Growing up I learned that part of being a “good girl” was to be super nice, overly agreeable and say "yes" when I really meant "no." I never learned how to say “no” in fear of hurting someone’s feelings. These passive, autopilot moments of saying what the other person wanted to hear became more important than speaking my truth. Flash forward to today through several years of introspection, personal development work and gaining clarity on my core values; I’ve learned that spea

There seems to be a big difference between the way you behave at work on Monday compared to your behavior when you attended happy hour with your colleagues the Friday before. At happy hour, you found yourself telling shocking autobiographical stories, cracking jokes, and venting about work policies that seem frivolous. Would you behave similarly once you return to work on Monday morning? It’s easy to say that being your casual, non-work self in your work environment would lik

If you are in the business of leadership, then inevitably, you are in the business of change. To be blunt, leading change is messy. Can you recall the last time you attempted to make a change in your life, one with high stakes, one that really mattered to you? Even if you were successful on the other side, this memory probably triggers a montage of intense internal struggles. The next, and most important question then, is what are you aware of right now as you recall this exp

I’m sure most of you have heard the saying “your mother is your first teacher.” As a leadership scholar, I’d like to extend this thought and propose: “Your mother is your first leader.” Without knowing it, in our house my mother was running the Bertha Sims Rankins Leadership Academy and my siblings and I were her captive pupils. When my father died, my mother was left to raise his three children who were in diapers, and a 10 year old from her first marriage. As a widow, Mom

I was 25 when I began the Leadership Studies doctoral program at the University of San Diego. I was fresh from my master’s program and eager to embark on the path toward achieving my then career aspiration of university professor. To my surprise, the biggest challenge I experienced in the program came not from coursework or research or papers, but from the process of letting go of leadership habits that no longer served me—that prevented me from expanding my raw skills, engag