Leadership Development as Personal Growth: Lifelong Learning Matters
Some journeys are about achievement. Others are about becoming. Starting the LIOS MS in Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development is a conscious step towards both for me: a chance to grow as a practitioner, deepen my self-awareness, and explore what it really means to lead with both head and heart. This program is designed to strengthen leadership skills, deepen self awareness, and prepare practitioners to guide real organizational change. This program will strengthen me on my path of leadership development and personal growth. Where I will share the knowledge I gain along the way.
May the Learning Never End: Starting the LIOS MS in Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development
Some journeys are about achievement. Others are about becoming. Starting the LIOS MS in Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development feels like both.
This program is more than a degree. I already have a MA in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University. The decision to enter this program is an intentional step toward growing as a leader, a practitioner, and a person. For me, leadership has always been about more than strategy or structure: it’s about showing up with authenticity, listening deeply, and guiding others through real change.
Why I Chose the LIOS MS in Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development
When I explored graduate programs in leadership and organizational development, LIOS stood out because it weaves together both the head and the heart of leadership. It’s not just about frameworks and theory. It’s about self-awareness, presence, and leading in a way that inspires transformation. While I value my previous studies, they were very academic, rhetorical, and theoretical.
I crave the applied, experiential knowledge that the LIOS MS in Leadership, Management, and Organizational Development program offers.
My Goals for This Program
As a practitioner: I will strengthen the skills that help me guide individuals, teams, and organizations through meaningful change.
As a person: I will deepen my self-awareness and practice authentic leadership that comes from within.
What This Journey Will Provide
I know this program will stretch me beyond my comfort zone. Growth rarely happens in comfortable, familiar territory. It requires challenge, reflection, and courage. That’s why I’m stepping into this experience with gratitude, curiosity, and excitement for what’s ahead and who I am becoming.
More than anything, I look forward to this journey expanding the way I listen, serve, and lead.
Looking Ahead
Starting this master’s program is just the beginning. I’ll be sharing reflections, lessons, and insights along the way, not just about leadership in organizations, but about leadership in life. We are ALL leaders in one capacity or another, even if it is just in leading ourselves or our families. If you’re interested in leadership development, personal growth, and the process of becoming who you were meant to be, join me on this journey.
Loving the Unlovable: Finding Compassion in a Divided World
We’re living in a time of deep division: in politics, workplaces, even families.
After a recent workshop, someone asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks:
“How can we apply love toward people we don’t agree with, especially those in power?”
The answer isn’t about excusing harm or avoiding conflict. It begins with something much closer to home: Learning to love the difficult parts of ourselves.
Because when love leads the way within, love also leads outward, into our leadership, our teams, and our communities.
After my recent Transforming Love & Power Workshop in Ajijic, Mexico a woman came to me with a question that so many of us quietly carry: “How can we apply love to people we don’t like or agree with, especially politicians or those who cause harm in the world?”
It’s a powerful question, and one that sits at the heart of love led leadership.
The First Step: Turning Inward
My answer to her was simple, though not always easy: we start with ourselves. We all carry shadows: the destructive, judgmental, or fearful parts of ourselves that we’d rather not see. When we deny them, we project them outward, seeing in others the very qualities we haven’t made peace with in ourselves. The more I learn to love the difficult parts of myself, the more compassion I naturally have for others. Loving the unlovable in the world begins with loving the unlovable in ourselves.
Why We Judge Others
When we feel triggered by another person, it’s usually not about them. It’s a mirror.
Their arrogance might reflect the part of us that’s afraid of being “too much.”
Their greed might echo the part of us that fears never having enough.
Their control might remind us of where we’ve surrendered our own power.
If we can pause and ask, “What is this reaction showing me about myself?” we open a doorway from judgment into self inquiry.
Extending Love Beyond Agreement
Loving someone doesn’t mean excusing their behavior or agreeing with their actions. It means holding the paradox:
I can oppose harmful systems and still see the humanity in those upholding them.
I can advocate fiercely for justice without letting hatred corrode my heart.
I can acknowledge the shadow without abandoning love.
This is what it means to lead from both love and power.
A Practice for Everyday Encounters
Next time you feel resistance toward someone, whether it’s a politician on the news or a colleague in your workplace, try this:
Pause and breathe. Notice where the reaction lives in your body.
Turn inward. Ask, “What part of me feels unseen, unhealed, or unloved right now?”
Offer compassion. Place a hand on your heart or belly. Whisper: “I see you. I love you.”
Extend outward. Imagine sending that same compassion to the other person, not to excuse, but to acknowledge their shared humanity.
Love as the Way Forward
The world doesn’t change by adding more judgment and division. It changes when we do the courageous work of loving ourselves fully, shadows and all, so we can extend authentic love outward. The invitation is this: before we try to love those we find “unlovable,” let’s begin by embracing the parts of ourselves we’ve long rejected. Because when love leads the way within, love also leads the way outward.
The Other Side of Being a Mirror
Being in relationship is often like looking into a mirror. The traits we admire, and the ones that trigger us, reflect something within ourselves. When we understand projection not as a flaw but as a guide, even our most uncomfortable reactions can become openings to healing, deeper self-awareness, and authentic growth.
In my last Writing I talked about how my presence can sometimes surface sore spots and buried tensions in others. That is one side of the mirror I hold.
The other: Ease. Flow. Being fully seen and completely accepted.
When people feel safe and seen they soften. They blossom. Walls come down. Minds spark. Hearts open. Creativity runs free.
I notice what is tense. I see what is hidden. And I know how to tend to it. I can read the room. I can feel when it is time to press forward. And I know when it is time to let the current take its own turn and carry us where it may.
