Part 5 in the Sovereign Leadership Series There comes a moment in every leader’s journey when they stop asking, “Do I belong here?” and start declaring: “This is the room I choose.“ That shift changes everything. Earlier this year, I was invited to join a group of some of
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Part 4 in the Sovereign Leadership Series Approval is a hell of a drug. But sovereign leadership isn’t fueled by applause; it’s grounded in alignment. When your compass points to your core values, not other people’s opinions, you lead from power, not permission. Many leaders are conditioned to
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Part 3 in the Sovereign Leadership Series Let’s stop pretending that abandoning ourselves is leadership. That over-functioning is noble. That saying yes to everything makes us stronger and a better leader. It doesn’t. It makes us disappear. I once worked in an organization that looked good on
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Part 2 in the Sovereign Leadership Series There was a season in my life where I was doing it all – and I mean all. I was responsible for raising not only my own salary, but also that of 100 employees. I had to ensure annual funds
Read more →This is the first of a 5-part series exploring the shift from caretaking leadership to self-led or sovereign leadership. I was recently talking to an extraordinary leader who is at a crossroads. It was a powerful, tender moment when this leader shared the life she built no
Read more →Let’s be clear – I’m not actually talking about D.C. I’m talking about the tired, rigid, soul-sucking systems we’ve inherited inside our institutions. You know the ones: the bureaucratic B.S., the scarcity-thinking silos, the lip-service values slapped on a wall but ignored in every meeting. The kind
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Just because a system has been around forever doesn’t mean it works. Hell, some of the most deeply entrenched systems in the nonprofit sector are the very ones quietly suffocating the people within them. And yet we keep duct-taping them together, praying the next grant cycle or
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Let’s be real: If your vision, mission, and values live on a shelf, in a binder, a brochure, or buried in the last strategic plan, you don’t have them. You have words. You have intentions. Maybe even a few bullet points you trot out during board meetings. But you don’t have a
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Burnout: The Price of Never Saying No. Here’s the truth they don’t always teach you in the nonprofit hustle (or in any high-stakes, high-purpose work): Saying yes to everything means you’re saying no to yourself.
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Let’s be real – our sector is under pressure. Nonprofits are navigating burnout, funding uncertainty, managing political volatility, and dealing with deep systemic fractures, all while being expected to do more with less. Traditional philanthropy is shifting, public dollars are in flux, and old models of charity
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