I help small to mid-size nonprofit leadership teams navigate strategic changes intentionally, effectively, and confidently through coaching engagements. My mission is to weave together the fabric of people for a stronger community.
Share
Do you need to be right? August from B3
Published about 1 year ago • 2 min read
August 2025
Hi Reader,
I blinked, and suddenly it's harvest season!
I'm picking blueberries and strawberries from my garden, an occasional cucumber - but my usual apricot bounty was tiny.
So I'm adjusting my expectations and trying to figure out what jams I will produce this year. What about rosemary jam?
In the coming months, I'll be (hopefully) sharing more about my strategy heading into the next fiscal year.
I'm curious to hear what's emerging for you! What is your harvest bringing you – surprises like mine?
Team Coaching
Do you need to be right?
A couple of years ago, driving back from a Lake Tahoe winter getaway, we couldn't get the windshield wipers to work - no fluid.
My husband, a native of Syracuse, NY, and survivor of many more winters than me, was certain that the wipers were broken.
I, on the other hand, lived through a fair number of winters. But as a Texas native, I was convinced the fluid was frozen.
At the crux of our disagreement: does windshield wiper fluid freeze?
We needed to see the road and be safe, so we set aside needing to be right and agreed on two things: 1) when it was too unsafe to drive; and 2) when we would assess who won $1 -- because that was the value of being right in this matter.
I share this story with teams all the time when we talk about how important it is to be RIGHT.
Often, we forget that where we are going together is the crucial thing. "Rightness" is pretty limiting and distracting from the journey.
Can you see through the windshield?
Coaching Supervision
What if I'm too empathetic for the team lead?
A unique attribute of team coaching is that the team lead is often in the room with the team being coached - and often is the sponsor for the coaching. Instinctively, we might develop empathy for the team lead, which can cloud our ability to stand for the whole team.
I hear this challenge in team coaching supervision regularly.
The root of it can be all over the map - from collusion to counter-transference, or even feeling enlisted in a desperation to "fix" the team.
Supervision is that crucial reflective practice to open up the awareness of what's pulling or pushing you, and begin to move you toward reconnection.
Read this!
Coaching, Antiracism, and the Backlash Against DEI Choice: the magazine of professional coaching (v23 n2)
The feature article in this volume talks about strategies for navigating attacks on implicit bias, staying rooted in cultural humility, and building psychological safety in service of trust. These tools aren't just useful for coaches, they are useful for ALL of us in a time when we are surrounded by attacks on so many of us.
Coaching isn't a neutral profession - we are agents of change and culture.
On a personal note
Miles of smiles
Another annual tradition? Late July in Ocean City, MD, with my in-laws.
I travel with my trusty road bike and carve out at least two mornings to travel the long, flat, sometimes empty backroads away from the beaches. I see trees, corn, lakes, dunes, and the Atlantic. And I smile.
Hit reply and let me know how you're doing – I'm happy to listen and support.
I help small to mid-size nonprofit leadership teams navigate strategic changes intentionally, effectively, and confidently through coaching engagements. My mission is to weave together the fabric of people for a stronger community.
July 2026 Hi Reader, I just got back from three days alone at the coast — my once-a-year retreat to think hard about the year ahead. I went in expecting to plan. What I actually did was notice how much had shifted under me while I was busy keeping things moving. I kept circling around the word coherence. Not "am I doing enough," but "do the pieces still hold together?" It turns out that's the question I keep hearing from the people I work with, too — both the teams and the coaches. Which is...
June 2026 Hi Reader, Since we last talked, I've been to San Diego, Riverside, Puerto Vallarta, and all over the Bay Area. I love the whirlwind — the variety, the people, the energy of being in many rooms at once. And I'm also craving something rooted. Ground under my feet. A morning that doesn't start in a different zip code. I'm sitting with both of those things right now, without trying to resolve them. Which, it turns out, feels very on-theme for this month. For Team Leaders The burnout...
May 2026 Hi Reader, A few weeks ago, I floated over the pyramids at Teotihuacan in a hot air balloon. Years ago, in a meditative visioning exercise, I drew hot air balloons — something about lift, about rising high enough to see the whole shape of something. And there I was, finally in one. But what stayed with me wasn't just the view. It was what I learned afterward at the National Museum in Mexico City. The Teotihuacan we walked through isn't ancient ruins. The city burned around 750 CE....
