Sankofa and Business Planning: Reset for the New Year Generally, in November, I take a mini-sabbatical. You can read about some of the insights I have had during these retreats in previous blog posts: The Fruits of Mini-Sabbaticals, Tips for At-Home Mini-Sabbaticals and 2024 Mini-Sabbatical: Back on the Island. In 2025, I had a big birthday celebration that took me to Hawaii in August, so I didn’t do the November mini-sabbatical. However, the ritual of my 4 Rs process (rest, rejuvenation, reflection and resetting) is still an important year-end exercise. As I go through this annual exercise, I ground myself in the meaning of Sankofa. The Sankofa is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people of Ghana, generally depicted as a bird with its head turned backward, taking an egg from its back. It expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress. Juana Bordas shares in her book, Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age, “Sankofa invites us to bring forward the meaningful and useful―including the values and spiritual traditions passed from previous generations―to learn from experience and to avoid the dead ends and pitfalls of history.” Sankofa means return, go back, seek, and retrieve. Sankofa urges us to reflect on and learn from the past. Over the last five years, I have used a tool from Third Space Studio to guide my process. It is simple and powerful. What ten wins have you had over the past year? What are three lessons from this year you want to carry forward? What are three things you want to leave behind? Imagine we are sitting together a year from now and you are telling me about your wildly successful year. What would you say? What are your goals for next year? What is one habit you need to support your goals? What do you need to say no to? If you want to try it out, download the worksheet. If you want to work on it together, let’s connect. I have supported many leaders with their year-end reflection. I always enjoy bringing forward insights from my past year to shape a better future.
Sankofa and Business Planning: Reset for the New Year Generally, in November, I take a mini-sabbatical. You can read about some of the insights I have had during these retreats in previous blog posts: The Fruits of Mini-Sabbaticals, Tips for At-Home Mini-Sabbaticals and 2024 Mini-Sabbatical: Back on the Island. In 2025, I had a big birthday celebration that took me to Hawaii in August, so I didn’t do the November mini-sabbatical. However, the ritual of my 4 Rs process (rest, rejuvenation, reflection and resetting) is still an important year-end exercise. As I go through this annual exercise, I ground myself in the meaning of Sankofa. The Sankofa is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people of Ghana, generally depicted as a bird with its head turned backward, taking an egg from its back. It expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress. Juana Bordas shares in her book, Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age, “Sankofa invites us to bring forward the meaningful and useful―including the values and spiritual traditions passed from previous generations―to learn from experience and to avoid the dead ends and pitfalls of history.” Sankofa means return, go back, seek, and retrieve. Sankofa urges us to reflect on and learn from the past. Over the last five years, I have used a tool from Third Space Studio to guide my process. It is simple and powerful. What ten wins have you had over the past year? What are three lessons from this year you want to carry forward? What are three things you want to leave behind? Imagine we are sitting together a year from now and you are telling me about your wildly successful year. What would you say? What are your goals for next year? What is one habit you need to support your goals? What do you need to say no to? If you want to try it out, download the worksheet. If you want to work on it together, let’s connect. I have supported many leaders with their year-end reflection. I always enjoy bringing forward insights from my past year to shape a better future.
