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There’s no doubt that my plans when starting college were a bit unformed. My favorite classes in high school were French (four years) and German (one year), so it made sense to me that I would study languages in college. I had no real understanding of what I might do with these languages I was…

Working in complex organizations brings many challenges. So many different interactions with so many different people. It can sometimes be difficult to navigate through the combinations of various personalities, organizational needs, and daily tasks to be done. Conversely, working with others to accomplish a major project or lead a team can be so much fun if…

Years ago I found a poem about gardening that spoke to me about the work of education. Overtime, I’ve come to see it as speaking as much to the work of leadership as to education and gardening. The poem is “The Seven of Pentacles” by Marge Piercy. I wrote about it as the poetry of…

How many calendars do you have? Of course there’s the one on your computer, the one that keeps track of all the meetings and tasks you need to plan for in a day or a week or longer. If you’re like me, you also have a paper calendar where you keep notes and odds and ends…

In 2020 as the world shut down for the COVID pandemic, I started walking around the neighborhood for physical and mental health. By August, I was walking about three miles a day. That progress was interrupted when I rolled my foot off an uneven part of the sidewalk and broke my ankle. By the time…

University administrators don’t usually take sabbaticals. I’ve heard of a few who negotiate some kind of break. Usually they are very senior people with long histories at their campuses. For faculty, the idea is to provide time to focus on research and writing. Since administrators aren’t expected to be doing research and writing, then there’s…

Last week I shared some thoughts on the topic of knowing when to leave a position. Today, I’m going to share thoughts about an equally difficult aspect of leaving, how to leave. Depending on the specific circumstances, leaving with grace can be surprisingly challenging. Even in the best circumstances, excitement about the new opportunity shared too…

“How do you know when it’s time to leave a job?” isn’t the most frequent question I’ve been asked over the years, but it does show up frequently. Sometimes the person asking is trying to figure out what to do next in their career. Sometimes, their employment situation has changed and they are wondering whether it…

One of my favorite workshops to teach is the one on Creative Leadership. In that workshop, and in others, I try to set up experiences to help participants expand their ideas of what creativity is and explore their own creativity. I have found through personal experience and listening to others that for most of us…

Last week I told you about my birthday cakes and fireworks, but over time, my birthday parties have changed. Now my favorite thing for a birthday party is to go to the bookstore and wander the bookshelves and see what I can find. So Friday, we went on a Bookstore Crawl. It’s not as mellifluous as…