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The Bento Coach

I'm a leadership & executive coach, facilitator, and entrepreneur who loves to talk about workplace culture, personal development, mental health & wellness. Subscribe and join over 1000+ newsletter readers every month!

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tbc News - Finding your center in times of conflict

2026 | Issue #2 On balance & boundaries Hello Reader, Does a geopolitical event unfolding thousands of miles away affect your daily life? At first glance, your coffee tastes the same, your morning routine remains intact, and you continue to obsess over the subtext of the latest communication in your life. But if you look closer, the ripples are everywhere. Perhaps it’s the sudden anxiety in a friend’s voice who is "over there", the increased cost of goods, the new layer of security checks at...

Graphic with stopwatches to communicate the idea of a RESET

2026 | Issue #1 New year, new look! Hello Reader, Welcome to the first issue of tbc news in 2026. As you can see, we have a new look. We've been cooking up a lot of exciting plans for this year and you will be hearing all about them in this newsletter, and on our social media channels. Some quick updates: The Resources page on our website has been reorganized. We debated long and hard putting our templates behind a paywall. In the AI-forward world that we live in data scraping and copyright...

Hello Reader, There are stories that we tell ourselves. Narratives that we believe in, about ourselves, about the people around us. It can start so innocuously - a job well done, a pat on the back, and suddenly you are MR. DEPENDABLE, or MS. RADICAL. And once you get that label, it sticks. Sometimes we stay with these narratives for far too long because of how they make us feel. They remind us of a time when we felt a sense of accomplishment, and were lauded for it. But labels can be...

Hello Reader, Have you ever seen a spider web up close? There is an intricate design that is spun around a simple core framework. Spider silk is delicate and soft, but stronger than steel. There are different types of silk - some silk is used for its strength, for structural integrity, while another type of silk is used for its stickiness and flexibility, to trap the prey in the web. A spider web is nature’s study in contradiction, versatility and resilience. What can spider webs teach us...

Hello Reader, Did you hear about the CEO who snatched a signed merch item out of a child’s hand? Or about the cryptocurrency firm CEO who embezzled his customers’ money and used it as a private bank account to buy luxury homes and cars? Did you hear about the CEO who had an inappropriate relationship with his subordinate and then lied about it? Lied about it and then was fired for it? At this point you are probably asking, which one? There are so many. What is it about authority figures in...

Quote by Stanley Milgram, "The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority."

Hello Reader, Stanley Milgram was a Yale professor who conducted the Obedience to Authority experiments in the 1960s. Simply put, he ran a series of experiments in which the participants were supposed to help learners memorize a series of words. Every incorrect answer earned the learner electric shocks of increasing intensity. The supposed objective of the experiment was to understand the impact of punishment on a person's ability to learn. What the participants, or the teachers did not know...

Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, "To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor."

Hello Reader, There are moments in our lives when everything feels uncertain. Everything that we thought we knew about ourselves, about the world and how it works, gets thrown out of the window and we are forced to confront a reality that feels unreal and overwhelming. It could be a sudden career change, a major life event in your life or in the lives of your friends & family, a personal health scare - take your pick. Regardless of the trigger, unexpected and unwanted change happens to all of...

Quote by Ravi Shastri, "Fearless means trusting your instincts and clarity of thought. Once you have made up your mind, don't be scared of what if."

Hello Reader, We’re midway through the year. Feels like a good moment to take a breath, check in, and ask the quiet questions. What are we building here? How does it feel? For me, this reflection hits a little deeper. I’m going through a transition of my own right now, and it’s made me think more deliberately about how culture lives not just in teams, but in people. This piece is a look back, a look in, and a look ahead. We’ve talked a lot this year. Commitment Collaboration Intent vs action...

Quote about listening by Alan Alda - "Listening is being able to be changed by the other person."

Hello Reader, Have you ever played Chinese whispers? Called "Telephone" in some parts of the world, the game is played by whispering a message from one participant to the next, and on an on, until the last person in the line, who then says the message out loud. Some participants genuinely mishear the message while others sabotage on purpose. The original message comes out as some garbled nonsense at the other end of the queue. The results are often hilarious. Real life can mirror that game...

Quote about appreciation by Margaret Cousins

Hello Reader, What's the big deal about appreciation? Do we really have to say thank you or great work to people for simply doing their job? What happened to intrinsic motivation? What about taking pride in your work? What about being grateful for the opportunity? Appreciation is like the adult version of the participation trophy that kids get in school. If everyone gets it, it kinda loses its meaning, right? Wrong! Turns out most people aren’t looking for praise. They simply want to be...