Tag: leadership

September 29, 2026

Strong (not rigid) Leadership

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Can you be a strong leader and leave the rigid mindset behind?

Can you be a strong leader and simultaneously leave the rigid mindset behind? Do strength and rigidity have to coexist? I believe that with practice and mindful reflection, you can achieve strong leadership without rigidity. To me, rigidity is the shadow side of a strong leader. If you lean too much into your power, you may become set in your behaviors and mindset. 

This is something I had to work on early on in my leadership journey. As a new educator and then as a new manager, I found comfort in systems and structures, especially those that seemed to be effective. Some of my top Clifton strengths are in the executing domain and, if overused, can lead to a rigid and overly structured mindset and behaviors. When these strengths are over-leveraged, I am less open to alternative options and opinions.

September 3, 2026

What are your Metrics for Success?

You Get To Decide What Works

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

What are your metrics for success? What measuring tape do you use to determine whether you are effective or successful? You get to decide. In fact, you will be more effective if you decide for yourself rather than only letting others decide for you. I used to think other people decided my level of success for me. I waited for external feedback to know if I was doing well at a job or at school. I wondered if people noticed when I worked hard or accomplished a task well and if they would acknowledge my work. When I moved to running a small business on my own, it became harder to set metrics for success and know if I was doing well. I started to realize that I could decide what the metric was and give myself feedback.

Finding the Right Metric

If the metrics you are looking at aren’t useful in optimizing your strategy, stop looking at them.

August 13, 2026

Sit in the Uncertainty

What does it feel like to sit in uncertainty?

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What does it feel like to sit in uncertainty? Normally, when I get that feeling in my mind and body, I do everything to push it away, avoid it, or fix it. I do not know what is going to happen next. My muscles feel tense, and my body temp rises. It is my reflex to quickly fix or move away from what is happening because I don’t want to feel this way. This is not often an effective strategy. When we rush to fix or avoid as leaders, we can miss opportunities, perspectives, and so much more. What would it look like and feel like to sit in that uncertainty and not try to avoid it? What would that accomplish?

Strategies for Sitting in Uncertainty:

  • Check the facts: This is an effective strategy with its roots in Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
July 22, 2026

Re-Aim Your Strengths

Aim your strengths so they work for you!

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

I can often leverage my strengths to do well in the workplace, yet when things go wrong, I sometimes realize that I have overleveraged my strengths and gone to the shadow side. One of my top 5 strengths in the CliftonStrengths Assessment is Developer. The Developer theme helps me to manage direct reports effectively and invest in their growth. I can see where people have strong skills that will help the team and where they need to keep growing. The Developer’s strength also made me an effective educator in the classroom. When I did not pay attention to my shadow side, ‘Developer’ led me to make mistakes in my career when I leaned in too hard to the muscle I built in this area. At times, I overinvested in people who did not seem as invested in themselves.

June 10, 2026

Intentional Reflection

Leaders rarely make time for reflection.

Photo by Sage Friedman on Unsplash

Leaders rarely make time for intentional reflection. It feels like an impossibility to reflect as a leader. Busyness takes over, or at least that’s what we tell ourselves! Completing tasks and work agendas gets in the way of alone time to reflect. 

Reflection is an essential skill for intentional improvement as a leader. If we don’t take time to reflect, we set goals without intention, or we do not set goals at all. Leaders end up playing whack-a-mole as problems arise in their daily work. If we set goals without intention and reflection, they are less likely to be effective and meaningful goals. Much of the essential work is in the reflection before the goal setting. Slotting the time into your calendar is one of the first steps. This is a habit that takes time and practice and needs cultivation and attention.

May 25, 2026

Equanimity is a Path to Maintaining Calm

Equanimity can lead to balance.

Photo by Jeppe H. Jensen on Unsplash

What is Equanimity?

Equanimity is defined as an evenness of mind, especially under stress, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. As a leader, this is an essential strategic leadership quality. As a parent, you are a leader in the home, and it’s not only an essential skill to practice but also a way to model, observe, connect with your child, and practice empathy. 

Equanimity does not mean being aloof or detached. It means you still have feelings and compassion, and you are a steady and balanced presence that can see options and can support the people around you. When I can practice equanimity, I can observe what’s happening around me. I can see options and choices. I am not hijacked by my feelings. My frontal lobe has not been taken over by the amygdala. 

How Does Equanimity Impact Parenting?

Cindy Goldrich states the importance of staying calm and connected as a parent in her books and workshops with families and educators.

April 9, 2026

Sustainable Leadership: Ego, Trust, Humility

How can leaders lead in a sustainable way?

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How can leaders lead sustainably? When leaders sit in despair and urgency, thinking they are the only person who can help, does that help? Is it sustainable to lead this way? Does it lead to burnout?

Recently, I watched an episode of Season 2 of The Pitt, a show that focuses on emergency room events in a hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I found myself struggling with Dr. Robby’s character this season. It all hit home in one conversation he had with Nurse Dana. Dr. Robby won’t leave for his sabbatical, and he tells Nurse Dana he is convinced the entire hospital and all the people he supervises will fall apart in his absence. Wow! I have experienced many leaders like this, and I have felt this way at some point or another. To me, this can be a dangerous place for leadership to live.

January 7, 2026

Enabling or Supporting Leadership

What does enabling versus supporting look like in the workplace as a leader?

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Last month, I wrote about enabling and supporting as a parent. This month, I expand on the topic to the workplace. What does enabling versus supporting look like in the workplace as a leader?

Let’s start with a definition of each. Cindy Goldrich defines enabling as doing things for others with no plan for their future independence. Supporting is helping someone with a plan to help them build a specific skill towards autonomy. Leaders, how does this apply to your direct reports? 

Supportive Leadership style is a leadership style in which the leader supports their subordinates with tools and resources until they have the skills to work autonomously.

Indeed Career Guide

Enabling in the Workplace

In the workplace, if a direct report came to me with an issue and I solved the problem for them, when would they learn to develop their own problem-solving and decision-making skills?

November 18, 2025

Poetry and Plumbing

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Essential Elements of an Effective Leader: The Vision and the Execution

Effective leadership requires both poetry and plumbing. According to The Hidden Brain Podcast with host Shankar Vedantan, who speaks to Stanford University’s Huggy Rao about leadership, to discuss how leadership needs both ‘poetry’ and ‘plumbing’ to be successful. Rao states that the poetry in leadership is the vision, and the plumbing is essentially the execution that brings the vision to life.

The Balance: Vision and Execution

In my leadership journey, I have learned that these two elements, poetry and plumbing, vision and execution, must be joined together to be led effectively. In the episode, Rao and Vedantam discuss the infamous Fyre Festival as an example of failed leadership. It was a highly publicized, visionary event that completely collapsed into disaster due to a lack of execution and attention to detail. There was plenty of poetry and vision and a sheer lack of plumbing and execution.

November 3, 2025

Stillness Leads to Opportunities

I see choices and possibilities when I slow down.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez ???????? on Unsplash

I have learned that there is a strong connection between having a stillness practice and the ability to see opportunities and choices before me. When I was new to leadership and to parenting, I felt that I had to have all the answers and fix all the problems. I was always on the move, putting out fires at work and at home. I only stopped when I slept. I would fall into a deep sleep each night as my head hit the pillow and awake each morning to my alarm as thinking I just went to bed. Those of you of a certain age may remember the phrase for the Dunkin’ Donut commercials that the weary donut baker said each dark morning as he started baking day after day: “It’s time to make the donuts.”