There’s a moment that happens during almost every values conversation.   It doesn’t always happen right away. I usually first experience curiosity and people lean in. They want to hear what’s being proposed.   But eventually someone asks the question that’s sitting quietly in the room. Sometimes they ask it out loud, sometimes they say it with their behavior, or sometimes they just say it with a look.   The question is simple:  Will these values even make a difference?   Beca

If you’ve never spent time with parks and recreation professionals from New Jersey, let me tell you, they are warm, sharp, deeply committed to their communities, and very, very fun. I was able to experience all of this  during a recent trip to the New Jersey Recreation and Parks Association state conference to serve as their keynote speaker.   Also, I think it’s important to note, I met three Dinas, a Lenny, and a Ronnie before lunch… which felt like peak Jersey in the best

I was walking through the office of one of my favorite teams recently - the kind of team you just feel  good being around. You know the energy. Light. Easy. Alive. And then I saw it. On one of the desks, someone had stacked another coworker’s supplies into a tiny, ridiculous tower. Kleenex box. Keys. Mouse. Carefully balanced like those rock stacks people make on hiking trails. Naturally, I took a picture (see below). Not because it was “fun.” Not because it was playful. But

On New Year’s Eve Day, I did what every party-loving human dreams of doing…I knocked out some of my annual doctor’s appointments.   Three appointments. Three  new  doctors.   And by the end of the day, I found myself asking a question I wasn’t quite prepared for: When did all my doctors get so young?   Because just yesterday, my doctors were always older than me. Calm voices. Confident presence. That steady, “I’ve got you” energy.   And now?   They’re not only younger than me

Let’s talk about being tired.   Not the I stayed up too late watching ridiculously funny puppy reels. I mean the kind of tired that lives somewhere between your shoulder blades and your soul.   The kind where you’re running on caffeine, adrenaline, muscle memory, and the faint hope that tomorrow’s calendar will magically clear itself.   Leadership tired hits different. Because when you’re tired, you don’t get to just… stop. You still have humans. You still have decisions. You

When I landed in Ireland, there was no one waiting at baggage claim, no itinerary taped to my suitcase, no voice asking, “What’s next?”  There was just me with my carry-on suitcase, not one other person I knew in the country, a cell phone that only worked if I was on Wi-Fi, and the quiet thrill of realizing that every decision from here on out was mine.   Solo travel has a way of stripping things down to the truth. There’s no one to consult, no one to blame, no one to keep yo

Results are often celebrated for their clarity. They line up neat, measurable targets: increase participation, secure funding, or launch a new program. These are  results  - the tangible, trackable markers of progress.   But here’s a leadership tip:  results are only half the story.   When we stop at results, we miss the bigger picture - the  outcomes . Outcomes describe the change, the impact, the ripple effect of those results. They answer the critical question:  So what? P

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we show up when we introduce something new, whether it’s a shift in direction, a brand-new...