If you're an executive who...

- Lies awake at 3 AM second-guessing today's decisions
- Feels trapped in an endless cycle of reactive firefighting
- Knows you're capable of more but can't find the breathing room
- Watches your family time disappear into your inbox

...then you know the dirty secret of executive leadership:
The higher you climb, the lonelier and more overwhelming it gets.

Here's what nobody tells you:
➡️The solution isn't working harder or longer.
➡️It's not another productivity hack or morning routine.
➡️And it's definitely not "just delegating more."

The real breakthrough comes when you transform how you think.

My clients typically experience:
→ Making decisions in minutes that used to take days
→ Getting 10+ hours back each week 
→ Watching their teams step up and take ownership
→ Finally having energy for family at day's end
→ Feeling like themselves again

The transformation happens through my RAFT® Executive System:
• Custom-built from leading 80+ people before age 30
• Refined through an MBA while raising a newborn
• Proven with executives across industries

But don't take my word for it:

"I solved significant time management challenges in our very first session" - Senior Executive
"My relationship with my son improved significantly" - CEO

"I shifted from constant self-doubt to total clarity and ownership" - Director

Here's the truth:
You don't need to sacrifice your life for your leadership.
You don't need to choose between impact and balance.
You just need to think differently.

I only work with 10 executives per quarter who are:
✓ Done with the endless hustle
✓ Ready for genuine transformation
✓ Willing to think differently

Is this you?

Then you have two choices:

1. Keep pushing through, hoping things will magically get better
2. Book a Transformation Strategy Call and start your breakthrough

The next quarter's spots are filling up.
Which choice will you make?

Book your call: https://app.paperbell.com/checkout/packages/95704

Turns out being ill is very effective at cancelling your end-of-year momentum.

Which is why I've been a bit quiet for some time.

The end of 2025 didn’t go out with a bang for me.

It went out with antibiotics, cancelled plans, and that special kind of illness where re-watching Strictly episodes becomes genuinely compelling (don't worry I managed to control myself).

I’d imagined a strong finish. A reflective pause.

Maybe even one of those gleeful “what a year” moments.

Instead, my body made the call before my brain did.

And honestly, thank goodness.

Being ill has a way of stripping the nonsense out of things don't you think?

You just can’t overthink strategy when you’re deciding whether standing up is a good idea.

You don’t future-plan when your only real goal is soup and silence.

So no dramatic conclusions about 2025 were to be had for me at the end of Dec.

No big emotional wrap-up.

Just a quiet realisation that I’d been running on competence and momentum for longer than I thought.

When I eventually resurfaced, something had shifted.

Less urgency.
Less tolerance for noise.

More interest and thought about what actually deserves my energy.

I’m not “trusting the year ahead” in a mystical sense.

I am trusting my ability to notice sooner when something’s off.

To stop earlier.

To choose differently without needing a crisis to justify it.

2026 doesn’t feel shiny.

But it does feel solid. Like on a deeper self-trust level.

And after the year we've all just had, I’ll take that every time.

Instead of a word for the year, I’m curious about this:

What are you deliberately leaving behind in 2026?

A habit. A pressure. A story you keep dragging forward out of loyalty rather than usefulness.

I’ll share mine in the comments.

Terez Rijkenberg - Executive Coach

Executive coach helping C-suite leaders reclaim 10+ hours a week for strategic priorities without sacrificing work-life balance | Trusted by executives from FTSE 100 companies | DM me to book a FREE strategy session

I didn’t think an end-of-year event could teach me anything new about business.

Then All3 Consultancy invited me to theirs.

About 60 people in the room.

Only 17 were employees.

The rest?

Customers and partners.

That ratio alone made me sit up a bit straighter. Because most companies say “relationships matter” while hosting events that are basically internal applause with canapés.

This wasn’t that.

What really got me though was a tiny pattern that kept repeating.

Every time I spoke to an All3-er, I asked the same question:

“What’s your secret sauce?”

And they all said the same thing.

“We focus on the customer.”

At first I thought, sure. Everyone says that.

But then I watched how they moved through the room.

They weren’t trying to look impressive.
They weren’t collecting business cards like Pokémon.
They weren’t doing that thing where you talk at someone while scanning the room for someone more important.

They were properly with people.

Curious. Specific. Remembering details. Making introductions that weren’t transactional.

And it reminded me of something leaders forget when the pressure is on:
“Customer focus” isn’t a just value.

It’s a calendar decision.

It shows up in:
 – who you invite into the room
 – what you ask when you meet them
 – whether your team talks about customers like humans, or like metrics
 – how quickly you fix the annoying thing you know is annoying

Simple tip you can use today:
In your next leadership meeting, ask one question before anything else:
“What did we do this week that genuinely made life easier for a customer?”
Then shut up and listen to the quality of the answers.