Leading with EI: Transforming Teams and Culture In today’s ever-evolving workplace, technical skills and strategic thinking are no longer enough, particularly in the current political and economic climate. The most effective leaders are those who lead with emotional intelligence (EI) — the ability to recognize, understand, and manage their own and others’ emotions. EI is not just a “nice-to-have” trait; it’s an essential driver of team performance, employee engagement, and organizational culture. Why Emotional Intelligence Matters Daniel Goleman’s seminal work on Emotional Intelligence in the 1990s set the foundation for “why” EI matters. Research consistently shows that leaders with high EI foster more collaborative, resilient, and innovative teams. They’re better at navigating conflict, building trust, and creating psychologically safe environments where people feel seen, heard, and valued. Studies by Harvard Business Review and TalentSmart have found that EI accounts for nearly 90% of what sets high performers apart from their peers. The Five Pillars of EI in Leadership Self-Awareness Great leaders know their strengths, blind spots, and emotional triggers. They reflect regularly and seek feedback to grow. Self-Regulation Staying calm under pressure, managing impulses, and responding rather than reacting are hallmarks of emotionally intelligent leadership. Motivation EI-driven leaders are purpose-driven. They inspire others through their passion, persistence, and optimism. Empathy Empathy is the cornerstone of connection. Leaders who listen deeply and understand others’ perspectives build stronger relationships and more inclusive cultures. Social Skills From influencing and coaching to resolving conflict and building networks, strong social skills help leaders move teams forward with clarity and cohesion. EI in Action: Transforming Culture When leaders model emotional intelligence, it cascades throughout the organization. Teams become more collaborative. Communication improves. Turnover decreases. And innovation thrives. In this era of navigating uncertainty and change, the ability to leverage our emotions as a strength is critical. I recently supported a leadership team to strengthen their team culture and productivity. As team members gained a deeper understanding of their respective ways to navigate conflict, build trust and communicate effectively, it became evident that emotional intelligence was at the core of their challenges. We began with an exercise of naming emotions by using the Emotion Wheel. Being able to more clearly verbalize our emotional states and our perceived emotional states of colleagues facilitates our ability to self-regulate and empathize. According to researcher Vanessa Urch Druskat, to create top-performing teams at all levels of the organization, you need team emotional intelligence. Team EI is different than individual EI. It is a set of norms that meet the core social needs activated when people enter teams. The top three norms for meeting people’s social needs are understanding each other better, routinely assessing strengths and opportunities, and routinely talking about stakeholders. Practical Ways to Lead with EI Start with self-reflection. Use tools like journaling or 360-degree feedback to build self-awareness. Vista Global is certified to administer the ESCI 360 developed by Daniel Goleman. Practice active listening. Give your full attention in conversations and validate others’ experiences. Respond with curiosity. When emotions run high, ask questions instead of making assumptions. Invest in development. Offer EI training and coaching to leaders at all levels. Final Thoughts Leading with EI is not a one-time initiative — it’s a lifelong practice. But the payoff is profound: stronger teams, healthier cultures, and more human-centered leadership. In a world where change is constant, emotional intelligence is the anchor that helps organizations thrive. Contact us to learn how Vista Global can support the journey of understanding your EI competencies and approaches to strengthen your team emotional intelligence. Interested in learning more? Check out our other blog posts: Building Emotional Intelligence as a Leader: How Our Brain Shapes Our Emotions Emotional Intelligence is the Leadership Game Changer
Becoming the Liberation Ecosystem Over the last 24 years, at the end of September, the YWCA Madison has hosted the Racial Justice Summit. I always look forward to this gathering as an opportunity to engage with changemakers who are dedicated to creating the world we all want to live in. This year’s theme, “Get Together: Becoming the Liberation Ecosystem,” was compelling to me. The theme invited us to deepen our practices of coming together as an interconnected, inter-communicating, inter-dependent and ever-changing ecosystem. By strengthening this ecosystem, we can disrupt the escalating violence and attend to the harm in our country and planet, while re-imagining and seeding for the liberated and racially just future we dream of. As I write this blog in the final days of September, it is 86 degrees in Madison. The “normal” average September temperature from 1991-2020 has been 62 degrees. The connection between people and planet is undeniable. We humans have irrevocably altered the planet and we are capable of reversing our ways, ushering in a new era of healing, interdependence and generosity. The interdependence between all