Development412

05/18/2026

Last week, I wrapped up 10 months of working with a county-wide group of leaders, and this week, I wrapped up 10 months of working with female entrepreneurs in my Elevate program. In both cases, I offered the encouragement and invitation for the participants to think forward ... a few months, many months, a year ... and to anticipate how they would continue growing as leaders and business owners.

This same invitation is open to all of us: Who, where, and how do you want to be; and what's one small commitment you're willing to make to head in that direction?

05/15/2026

We wrapped up the 25-26 Seward County Chamber & Development Partnership Leadership Academy this past week and the culminating event has me reflecting back on the industry partners visits and skill growth throughout the year. We were fortunate to spend time learning the valuable history and trajectory of Seward’s Cattle Bank. Beyond learning about the banking industry, participants got to also hear from a business that shows every day just what it means to be actively engaged in the community.

05/11/2026

When it comes to engagement, we have options.

Being actively engaged doesn't always mean "driving." Sometimes it means being a really great passenger - helping the driver watch for deer, adjusting the temperature and radio so the driver can focus on driving. Helping to navigate directions. Passing the snack to the people in the back, passively engaged in the trip with their own books, activities, earbuds, and appetites.

A coaching client recently made this shift from passive to active, even without being the "driver" in his work circle. What did passive look like?

Present. Taking notes. Listening. Accepting what others were doing relative to his work.

And the shift to active?

Saying: Tell me more about that.

Asking: What led you to that thought?

Connecting: I'm thinking about when we talked about XYZ at our last meeting ...

Following up: Based on what I heard, here's the next step.

What might active look like for you compared to passive this week?

04/24/2026

Earlier this spring, I was blessed to join 18 students for several weeks in one of the best spaces in our state and among the best people in our state.

I can’t walk into the Engler space and not feel an idea being born. I can’t enter that space and not feel hope for the future. I can’t be in that space and not consider the depth of impact that its people have had on communities across the entire state of Nebraska and our economy. Products (brilliant entrepreneurs) of that program are making ripples and waves in the smallest, most rural communities and I could write for a long time about what I believe that does for our state health and quality of life.

Over six weeks, the young people I worked with dove in vulnerably with me on a concept I call Authentic Intelligence - the other AI. They’ll take a bit more knowledge and understanding about themselves wherever they go - as business owners, employees, family members, volunteers, and more. And they’ll change their communities for the better because they’ll be engaged with their full selves, authentically.

04/24/2026

Yesterday, I got to join many business owners and representatives in our community to celebrate those of us reflecting on five-year increments. How humbling it is to be a baby business (5 years this past February) among those who are in second or third generations of ownership. I’m grateful for the ecosystem of businesses in Seward and look forward to the next five years with both anticipation and gratitude.

Thank you to each and every one of my coaching clients, team and strategic development clients, and curriculum clients for letting me do what I love daily.

04/13/2026

Whether I'm coaching individuals, groups, or teams, I'm asking ... "What keeps you from putting this on a shelf?"

If we spent the time attending the conference/training, reading the book, engaging in the coaching session, our lives deserve us spending the time to reflect. Sometimes that reflection means making a plan for using what we gained and sometimes it means being intentional about keeping the insight circling through our mind so we can grab it for use at the "right" time.

04/02/2026

One of my favorite parts of parenting has been watching my girls love reading books and creating stories. I know this isn't every parent's experience or every child's experience, and I'm grateful my children have each found genres they enjoy reading. On this day, I hope the child(ren) in your life find a book they love to read or have read to them. And if you need a recommendation, I'll give a shameless plug for Phillip's Fiddling Fingers - written by a local author in our town and illustrated in full by one of the readers I'm fortunate enough to call my daughter :-).

Check it out here: http://bit.ly/4uSa54X

04/01/2026

03/30/2026

This Holy Week has me saying, "Holy moly" as I look at my to-do list. It's a big week and I'm committed to being present as much as possible in each of the tasks I do to serve my clients and my family.

Today and every day, may we find ways to BE in the midst of the DOing.

03/26/2026

I’m teaching an intro to education course as an adjunct faculty for high school juniors and seniors who plan to pursue education degrees. The course starts with a light discovery of their top five StrengthsFinder themes. To bolster their connection to that content, I continue drawing through lines between that content and the content in the other units. I also have the students teach 5-minute micro reviews on our course content and this week - about 10 weeks after we first introduced the StrengthsFinder content - our micro review teacher led her peers in applying it to this scenario she created.

Letting students try on the career in the hallways of the high school is so rewarding and revealing of their potential. And this crew will enter the profession through the lens of self-awareness.

03/23/2026

When working with an organization recently that recognized its need to find something to "give up," we came to a project that one person really wanted to continue. For everyone else, that project was an easy cut that would allow a reallocation of human resources. While the group decided to eliminate that project for themselves, the choice also came with the option to see if another group would be interested in taking it on.

Elimination, automation, and delegation can work in tandem. And when they occur, it's often tempting to fill the hole with something new. The encouragement today is to identify something (big or small) to eliminate, automate, or delegate, AND to also sit in the quiet for a beat before filling that time.