If it’s vague, defensive, or overly internal… you’ve got your data.

Thank you for the invite All3 Consultancy Jordan Fletcher Sri Ramakrishnan - great to see how a remarkable culture literally drives success

🎇 🎉 ..."it's a new dawn, it's a new day.....and a new year". 🎉 🎇

The stunning highlights of our All3 Consultancy awards night beautifully captured by Wayne Sargent at Refresh Video Productions. Thanks again to all of our wonderful guests that were involved and one final well done to our 2025 winners. Richard Seagers, Stephen Burke, Alex Murphy, Manognya N Reddy, Guna Reddy, Laura Banks, Kayne Copland, Chris Neal, Chris Cornes. 

Happy new year to all of us here at All3 Consultancy, here's to another exciting one!

Nearly forgot to mention.......... 

🎵 ".........and we're feeeeeeling gooood" 🎵 

#All3
#Pedigree
#Integrity
#Personality

Everyone loves to tell you to “stop overthinking”.

Usually said by someone who hasn’t had a complex thought since 2007.

Here’s the reframe I give leaders:

Stop calling it overthinking.
Call it thinking.

Your brain is doing what it was built to do: scan for risk, spot gaps, and keep you safe, especially when the stakes are high.

The problem isn’t that you’re thinking.

The problem is you’re leaving your brain’s questions unanswered… so it keeps asking them. Louder.

Here’s the simplest tool I use with execs to stop the loop fast:

1. Write the questions down

2. Answer them like a capable leader
 
“What if it goes wrong?”
Ok. Then what will you do? List 3 actions.

Even “I’ll handle it when I get there, and I know I can” counts.

Your brain calms down when it sees a plan, even a basic one.

You just need enough evidence you’re not ignoring the risk.

Question for you:
What are you overthinking? And what questions does your brain want you to answer about it?

Repost if you enjoyed this video ♻️

I used to think my career would “reward” me if I kept doing the right things.

It won’t. And it doesn’t.

Your career (and your current title) doesn’t owe you a thing.

The moment I properly accepted that, I stopped negotiating with other people’s expectations and started building a life on my terms.

Here are 5 moves I see C-suite leaders make when they stop waiting for permission:

1/ Build a big vision (not a respectable one)

Most execs have a vision that’s basically a polished version of what they think they should want. C-suite leaders don't - they go big.

The shift is brutal and freeing: What do you want when nobody’s watching?
---

2/ Work backwards into inevitability

A vision without leading indicators is just a nice thought you revisit in Q4.

Work backwards into the behaviours, habits, decisions, and weekly reps that make the outcome unavoidable.
---

3/ Start the identity shift now

Don’t wait for the promotion, the exit, the board seat, the freedom year.

Act like the person who already has it, then let your calendar prove it.
---

4/ Set the terms and boundaries you actually want

Not the ones you think you’re allowed to have.

Not the watered-down version that avoids disappointing anyone.

The real ones. The ones that protect your energy and your edge.
---

5/ Become the person who can handle the obstacles

You don’t need a smoother path. You need a stronger internal operator.

The job is to build the mindset, emotional range, and decision discipline that makes setbacks boring.
---

Trust me when I tell you this:

Most senior leaders aren’t stuck because they lack strategy.

They’re stuck because they’re still quietly asking their career for permission.

If you want, comment “TERMS” and I’ll share the exact prompts I use with execs to define their vision, reverse-engineer the leading indicators, and set boundaries without blowing up relationships.

(P.S. Save this for the next time your calendar starts living someone else’s life ♻️)

Your C-Level Executive Coach,

Terez

What a 6-month study revealed about self-control and leadership

Most leaders don’t lack self-control.
They lack capacity.

We’ve been advertised to death on these:

Get more disciplined.
Push harder.
Say “no” more.
Wake up earlier.
Have better self-control.

And then, apparently, life gets easier.

But a recent study published in Psychological and Personality Science shared some results with a very different message.

They tracked people over time and found this:

👉 Feeling good first predicted better self-control later.
👉 Self-control did not predict better wellbeing.

In other words:
Wellbeing isn’t the reward for discipline.
It’s the condition that makes discipline possible.

This matters for senior leaders.

Because most of the people I coach aren’t lazy, unfocused, or lacking willpower.

They’re mentally full. Emotionally stretched. Constantly “on”.

When your internal bandwidth is shot, no productivity hack will save you.

Here’s what I see all the time.

A leader says:
“I just need to be more disciplined.”

What they actually mean is:
“I’m exhausted and trying to function like I’m not.”

So here’s a simple shift you can use this week.

