. A carousel explaining that employees...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

My son starts middle school next week. In May, I offered to buy him a combination lock so he could practice opening it before school started. He looked at me like I'd suggested we spend the summer learning tax law together. 😒 "Nah. I'll figure it out." K. Apparently I had prepared for an anxiety he does not have. Which made me wonder why I was so invested in this locker situation. So I started asking other adults about their middle school lockers and, well... PEOPLE HAVE STORIES. Nightmares....

2 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader! Summer has a rhythm and cadence that is all its own. People are navigating kid schedules, vacations, and the straight-up seasonality of “maybe it is okay to slow down a little.” Anyway, we are trying to lean into it over here and allow for a little less structure and a little more weirdness. Take the trip. Try the thing. In Elise & Anna - land, that means lake time with kids, porch sitting with dogs, rowing on the river, and revisiting a past career (ballroom dancing) that was long...

3 months ago • 2 min read

What If Independence Day Was About Your Nervous System? Every Fourth of July we celebrate freedom. Freedom from rule.Freedom to choose.Freedom to build something new. But there is another kind of independence that's a little quieter. The kind that happens inside us. The freedom to choose a different response than the one our nervous system has rehearsed for years. The catch? Most of us don't actually feel free. We feel compelled. Compelled to overwork.To overprepare.To overthink.To keep...

4 months ago • 1 min read

Congratulations, your LLM has become your newest direct report. Think of it like you are now responsible for managing a very booksmart intern. And for those of us who have experience managing interns, you know that it is not as easy as you might think. The integration of AI into workflows has become inevitable. It is no longer a novelty tool that sits alongside work. We need to start thinking of it as part of the operating system of how work gets done. We have crossed the threshold....

4 months ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader! As a grown-up human, I am consistently amazed at how often I have to remind myself to chill the hell out, have a little more fun, and hold life just a tad more lightly. I don’t know exactly how it happens, but somehow, somewhere, the work of adulting just takes over. I have been thinking about it a lot, particularly as we have been diving deep into the creativity and curiosity work. At some point, the grown-ups have gotten confused and started treating innovation like something...

4 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader! It recently occurred to us that if we wanted an example of “How to utilize The Human Solution toolkit for the powers of good,” we need look no further than directly at ourselves. Because Anna and I are the perfect example of two very different archetype profiles that combine forces to create magic (and occasionally drive each other nuts). 😈 So we're pulling back the curtain of our office. Because nothing says "professional launch strategy" quite like emailing your entire list to...

5 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader! The word pivot needs to be put in the corporate-jargon-recycling-bin. It can hang out in there with its friends, synergy, and disrupt. Raise your hand if you are so freaking sick of pivoting. Can we just get off the rollercoaster for a second? The answer to that question is probably “no,” but maybe just acknowledging our collective exhaustion has value. Okay… Let’s take a collective pause. Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply. Imagine the word pivot being trampled by horses and set...

5 months ago • 3 min read