Blog Posts

As a leadership coach and mindfulness teacher, I frequently encounter individuals who are incredibly self-critical, placing immense pressure on themselves to achieve perfection.

In a world where speed often outruns reflection, leadership demands more than strategy and KPIs — it calls for self-awareness. TopLeader Expert Karolina Filosek, a Gestalt-oriented coach, believes that true leadership begins with presence. In this interview, she shares how emotional intelligence and personal growth help leaders stay resilient, authentic, and connected in times of change.

Ask any senior leader what keeps them awake at night, and the answers sound familiar: "If I do not fix this, no one will." "If I am not in the meeting, I might lose control." "If I move without full agreement, I might make a mistake." These thoughts do not come from weakness but from commitment and professionalism. Over time, repeating them creates patterns that limit growth. Strengths turn into habits, and what once built trust begins to erode it.

In this interview, we sit down with Gowri S Ramani, a coach who has worked with more than 500 clients across industries and geographies, sharing lessons on confidence, resilience, and the mindset shifts that shape better leaders.

What does it take to move from simply climbing the career ladder to truly leading with influence and resilience? For Katia Triggiani, the answer lies in reinvention, self-awareness, and integrity. After more than two decades in global corporations, Katia pivoted into coaching to help leaders not just deliver results, but create environments where people can thrive.

Recently I had a meeting with a company client with my business partner about a project we had delivered. We discussed several topics and at some point she told me “you have gained absolute trust from every single person in all six teams. My business partner felt proud and started praising me; I felt grateful and surprised at the same time.“ I have been lucky enough to hear this comment from my clients and ex-managers several times in my life and it seems that this is my adva

Now, I will start with this: you can only influence as much as you let yourself be influenced by others! Yes, I know, maybe it seems counter-intuitive, but here’s why it’s not.

As a mid-career professional or a mid-manager, you may have reached a point where you feel comfortable with your technical skills and knowledge, and you may want to improve your leadership and inter-personal skills. You want to inspire, motivate, and empower your team members to achieve their goals and grow professionally. You want to create a positive and productive work environment where everyone feels valued and supported. And you want to enjoy this ride, too. 

In today’s whirlwind of change, leaders can’t afford to stand still. We sat down with Dilek Yildirim, an executive coach who’s guided directors in heavy industry, VPs in banking, and founders across sectors, to uncover the real ingredients that fuel leadership growth.

‘Let me give you some feedback’, ‘I don’t like how they tackled this, but I can’t tell them that’, ‘I’m afraid I’ll hurt their feelings if I give them constructive feedback’. Situations of all sorts, where we’d rather avoid telling people around us how we stand, for fear we’d hurt them, or jeopardize the relationship, or demotivate them.

In today’s whirlwind of change—think AI breakthroughs, shifting markets, and ever-evolving team dynamics—simply “knowing your stuff” isn’t enough. Coach Ramón de la Fuente has seen this firsthand leading fintech teams at Nasdaq and Adobe and sharpening his strategic lens at Harvard.

Effective leadership starts with profound self-knowledge. Esra Uras Bilgin believes that it is only when we know our own needs and inner workings that we can succeed in reaching and leading others.

When an ambitious account executive burned out just after a big promotion, it wasn’t lack of drive holding them back—it was their mindset...

Demetrio has worked across several industries for over four decades, mentoring peers long before realizing that it was his calling.

Read about her thoughts on emotional intelligence, coaching, and the future of leadership.

What I find striking about us, humans, is that when we talk about communication we refer to a diversity of ways that allow us to express...

Traditional goal-setting  often fails in high-pressure sales environments because it focuses too rigidly on outcomes like hitting...

A few weeks ago, I was ready to kick off a workshop on “Developing Coaching Skills in Leaders” for a group of senior leaders at a tech...

Recently I had a meeting with a company client with my business partner about a project wehad delivered. We discussed several topics and...

Leadership – such a short word, if you think about it, to express so many things. The beauty of it, of course, is that it means different...