Stop asking:
“How do I get more self-control?”

Start asking:
“What would improve my wellbeing baseline by 5%?”

It doesn’t need to be a holiday.
Or a total life reset.
Just 5%.

One meeting you don’t need to attend.
One boundary you’ve been avoiding.
One decision you keep postponing that’s quietly draining you.

Example:

A client kept failing at their “no emails after 8pm” rule.
We didn’t add another rule.

We removed back-to-back meetings in the morning.

Sleep improved slightly.
Stress dropped a notch.

Two weeks later, the evening email habit disappeared on its own.

No willpower required.

Self-control isn’t a character trait.

It’s a downstream effect of how supported your personal wellbeing system is.

If pushing harder worked, it would’ve worked by now.

Your coach,

Terez

PS: I say this as someone who once tried to out-discipline burnout. It did not end well.

I am grateful for the welcome as an INSO. Innovation. Solved. Ambassador. 

I’ve seen firsthand how a focus on clarity and simple frameworks unlocks momentum for teams tackling messy, ambiguous, complex challenges. 

INSO’s work in problem solving, alignment, and innovation is deeply practical and they're also brilliant at bringing a community together to support all angles of the changing field of business growth and success.

I'm excited to add my expertise in leadership, adaptability, and innovation with this great group of people.

Well done to the founders for the momentum and conversations they've created in just a short space of time: Dan Wood Alex Bezuidenhout

Onward to an innovative 2026!

We're incredibly proud to welcome Terez Rijkenberg - Executive Coach as our newest INSO Ambassador! 

Terez was one of the first people to follow and support INSO. Her guidance in the early days really gave us real clarity and confidence as we launched INSO into the world. Having Terez as an Ambassador feels like a natural evolution of that relationship.

Terez was also an early guest on The Good Ideas Club Podcast 🎙️ and is still one of our top performing episodes! “𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲”

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/d9tERu-C
Apple: https://lnkd.in/d55JBtik

Terez coaches senior executives from FTSE 100 and high-growth organisations - highly capable leaders quietly tired of carrying it all alone. She unlocks their next level of clarity, confidence, and impact, helping reclaim time for strategy, think sharply under pressure, and to lead with calm authority.
 
Creator of the RAFT® Formula and Radical Adaptability framework, Terez blends behavioural psychology, neuroscience, strategy, and real leadership - leveraging mindset for rapid human change.

Featured in Raconteur, Women on Business, The Executive Magazine, and Thrive Global; she keynotes on adaptability, confidence, communication, and balance.

Terez amplifies INSO's mission: visionary teams and leaders innovating smarter. 

Please welcome Terez and be sure to connect with her to see more! 👋 

#INSOAmbassador #InnovationSolved #leadership #adaptability #TheGoodIdeasClub #community #network

The 60/40 golden calendar ratio that protects decision quality for executives:

Most executives i meet are proud of their full calendars.

They don’t usually say it outright, but you can feel it.

Back-to-back meetings. No gaps. Diary looks like a game of Tetris on hard mode.

And when I ask how that’s going, the answers tend to fall into two camps.

Some light up.
“I’m slammed, but it’s good. Busy is good. It means things are moving.”
(Translation: please don’t take this busyness away from me, it’s holding my identity together.)

Others just sigh.
Long pause. Slight eye twitch.
“I get through the day, but I’m not sure I’m actually thinking anymore.”

Both groups usually believe the same thing:
A full calendar equals high performance.

It doesn’t.

The 70/30 rule gets shared a lot.
70% booked, 30% free.
Better than chaos. Better than burnout.

But for executives, it’s still too tight.

Because leadership doesn’t break when you run out of time.

It breaks when you run out of mental space!!

Once your diary creeps past about 70–75%, a few things quietly start happening:

→ You make faster decisions, but they’re thinner.
→ Follow-ups get sloppy.
→ Everything feels urgent, so nothing gets proper attention.
→ You stay busy and your leverage slowly leaks away.

On the other end, when the calendar’s too empty, that doesn’t work either.

→ You lose rhythm.
→ You find yourself micro-managing.
→ You start involving yourself in things your team could easily handle.

So what actually works?

For most senior leaders, the sweet spot is closer to 60/40.

60% committed.
40% deliberately uncommitted.

Not “free time”.
Not scrolling time.

Thinking time. Strategy time. Catch-up time. Space to notice patterns. Space to make one decision that removes ten others.

That 40% is where:

- You spot the thing that’s been off for weeks
- You follow through properly instead of mentally noting it and moving on
- You respond rather than react
- Your nervous system stays calm enough to be useful

And you don't need to be precious with your diary.

You just need to understand that judgement degrades long before effort does.

