Dear courageous leaders, Joan had a plan. And she was about to spend a year of her team's trust to carry it out. She came to a coaching session a few weeks ago ready. Sharp, prepared, principled. Exactly the leader you want building strong systems and holding a high bar. She was going to walk into her next team meeting and move the work to a more rigorous level of analysis. She was right that the team needed to get there. The destination was correct. The instinct was sound. And it was going...
2 days ago • 5 min read
Dear Whole Leader, A few of you have written to me in the last week or two with a version of the same question. Paula, what does it actually mean to lead well in a moment like this one? The pace is faster than it has ever been. The pressure is real. AI is changing the floor under our feet faster than we can read about it. What is the work that actually matters now? It is a fair question. I have been sitting with it myself. I want to give you my honest answer, and then I want to walk you into...
18 days ago • 6 min read
Moving On in an Accelerating World Dear courageous leaders, I want to name something I see often, and almost never hear talked about directly. Leaders who have done the work. Who have sat with hard questions, named their patterns, clarified what matters, and built genuine insight about themselves and their leadership. And who still, somehow, cannot move. Not because they lack information. Not because they lack commitment. But because the goals they are carrying feel like weight rather than...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Dear courageous leaders, I have been sitting with something lately. Not a crisis. Not a dramatic failure. Something quieter and, in some ways, harder to name. I am watching leaders I deeply respect lose their footing. Not because they lack skill or commitment. Not because they do not care. But because the pressure has been sustained long enough that something inside has started to drift. The urgency is real. The stakes are real. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, how I am leading gets...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Courageous Leaders, I am watching something unfold in real time across executive teams right now. The urgency is real.The opportunity is real.The pressure is real. AI is accelerating timelines. Funding realities are tightening. Policy shifts ripple into programs overnight. Boards want movement. Staff are fatigued. Communities still need what they need. Leaders in mission driven organizations are being asked to do more, faster, with deep responsibility to people. And inside that urgency,...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Courageous Leaders, Lately, I have been noticing a pattern in many of the leaders I work with. It is not loud or dramatic. In fact, it often looks like composure. Leaders are holding it together.Staying professional.Keeping things moving. And underneath, something is being avoided. Susan David names three common ways we do this. She calls them shadow avoidance patterns. They are deeply human responses to discomfort, especially under pressure. Some leaders brood. They replay a...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Dear courageous leaders, Lately, I’ve been noticing how often leaders describe feeling stuck not because they lack options, but because everything feels urgent, heavy, and on repeat. The same conversations.The same patterns.The same internal monologue running on repeat. This is happening at the same time technology is accelerating everything around us. AI promises speed, efficiency, and answers; the promises are delivered before we’ve even finished asking the question. And while these tools...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Courageous Leader, As we move closer to Christmas, I find myself returning to a quieter question than usual. Not what needs to be done, solved, or resolved, but how am I showing up. The Advent season invites us into a different rhythm. One that values nearness over noise and presence over performance. It asks us to pay attention to how we are being with ourselves and with one another, especially when the pressure is real. This season has been asking me to loosen my grip on performance...
5 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Courageous Leader, Advent is the season of waiting, but not in the passive sense. It is the season of becoming. This week, I’ve been reflecting on a framework that has shaped my life again and again, often without my permission: Order → Disorder → Reorder. Richard Rohr calls this the universal pattern of transformation. Its wisdom reverberates across every major spiritual tradition. It’s also the rhythm of adult development and the reality of leadership. Here’s how he describes it: Order...
6 months ago • 4 min read