When I sat down to watch the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” documentary with my daughter (mostly as an excuse for a little quality time since we’d seen the concert together in Minneapolis), I didn’t expect to walk away thinking about leadership and teams.

Early in the documentary, Taylor introduced ...

There have been moments throughout my career when I didn’t feel particularly valued for my work.

Not because the work wasn’t acknowledged, because it often was.

But the way that acknowledgment showed up didn’t quite connect. 

Sometimes recognition came publicly when what I really needed was clari...

I've been rethinking a conversation I had with someone I’m very close to.

They shared that they’ve been thinking about me every day. They’ve been hoping I was okay, especially with everything happening right now in Minnesota, where I live, and they knew the last several weeks had been heavy in a va...

Lately, I’ve been returning to a simple reminder - one I’ve been offering to my team, my clients, and quietly practicing myself:

Have grace.
With yourself.
And with others.

It sounds straightforward. It’s anything but.

There is a lot happening right now. In our communities. In our workplaces. In pe...

“I apologize.” Two small words that carry a lasting and immeasurable impact.

Earlier this week, I needed to say them myself. (Ugh!)

I was moving fast - too fast - with too much to do, and too many plates spinning trying to do too many things at once.

In trying to be efficient, I created confusion...

My approach to organizing and decluttering is not about dramatic overhauls.

It is quiet and steady, focused on simplifying upfront and building sustainable habits so I am not recreating the same problems a few weeks or months later.

It recently felt like a natural moment to do that thoughtfully (I...

Ever found yourself elbows deep (pun intended) in something that felt overwhelming?

I had committed to baking cookies for a fundraiser at our church. A group of volunteers (myself included) is headed back to El Salvador for a service trip this summer, and one of our biggest fundraisers is selling h...

Our EsquireWell team encountered an unexpected roadblock (sharing a little bit of “behind the curtain” here).

Nothing was objectively “wrong,” but everything felt very urgent. Projects, emails, client meetings, scheduling programs and projects for the year, decisions - all marked as top priority. A...

At the NALP Professional Development Institute (PDI) conference in Washington DC, I found myself in that familiar conference headspace - energized by the conversations and learning (big geek here), a little overstimulated by the pace and all the wonderful people I wanted to talk to (also closet intr...

For many, holidays usually come and go - full of family, memories, good food, and the kind of joy that only connection brings.

But then comes the aftermath: the clean-up, the next holiday plans, the messages, the emails, the planning and logistics, and the quiet (or, sometimes loud) pressure to kee...

 Our family’s adoption stories span continents, cultures, unexpected challenges, and a whole lot of joy and gratitude. The unique way our family formed has also been one of my greatest teachers in leadership, particularly around humility, empathy, and honoring diverse perspectives and experiences.

Our college senior, Allison, spent two weeks in Tanzania with my husband, Ryan, and I swear every day I’d wake up to another photo that stopped me in my tracks.

But this one? This one takes the cake!

A little backstory: a small team from our church, along with engineering students from the Univers...