If your calendar looks impressive but your thinking feels thin, you’re already over capacity.

If your calendar feels slightly uncomfortable (because of the gaps) but your thinking feels sharp, you’re probably doing it right.

The real question isn’t:
“How full is my diary?”

It’s:
“How much future work did my thinking remove today?”

That’s executive productivity.

PS: Boards don’t pay for full calendars. They pay for clear judgement under pressure.

Before we get into the actual point of this blog, let me share something that would horrify a certain type of leader.

Four clients messaged me this week saying some version of: “I’m so sorry, can we move our session? Something’s come up.”

Most coaches/leaders would feel a flicker of irritation. Maybe even a quiet, righteous sigh. I smiled.

Not because I enjoy disruption. I like plans. I like knowing what’s happening and when. I am not floating through life trusting the universe to sort my diary out.

I smiled because moments like this are where decisiveness is trained.

Not for them. For me.

- Can I stay grounded when the structure dissolves?
- Can I keep direction without gripping tighter?
- Can I decide calmly when the variables change?

This is where a lot of leaders get confused...

Before we get into the actual point of this blog, let me share something that would horrify a certain type of leader. Four clients messaged me this we

Open article: How to stay decisive in unpredictable conditions by Terez Rijkenberg - Executive Coach • 4 min read

How to stay decisive in unpredictable conditions

Surprising moves my c-level clients are making to 4x their impact in 2026:

First, can we be honest...

“Impact” at C-level is not “do more”. It’s “choose better”.

We’re in a season of contradiction:

You’re expected to be productive AND strategic.

Those are very different modes of thinking.

But they can co-exist if you plan for them.

What cannot co-exist is strategic leadership and a nervous system that’s permanently in calendar prison.

If you’re frazzled:

- you default to short-term wins
- you overgive to compensate
- you become the bottleneck 

And overgiving doesn’t just drain you.

It drains your people too.

They start waiting for you to rescue, approve, soften, fix. 

Their ownership quietly collapses.

One simple tip to use today:

Do a 15-minute “strategy walk” daily.

No podcasts. No calls. No doom-scrolling.

Just you and one question:
“What’s the highest-leverage problem I’m avoiding because it’s uncomfortable?”

Example:
Instead of spending another day “being helpful” in back-to-back meetings, you use the walk to decide:

1. which decision you’re delaying
2. what you will stop attending
3. who owns what without your involvement

Then you come back and make the call in 10 minutes.

It might be time to get ruthless about the systems and support you need to deliver 4x value this year.

If you want help building that operating system (without becoming a robot), message me about RAFT Executive Coaching where I teach the 5 Pillars of Exceptional C-Level Leadership.


Your coach,
Terez

PS: If your calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by someone who hates you, start with the walk.

PPS: If the future of your strategic thinking time needs someone to look you dead in the face and ask, “So what are you avoiding?”, hello, let's talk.

📌 Save for the day your calendar eats your strategy
 💬 Comment “WALK” if you already do a daily strategy walk (or if you know you should)
 ♻️ Repost for the leader who’s booked solid and wondering why nothing is moving

7 "lies" I still keep hearing about executive influence:

1. If it’s obvious to you, it’s obvious to them
2. You need to be liked to be influential
3. More meetings equals more control
4. Delegation means losing standards
5. Influence comes from your title
6. Data alone convinces people
7. Being the loudest voice wins

7 truths you need to hear again:

1. Data plus meaning wins hearts and budgets
2. Influence comes from clarity + trust
3. Repeat the message until it lands
4. Fewer meetings, better decisions
5. The calmest voice often leads
6. Delegate outcomes, not tasks
7. Respect beats popularity

What did I miss?

Bonus: Use the “3-sentence influence brief” before any high-stakes conversation: 
1) Decision needed 
2) Why it matters now 
3) What you want from them (yes/no AND by when).

📌 Save for your next presentation 
💬 Comment if you’re already doing one of these
♻️ Repost if someone else needs this

P.S. If your influence strategy is “hope they get it”… I have news.

Bad leadership advice keeping executives time-poor, that I refuse to stay quiet about any more:

As a C-suite coach that wants to make you unstoppable…

If you were my client, this is what I’d tell you to stop doing immediately (especially the stuff you’ve been told is “important”):

As a C-suite coach that wants to make you unstoppable… If you were my client, this is what I’d tell you to stop doing immediately (especially the stuf

Open article: Bad leadership advice keeping leaders time-poor (that I refuse to stay quiet about anymore) by Terez Rijkenberg - Executive Coach • 3 min read

Bad leadership advice keeping leaders time-poor (that I refuse to stay quiet about anymore)

When it comes to change and adaptability in change, what do leaders most often try to fix last but should fix first?

taplio

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