people and all lands is a truth that we are invited to re-member and re-connect as Native wisdom teaches. Sacred wisdom relies on all of our intelligences, not just our mind (but also our spiritual, emotional and heart intelligences). The opening keynote circle hosted Robin Wall Kimmerer and Dekila Chugyalpa. Robin is a scientist, celebrated author of Braiding Sweetgrass and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Dekila is the founding director of Loka Initiative, committed to undoing 500 years of social, environmental and climate harm. The goal of Loka Initiative is not just to energize pro-environmental action now but to manifest a post-growth vision of interdependence and joy-centered resilience. This keynote rooted the Summit experience in the wisdom of interconnectedness and offered a powerful foundation for envisioning a relational, land-based, ecosystem-centered and liberatory future. I left the keynote with the following insights: Everything exists in interdependence. Humans, animals and plants share the precious resources of water, land and air. No one being can dominate or the entire system will collapse. All beings are kin. In native language, there is no objectified pronoun of “it”. All beings have the same importance as humans. Mother Earth, Grandmother Maple Tree. There are no “weeds” in Menominee language. We as humans decide whether a plant has value or not, instead of being in right relationship with that plant to understand what it is trying to teach us. It is easy to get co-opted by the system of growth and economic development. We need to step out of the urgency and think more long-term. We need to slow down, be in nature, connect with the earth, and respect seven generations of beings on this planet in our practices. We slow down through the power of story; story evokes the motivation to change. Restoration, or Re-Story-Ation is intergenerational, learning from elders, passing these teachings to change the narrative from extraction to love and commitment for young people to carry forward. Creating these stories will take us into the future of kinship. Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth Premiere On the second day of the Summit, I had the honor of attending the premiere screening of the documentary Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth. Sacred Wisdom Sacred Earth is a compelling feature-length documentary on how the efforts of Wisconsin’s Native American tribes to restore their spiritual, cultural, and environmental resilience is rooted in their sacred connection to the land and waters of the Great Lakes. As stated on the website: This is not just a documentary—it is a visual prayer, a meditation, a teaching, and a love song to the Earth and to the Indigenous youth who will carry this wisdom forward. As the movie began, it seemed like something was wrong; the audio seemed too fast. It turned out that the speed was set at 1.25x. The movie was stopped and reset to 1.0 speed. It was an incredible metaphor to remind everyone in the audience that we must slow down and listen to reconnect to the messages of our ancestors. The movie was a 5-year collaboration between the 12 tribes of Wisconsin, that began with deep listening. At the end of the dialogue, one of the culture keepers, Roxanne DeLille offered a prayer to support the attendees in exploring pathways for solidarity with movements for Indigenous sovereignty, resistance and resilience as well as mutual aid for Wisconsin’s tribes. She closed with, “Go before us, like the smoke. What one thing can you do?”
Is Podcasting Right for You? About six years ago I attended the B Corp Champions retreat in Los Angeles. In 2026, Champions Retreat will be in Milwaukee! These retreats are always inspiring, bringing passionate leaders together, who care about people and planet, sharing innovative ideas on making a difference. I started chatting with the person next to me in a session. She asked me if I would be interested in being interviewed for a podcast on Conscious Leadership. I was surprised by the invitation. “What would I have to say that people would be interested in hearing about?” I sheepishly said, “Sure!”. And that was my entrance into podcasting… (an accidental podcaster, I would say). The interview covered a range of topics related to my journey of starting my business. It was an easy conversation, and after we finished, I thought about how I could share some of the lessons of my own leadership journey that aligned with different service offerings of my business, Vista Global Coaching & Consulting. The hosts were generous to share the recording with me. From there, I broke the full recording into segments on different topics. That was the birth of the Minutes with Mary podcast. My core motivation at that point was to introduce several topics related to my business: leadership, the B Corp movement, and a new leadership program we were launching. In all honesty, I didn’t do the type of strategic thinking I usually do before launching a new service. I was prototyping the concept of hosting a podcast. Prototyping was a skill included in the leadership program. The first interview provided four episodes to establish the foundation of Minutes with Mary. These episodes were 5-15 minutes. Short and focused. It was another year before I produced another episode. That may sound shocking. Aren’t podcasts supposed to drop regularly? On a schedule? Well..what