Saber Coaching

Saber Coaching Inspiring leaders to effectively master their craft | coaching individuals, teams, and organizations

Anytime you want to do a check in or reset on your goals, you have to start with a clear set of goals.People talk a lot ...
09/07/2026

Anytime you want to do a check in or reset on your goals, you have to start with a clear set of goals.

People talk a lot about smart goals or outcome goals. Just say somewhere what you are going to do and by when you are going to do it.

Then you have the opportunity to think about, did I do it or did I not do it?

That is one of the first challenges when people try to check in. They don't have strong, well written goals to check in against.

I set a goal this year to meet a certain revenue target, and if I did, I was going to go skydiving.

I did not meet it, and I missed it by that much.

Now I have the choice to say that was a win or that was a loss, and that choice only means something because the number existed first.

The second thing people need to do is define what enough is up front.

Because what I see instead is people moving goalposts. I am going to double the business. Great. If you double the business, take the time to celebrate. If you didn't, have an after action review, figure out what went well, what didn't go so well, and what you need to do differently next time.

We don't spend enough time planning our celebrations.

In my design alliance conversations, I ask, what does it look like or sound like when you are in celebration?

I coach 80% men, and the response I get is, " Celebrate? I'm not good at that”. And I say, fine. Do you want to stay not good at that?

Many of the men I coach are very achievement-oriented. If I ask them what is enough, the answer is a little bit more. Always.

That is a hard thing to hit, and a hard thing to sustain.

What would enough actually look like for you this quarter, if you had to name it now? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments 👇

09/04/2026

As an executive coach, I can encourage clients to go to the gym and do the workouts.

What I am noticing though is everyone is so busy, time poor, that they don't do the workouts.

Take something as simple as providing feedback.

There is a structure for it.

The Center for Creative Leadership tells you situation, behavior, impact. Feedback requires practice.

But when you go to give that high-stakes feedback in an agitated state, you just basically end up telling the person you suck at this.

That is not a way to encourage growth, and it is not a way to do it from a centered place.

The high-stakes conversation is the game.

The reps are what get you ready for it.

What is one leadership skill you have been reading about but not actually practicing? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments 👇

What if the friends you want are just one message away?Nobody decides to lose their friends; they float away - no fallin...
09/03/2026

What if the friends you want are just one message away?

Nobody decides to lose their friends; they float away - no falling out, no goodbye, just calendars that slowly stop overlapping.

We were taught to be self-sufficient, not connected, so we go it alone. Disconnected islands

But friendship isn't something that maintains itself.
After a certain age, connection stops being automatic and becomes a choice.

So think about who you have been meaning to reach out to, send the message today, then find time to connect. And let's talk about building a more connected life.

09/02/2026

The hardest part about senior leadership is fighting the urge to pick a side.

At the VP level, people look to you to break ties and make the strategic calls.

But today's challenges are nuanced, and sometimes it helps to slow the game down and consider if two things can be right.

I asked two co-leaders, how might you move forward assuming you're both right?

Don't find a watered down compromise, let the strategy bring out the best of both.

The next time you think either or, try holding both, just for a day, and share in the comments what came up 👇

How does your team actually make decisions?Ask the room out loud and you get a room full of blank stares, because nobody...
09/01/2026

How does your team actually make decisions?

Ask the room out loud and you get a room full of blank stares, because nobody really answers.

Two failure modes are usually running the show.

Plop, when a suggestion gets cold silence, no response, no build, no decision.

And minority rules, when the leader says great idea and it moves forward regardless of how the rest of the team felt.

Great teams take time to answer three questions on purpose:
1️⃣ What decisions do we make as a team?
2️⃣ What process will we use to make them?
3️⃣ How will we evaluate them so we can learn?

Answer those three, and your output immediately improves.

If you're not sure how your team actually decides, book a conversation and let's map your three questions together.

08/31/2026

For a lot of guys, who you are is what you do, at least in the earning years.

Then work starts to feel like less of a focus, you look around, and you're smack dab in the middle of what they call the friendship recession.

Here's how it happens, and it's rarely dramatic.

The quarterly meetup to talk about goals falls away.

The running group fades.

The brewery closes.

Then pickleball, and too many injuries.

None of it is a falling out, just calendars that slowly stopped overlapping.

The numbers back it up.

Only about 1 in 5 men get their emotional support from friends, and that weight often lands on a spouse instead.

We were mostly taught to be self-sufficient, not connected, so reaching out first was never really the script we were handed.

But connection after a certain age stops being automatic, and it becomes a choice.

The friends you want are usually one message away, and it rebuilds the moment someone goes first.

Who have you been meaning to reach out to, and what has been stopping you? Share your thoughts in the comments below 👇

At the VP level, people look to you to break ties and make the strategic calls.But today's challenges are nuanced, and s...
08/28/2026

At the VP level, people look to you to break ties and make the strategic calls.

But today's challenges are nuanced, and sometimes it helps to slow the game down and consider if two things can be right.

I asked two co-leaders, how might you move forward assuming you're both right?

Don't find a watered-down compromise; let the strategy bring out the best of both.

The next time you catch yourself thinking either/or, what would change if you held both? Share your thoughts in the comments below 👇

08/27/2026

"I've heard the phrase before we spend much of our lives trying to get back to who we were before the world told us who we would be. And I very much feel like I'm more me than ever before. And at the same time that I'm like an evolved version of myself, but I'm very true to who I am.”

Ken's perspective shifted completely through our nine-month engagement.

He went from feeling isolated and inauthentic to becoming a grounded leader, a center of peace with balanced energy.

Who he is hasn't profoundly changed, but who he can be in any given moment is more open-ended.

He never would have considered picking some fights before, but now he can go there if he needs to.

He left our engagement with tools to continue pushing and evaluating, not a finish line.

This is the journey back to who you were before the world told you who to be.

For a lot of guys, who you are is what you do, at least in the earning years.But as work fades as a focus, many of us la...
08/26/2026

For a lot of guys, who you are is what you do, at least in the earning years.

But as work fades as a focus, many of us land in what they call the friendship recession.

The share of men with at least six close friends fell from 55% in 1990 to 27% in 2021.

Only 20% of men get their emotional support from friends, and that load often shifts to spouses.

When was the last time you called a friend just to say you needed them? Share your thoughts in the comments below 👇

08/25/2026

When the inner critic shows up, here are three practices I use to combat it.

1-Go back to the data and look at what's actually around me, because the story in my head is rarely true.

2-Create a hero's rebuttal, a set script that answers the critic, like "I'm the guy who runs marathons not because they're easy, but because they're hard."

3-Name the voice so you can work with it.

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