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Emotional Intelligence
Yoke

How to Reframe Negative Thoughts: An NLP Tool for Leaders

In June 2023, I walked onto a keynote stage on crutches, wearing a moonboot and hiding tears from the drive over. What I told that audience turned my worst professional moment into my most memorable opening line. In this post I share two NLP reframing techniques you can use to shift a negative thought before you walk into your next high-stakes meeting.
That’s 63 words, which sits comfortably in the excerpt sweet spot. If your theme cuts excerpts at 55 words, here’s a tighter version:
In June 2023, I delivered a keynote on crutches, in a moonboot, after crying the whole drive there. What I said on that stage turned pain into my best opening line. Here are two NLP reframing techniques to shift a negative thought before your next high-stakes meeting.

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15 July 2026
Staff Engagement
Yoke

Meaning, Leadership, and the Courage to Address the Elephant in the Room

Some of the most important growth happens in the places we tend to avoid. Drawing on the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold, this conversation explores how fractured moments in life and work are not signs of failure. They are invitations to build wisdom and strength. When leaders find the courage to address the elephant in the room, teams begin to rebuild trust and say what has been left unsaid. Real leadership makes room for others to shine. The fractured places are not the end of the story. They are often where the most meaningful transformation begins.

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9 July 2026
Cultures that scale with Margaret Hirsch and Yoke van Dam
Leadership
Yoke

Great leaders build great people: lessons from my conversation with Margaret Hirsch

Five years after her last visit to Leadership Lyrics, Margaret Hirsch joined me again, this time from Florida, where she and Allan now live after handing Hirsch’s over to their son Richard. We spoke about the deliberate choices behind the Hirsch’s culture: what Disney University taught them about structure, why every morning starts with training and singing, why they hired for attitude ahead of skill, and how they prepared the next generation to lead. Margaret leaves every founder with one practical question: what happens in your business by design, and what happens by accident?

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9 July 2026
Leadership
Yoke

The Price Nobody Talks About

We talk about the cost of change constantly. The disruption, the discomfort, the uncertainty of stepping away from what you know. We treat it like

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10 June 2026
Yoke van Dam podcast episode with Gaurav Rampal on Leadership Lyrics
Emotional Intelligence
Yoke

Why your best people quit and don’t tell you why

Most leaders who’ve lost good people will tell you they never saw it coming.
But Gaurav Rampal, founder of The Horseman Way™ and the only Indian to co-own a Kentucky Derby winner, has spent over 20 years watching horses tell a different story.
Horses don’t respond to titles, authority or positional power. They respond to who you actually are, your presence, your anxiety, your need for control, before you’ve opened your mouth. And what they reveal about a leader in minutes is often what that leader’s team has been experiencing for years.
In this Leadership Lyrics conversation, Yoke van Dam and Gaurav explore the real reasons good people disengage and leave, why psychological safety starts with the leader and not the policy, what it actually costs an organisation when control replaces trust, and why the most important work a leader can do has nothing to do with strategy.
Including a Gallup finding that will make every MD stop and think: disengaged employees cost the global economy $8.8 trillion annually.
Gaurav’s closing advice for every leader:
“Spend time in stillness, silence and solitude. Your work of life should be to discover yourself because everything else is available on Google.” Watch the full episode here https://youtu.be/Ok-rbvFmkgU?si=2BxjzttMP8HVZ2Yv

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22 May 2026
Leadership
Yoke

When Performance Isn’t Enough: The Real ROI of a Team Culture Intervention

There’s a dangerous illusion that organisations sometimes fall into: confusing short-term results with sustainable success. Numbers look good on paper, so leadership assumes the team is fine.
But what happens when strong performance is masking a culture on the verge of collapse?
The real question isn’t whether a toxic culture will eventually impact performance — it will. The question is how much damage accumulates before someone decides to act.

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22 April 2026