Leaders often struggle with where to focus their efforts and how to give each area of their life the appropriate amount of energy and attention. Recently, I sat down with Brenda Ramirez, an attorney and leader in the community and the legal profession to discuss how...
Let's Grow Together Blog
Blogs to help you grow with purpose.
Self-awareness Creates Conscious Choice for Leaders
Are leaders born or made? I believe we are all born with innate strengths and styles. I also believe that leaders are made when they consciously put those innate strengths and styles to good use and mitigate weakness by surrounding themselves with people that bring...
Leadership Starts With Relating Well
Often, I begin an executive coaching engagement or leadership development training with this series of questions: When you are operating at your highest and best as a leader, what are you doing? Who are you being? What is the impact? These questions are designed to...
Calm During Crisis: Susan Copeland On Staying Grounded and Connected
The pandemic has highlighted the role schools play in providing stability for many Polk County families. Recently, I met with Susan Copeland who has served as the Executive Director of the Polk Education Foundation (PEF) since 2005, to talk about leading through...
Everything that Happens Begins with Intention
In 2010, while reading The Power of Purpose, by Richard Leider, I set a powerful intention for myself by composing my own personal purpose statement. Be in the world every day on purpose, in relationships, in work, and in nature in ways that are true to who I am, and...
How to Stress Less at Work
Stress happens. It is inevitable – especially when competing priorities, differing personality styles, role confusion, constant change, and the pressure to juggle multiple tasks often defines our workplace environment. Many surveys and studies confirm that job related...
How to Cultivate and Sustain a Healthy Organizational Culture
“Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game–—it is the game. In the end, an organization is no more than the collective capacity of its people to create value” ~ Lou Gerstner, former chairman of IBM Culture matters. Culture is recognized as such a significant factor in...
Multitasking: 5 Reasons Why It Doesn’t Work
“You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once.” ~ Gary Keller, author of The One Thing Take a moment to think about all of the things you are doing right now. Obviously, the first thing on the list is reading this article, but...
3 Conditions Necessary for Effective Communication
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~ George Bernard Shaw The root cause of most organizational and relationship issues lies in ineffective communication. When one person misunderstands or misinterprets the words or...
Feeling Overwhelmed? Get Still.
It is that time of year again. The holidays are upon us which means our calendars are overfilled and our to-do lists are overflowing. As a leader, the start of Q4 means that you are likely evaluating the annual performance of your team, focused on addressing any unmet...
Top Blogs
How Designing Alliances Will Cultivate Cohesive Teams
Every leader has been involved in spearheading a strategic initiative that has gotten off track. When this has happened to you, were you able to identify the cause of the setback and quickly get your team back on track? Perhaps there was some misalignment about...
How To Create Meaningful Connection
If you’ve ever struggled as a leader with how to meaningfully connect with your team members while staying focused on achieving your organization's goals, you’re not alone. The generative tension that exists between demonstrating care and concern for others and...
Kim Long – Seeking First to Understand
Kim Long as the Executive Director for Polk Vision, leads a county-wide collective impact organization dedicated to aligning resources across Polk County. Prior to her current position, Kim’s varied career spans the corporate, non-profit, and private sectors and she...