Most leaders pride themselves on their resilience. Being tough and persistent enough to overcome our career challenges is how we got where we are, after all. However, there is such a thing as being too resilient for your own…
You know that one project on your list? You know, the one down at the bottom, that's been gathering dust for longer than you care to admit, that you just can't seem to get started on. Today I'll show you how--and it's as eas…
Firing a team member--if you're a leader you've either already done it, or will do it some day. But is there a way to terminate someone and still be a kind leader? Of course there is--in fact, firing someone can be one of th…
The Busier your life is as an educational leader, the more important it is to make sure you take breaks. And today I'll share some simple tactics to make it easier to step away and recharge. Not sure how to take on on this w…
For obvious reasons, I talk a lot about the benefits of kind leadership and the ways implementing it can heal yourself, your organization, and the community you serve. But I've been pondering a slightly different question—wh…
If you're listening to this, you have at some point been hurt (intentionally nor not) by a leader. And unless you are a tremendously wise and lucky leader, at some point you have almost certainly hurt someone you lead. So to…
Today is the final episode in my little introduction to the Kind Leadership Guild , my monthly leadership development group for leaders who want to build a better world without burning out. Juanita James accepted my invitati…
Back in late May, as I prepared to facilitate the first meeting of the Kind Leadership Guild , I was kind of nervous. How would I go about setting the values and rules of the Kind Leadership Guild, so that the group experie…
Over the summer I and an intrepid few long-time followers of the Kind Leadership Challenge have been beta testing the new improved version of the Kind Leadership Guild! The Guild is a support group and community of practice …
I’ve been hitting reload a lot on my podcast host’s website this morning. Right when I got up, after my workout, before I logged in at the office, and during my coffee break. Then…it happened. With 14 hours to spare, July 20…
There's a pivot point that occurs any time an organization grows beyond a certain scale, be that the size of the staff, the budget, or the community served. It’s a shift that I call feeding the beast, where doing cool things…
One of the roughest moments of my early days as a library dean was the realization that to be the best leader I could be and the leader my team needed me to be, I couldn't be a librarian anymore--or at least I couldn't prima…
All Work and No Play can make a leader go a bit stale. I've been struggling with this a bit lately myself. But then I picked up a good fiction book for the first time in I can't remember how long, and whipped through it in a…
The great thing about summer for many library and educational leaders is that we finally have some time to think. That’s also the worst thing about Summer. We finally have some time to think about all the struggles that come…
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like every leadership influencer and researcher I follow is talking about how we all need to know our “why” and our organization’s “why”. However, one’s personal and professional “why” can ch…
Recently a question popped up in a social media group i follow that stopped me scrolling cold. The anonymous poster asked: How do we handle a library director who has shiny object syndrome and keeps proposing new projects be…
I've always been a little dubious about the abundance mindset thing. Yes, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. But that doesn't mean you have to accomplish everything. And it definitely doesn't mean that …
I’ve been thinking a lot about routines this week, because changes have made my routines a bit wacky. We moved house a little over a week ago. and we’re still figuring out things like the best drawer for the rolling pins and…
Today I'm discussing one of the top vote-getters in my recent listener poll: Workplace Drama! Specifically, I'll explore toxic workplace drama, healthy workplace conflict, and how a kind leader can guide team members--and th…
This is a weird episode for me, as I try to keep things pretty evergreen on this show. However, a recent university closure hit a little close to home for me, and got me thinking about the precarious balance of mission and s…
There’s a bit of conventional wisdom that floats around, especially in mission-driven fields, that the best leaders are the reluctant ones. The ones who never sought power, but accepted the mantle when it was thrust on them,…
So back in Episode 60, I mentioned the bonkers life I was expecting during April and May, between working on TWO different universities’ re-accreditations, moving house, multiple hiring processes, the end of the school and f…
When you are a leader, what you think does not matter. Well, OK, it’s not the ONLY thing that matters. You do need to have a vision and goals of your own. But if you don’t have a critical mass of team members and stakeholder…
Once upon a time I was the person who would check my email one last time before bed, or come in early on short notice to prep for an event. These days my work is a lot less urgent and a lot less visible to our patrons and fa…