The WildHER Way
Reflections on Leadership, Life, and Everything In Between
Connection Is Not a Distraction From the Work. It Is Part of the Work.
If helping a colleague is appreciated but falling behind is penalized, people have a difficult choice to make. We cannot keep leaving that choice to employees and then be surprised when they protect their own work.
You Don't Get to Decide Whether You're Trustworthy
You tell people your door is always open. But what happens when they walk through it with something you don’t want to hear? You might leave the conversation believing you cleared things up, while they leave wondering whether they’ll speak up again. The gap between how we see our leadership and how others experience it can be wider than we realize.
Trust Doesn't Mean Agreement
Leaders sometimes try to build trust at the same moment they need people to accept a difficult decision. By then, it may be too late. Trust is usually built much earlier, through the ordinary ways a leader shows up when no major decision is on the table.
When the "Small" Things Keep Happening
The person observing an interaction sees one moment, while the person experiencing it may be carrying every similar moment that came before it. What appears minor from the outside can feel very different when it is part of a pattern.
Your Culture Is Teaching People How to Behave
An organization can say it values teamwork while consistently making excuses for a perceived high performer who operates almost entirely as an individual contributor. Their results may look good on paper, but the rest of the team learns something from the exceptions made for them.
The Cost of Friction
The work continues, so it can seem like the team has learned to manage the situation when, in reality, people may have learned to work around it. Working around an unresolved issue takes effort, and even when it doesn’t bring the work to a complete stop, it makes the work heavier.
Ownership Requires More Than an Assignment
I recently found language for something I have believed for a long time…if accountability only travels down the org chart, it isn't accountability. It's authority. Authority gives you the right to make certain decisions. Leadership determines whether people trust you with that right, and accountability requires you to answer for how you use it.
Is Your Team Moving Too Slowly—or in Too Many Directions?
If everything feels equally urgent, people end up making these choices on their own, and they might not choose what their leaders would.
The Unwritten Rules of Work: Doing your job well is only part of the story.
When you understand the expectations of a professional environment, you stop worrying so much about whether you're 'doing it right' and start focusing on the value you bring to the table.
The Strength We Don’t Always Name
Resilience is not about pushing through at any cost. It is about staying connected to yourself as you move through something genuinely hard.