Are you one of the countless people trying to figure out how to keep meeting your customers’ or clients’ needs during this truly uncertain time?

When we are clearly in changing, uncertain, and ambiguous times it can be really challenging to know how to continue to meet (and even exceed) our customers' expectations. This can be especially true if we can’t see them face-to-face. That is unless we know how to exceed their expectations no matter what’s going on in the world.

As I read people’s posts in my feeds from all different sides of this virus, I’m reminded of what my dad’s grandpa would tell him when he remarked about an issue “there’s more to the story, Tommy. There’s always more to the story.” So, as I sit here months into lockdown, I’m wishing I could be sitting next to you on your front steps. And if I could, here’s what I would tell you with misty eyes.

This dream took an immense amount of discipline, focus, and sacrifice. And let me just say that life does not stop when you set an ambitious goal like getting your Doctorate. I was two months pregnant with my first son when I started my Doctorate and had my second son one month after completing my doctoral work. And in the middle of it all my dad unexpectedly passed away. Not to mention countless other moments in between.

What are your go-to practices for making sure you engage your audience every time you present, teach, preach, or lead a meeting online? Here’s the secret I’ve learned to presenting to people online: it doesn’t have the same impact as it doesn’t when you are talking to them in person without making some essential tweaks.

While nothing can replace in-person gatherings and community (I can’t be the only one that jumps up and down when someone says they’re going to stop by and talk to us through our dining room window), engaged communities can absolutely be created and fostered virtually. And even lead meeting IRL (in real life), which we know will happen again some day. Here are 4 ways you can create an engaged community beyond using Zoom calls and meetings.

Most of us are really thankful for teleconferencing software that lets us see and talk to people “face-to-face” in real time. But let’s face it, there’s a start and end to our Zoom conversations and an exclusivity about them that while appropriate at times, definitely leaves us craving more community engagement.

It’s officially a crazy time. For most of us, this is the most uncertain our jobs, finances, and schedules have ever been in our lifetime. Almost everyone is working from home and for a lot of us, this is the first time we’re working from home AND needing to care for our kid(s) at the same time.

When my husband Jake and I both need to stay home to take care of our son AND still work, we’ve found some ways that enable both of us to provide great care for our kiddo AND get all the essentials done for work that we both need to. It just takes some planning, intentionality, and flexibility on our parts. But we’ve done it numerous times and made it work successfully for our whole family.

Let me ask you a personal question: how involved are you in your team’s decision making? Does your team’s success hinge on you being involved in every single detail and decision? Now, be completely honest. IF your team’s success is more dependent on you than them, this tells me a few things about you and your team members.

Let me be brutally honest with you, if your team’s success hinges on you being involved in every single detail and decision, it’s simply not a team effort. You’re not working with and through your team; you’re simply using individuals on your team to do tasks that you don’t want to do. This doesn’t require trust, it doesn’t require creativity on the part of others, it doesn’t require a team.

When you work with people (ah-hem, most of us!), there are going to be times when you get hurt or offended by others. Either the people you lead, your peers, or those leading you are going to offend you. Even if you are easy going and it takes a lot to offend you, it will still happen. None of us is immune to this. When this happens, do you handle it in a productive way?

Before you and your team go ahead and start to implement the changes you want to make to realize your envisioned future, there are a few things Cummings and Worley (2015) stress are important to keep in mind for successful culture changes.

how do you use your influence to help your team get excited about making necessary changes? Here are 10 steps you can take to implement culture change through honoring the past and leading into the future!

As a leader, you know that not only is change inevitable, it’s also vital to the health and sustainability of your organization. Change is what enables you and your team to continue to meet and exceed people’s ever-changing needs and expectations. But if there’s anything I know about leadership it’s that implementing change can be one of the most challenging and resisted parts of leadership.

As a leader, you’re thrust up in front of others much more so than you are when you aren’t leading.  And if you’ve ever struggled with your body image, you know that this can be an uncomfortable aspect of leadership.  Based on the number of conversations I have with both male and female leaders about this issue, it is way more common than you might imagine.  I can think of leaders of every body type imaginable from thin to short to tall to full-figured that have struggled with the lie that “size matters.” So, when your body image issues are flaring up and getting in the way of your leading confidently and effectively, let me encourage you with a few tips to keep in mind 'cause the reality is that there's no one size fits all body type for leading confidently and effectively.

When you stop and think about Jesus’ birth, I mean really think about it, it’s crazy that God came to the world this way. Jesus was in Mary’s womb for 9 months (really 10 months, let’s be honest, every week counts when you’re pregnant). And while surely absolutely adorable as every newborn is (by design no doubt), Jesus was also utterly dependent on everyone around Him to not just stay alive but to thrive. Jesus had the humblest of beginnings.

With the business of the holiday season and all the yummy holiday treats and extravagant meals with family and friends, staying healthy can be really hard. And if we let them, the holidays can take a toll on our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. And while many of us become uber health-conscious come January 1 (I’ve never seen lap pools as busy as they are the first week of January…and it stops there lol), it can be so taxing on our bodies to find themselves in seasons of unhealth, especially when we want to be the best version of ourselves as we spend extra time with family and friends.

I was listening to the radio in my car the other day and a song came on about being a “nobody” and I honestly had to change stations. The singer was singing it like it was their identity and I just couldn’t listen to it.