When we work together, or walk closely in life, you might also find yourself feeling at ease. Alive. Relaxed.
That is no accident. Ease isn’t laziness- it’s alignment. Flow isn’t luck- it’s what happens when love and truth are both present.
I don’t just hold space for hard conversations. I hold space for moments when everything clicks. For when the right words arrive and the next steps feel obvious.
Both sides of the mirror matter. I am here for all of it.
The Gift of Being a Mirror: A Reflection on Triggers, Projection, and Growth
We don’t always choose to be mirrors, but some of us carry that gift.
For much of my life, I struggled with the way people reacted to me. I seemed to surface what was hidden: old wounds, buried pain, unspoken truths. Sometimes this brought gratitude, other times defensiveness or blame.
What I’ve learned is this: being a mirror isn’t about
There’s a unique and sometimes uncomfortable gift I’ve carried with me for as long as I can remember.
I have a way of surfacing what’s hidden.
Of drawing out people’s sore spots, buried pain, and unresolved truths - sometimes without even trying.
For a long time, I didn’t know what to make of this. It felt like a burden more than a blessing. I’d watch people react to me with intensity - sometimes gratitude, other times defensiveness or blame. I would wonder, What did I do? Why does this keep happening?
But over time, I’ve come to see it differently. Maybe it stems from my early environment-growing up around the teachings of Anne Wilson Schaef, with weekly process groups unfolding in my home. Maybe it’s something innate.
Either way, I’ve stopped seeing it as a flaw.
And I’ve started owning it as a gift.
I Am a Mirror
To be in relationship with me, whether as a friend, colleague, client, or partner, means you may see parts of yourself reflected back that you weren’t expecting.
This is not about judgment or control.
It’s about presence.
And the presence I carry often reveals what has been avoided, numbed, or tucked away.
That’s why to work with me, or to walk closely beside me, requires a genuine commitment to your own personal growth. Not perfection. Not polished self-improvement. But a willingness to pause, reflect, and own what’s yours when it arises.
Because if you’re not ready to meet yourself with compassion and curiosity, it’s easy to project what you’re feeling onto me.
To turn your discomfort into blame.
To make me the problem, rather than exploring what’s being stirred in you.
I say this with love:
If you’re not ready to grow, I may not feel good to be around.
And that’s okay.
Your Reaction Won’t Derail Me
Whether you embrace me or reject me, whether you feel seen or challenged, your reaction will not define me.
I’ve done too much work, walked through too many fires, and reclaimed too many pieces of myself to be thrown off course by someone else’s resistance to their own inner truth.
We’re all on different timelines.
And I trust the process - mine and yours.
Walking Forward in Love and Integrity
This isn’t an invitation for people to stay comfortable.
It’s a call for truth, tenderness, and transformation.
It’s for the ones who are ready to rise.
To break old cycles.
To see discomfort not as something to avoid, but as a portal to deeper healing and wholeness.
If you’re ready to walk that path, whether through one-on-one coaching, group facilitation, or simply in shared conversation - I’m here.
Not to fix you.
Not to change you.
But to walk beside you as you remember who you are beneath the layers.
I don’t claim to have all the answers.
But I do offer love, clarity, and an unwavering belief in your capacity to grow.
And that, I believe, is enough.
Love Leads the Way: Reimagining Leadership for a Better World
What if love was the most powerful tool a leader could wield?
In this post, I explore the heart of my graduate research: how love can serve as a catalyst for meaningful organizational and social change. Drawing on my academic background in Organizational Leadership and Human Communication, as well as lived experience in nonprofit and community leadership, I offer a people-centered perspective on leading with intention, connection, and care.
This piece is both a personal reflection and a call to reimagine leadership not as a role of control, but as a practice of courageous service. For anyone yearning to lead with more clarity, compassion, and purpose - his is for you.
There is a quiet power in love that often goes unrecognized in leadership. For me, love has always been a central guiding principle, not as sentiment. It is an active force grounded in responsibility, connection, and care. My personal and professional journey has consistently brought me back to this truth: love is not just compatible with leadership - it’s essential to it.
From my early experiences in Native ceremonies and transformational workshops to managing a bike shop at sixteen and earning a scholarship to the Authentic Leadership Conference, my path has always been relational, intuitive, and purpose driven. These formative moments taught me that leadership isn’t about status, it’s about service, truth-telling, and creating space for growth.
Love, as a leadership principle, offers a framework rooted in empathy, humility, courage, and accountability. It’s not abstract. It’s how we show up: in conflict, in service, and in relationship. Love, when practiced intentionally, has the power to transform systems, not just individuals.
Yet in many organizational spaces, love is dismissed as too emotional or irrelevant. I disagree. Love is a practical force for building trust, motivating teams, and inspiring innovation. It invites us to lead with vulnerability, to embrace imperfection, and to foster inclusive environments where people feel safe, seen, and empowered; and can show up as their whole selves.
Through leading community programs, supporting youth, and serving on nonprofit boards, I’ve seen love build cultures of integrity, resilience, and possibility. Leadership grounded in love is not easy. It requires presence, courage, and risk. But it also brings clarity, transformation, and healing.
As I continue my research and consulting practice, I’m asking: What becomes possible when love is no longer hidden, but a central guiding principle to organizational life? What if we lead from wholeness instead of fear? What if love guided not only our intentions, but our systems?
We may not be able to measure love precisely, but we can feel its impact. Love is not a distraction from leadership: it is the compass. And in choosing to lead with love, we choose a path toward justice, connection, and collective flourishing.