became clear to me as I went down this podcast road was, if I had something I thought would be interesting for listeners to learn about, then I would host an episode. If I gained new knowledge or skills, I would create a mini-series to accomplish two objectives: solidify my own learning and share it with my audience. Full confession: This is not an orthodox way to go about launching a podcast. I view Minutes with Mary as a resource to complement my business offerings. I use it for business development when a potential client is interested in that offering. I share episodes as a component of my marketing strategy. My path may not be helpful in your exploration of whether podcasting is right for you, so here is a more thoughtful framework to make that decision. Purpose & Vision Why do I want to start a podcast? What is the core message or theme? Who is the target audience? What value will listeners gain from each episode? Content & Format What format will the podcast take? (interviews, solo episodes, panel discussions) How long will each episode be? How often will I release new episodes? Will there be seasons or a continuous stream of episodes? Guest & Collaboration Will I have guests? If so, who and how will I find them? What kind of preparation will I need for interviews or guest episodes? Production & Tools What kind of equipment and software do I need for recording and editing? Do I need help editing, or will I do it myself? Where will I host the podcast? (e.g. Spotify, Podbean, Buzzsprout, Sound Cloud) Marketing & Growth How will I promote the podcast? What social media platforms or communities will I use? Do I want to grow my audience over time? If so, do I have a plan? Budget & Monetization What is my budget for launching and maintaining the podcast? Do I plan to monetize it? If so, how? (e.g. sponsorship, ads, Patreon) Success & Sustainability How will I measure success? (e.g. downloads, engagement, feedback) What will keep me motivated to continue producing episodes? If you are interested in exploring the topic further, join me for a discussion at the WeTheChange Monthly Membership virtual meeting on September 24, 2025 @ 2 pm Eastern Time. You can register for the session here. Or you can connect with me to discuss in a virtual coffee.
Change is Constant: Transition is an Ongoing Journey Ten years ago, I designed a leadership program to support people at a crossroad, asking the question, “What’s Next?” Vista Leadership Institute combined self-discovery, leadership skill development, coaching and prototyping the next chapter of your life. In 2022, I sunsetted the formal program and transitioned the design to a stand-alone coaching package called Personal Odyssey Coaching. The Transition Framework is not a new concept. It is something I became familiar with earlier in my career through the work of William Bridges, the change management expert who outlined three stages of change: Endings, the Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings. The difference between change and transition is an important distinction. Change is an external event that takes place (job loss, pandemic, war, new leadership). Change can happen quickly. According to Bridges, “Transition is the inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about.” Supporting people through transition is essential if any desired change is to be successful. This work happens in the Neutral Zone. The Neutral Zone is the second stage of transition, where leaders experience letting go. It is the core of the transition process and doesn’t feel neutral at all. Leaders feel disoriented and distressed. It is when the critical psychological realignment and repatterning take place. It is a place of emergence of new beginnings. In Personal Odyssey Coaching, I use the Theory U framework by Otto Scharmer to support leaders in navigating the neutral zone. The neutral zone is the seedbed for new beginnings. Theory U provides the steps to move from being stuck to exploring new beginnings. Over the last five years, there has been an acceleration of change requiring leaders to seek increased support to navigate the world we live in. I have clients who have lost their jobs due to international funding cuts, leading them to explore different pathways to work internationally, others who have decided to retire and start new businesses, or enroll in a degree program to pursue a new career. Transition Coaching is now a formal business. You can search the internet and find many different opportunities for this type of coaching support. Given that change is constant, the question to answer is “How transition-ready are you?” Transition Coaching can offer numerous benefits: Clarification of your values, alignment of purpose with work Increased resilience, emotional intelligence and flexibility Supportive accountability and encouragement through the neutral zone A road map to “What’s Next” If you are in the neutral zone now or know it is coming, contact me to discuss transition coaching and the Personal Odyssey Tour. Your future self will thank you for it!
Board Engagement: The Biggest Challenge In the years I have been a nonprofit consultant, I have partnered with hundreds of organizations in the area of board governance. I like to start workshops by asking participants to describe their board in ONE word. I hear a variety of words like: passionate, committed. I also hear.. disengaged, checked out, under-utilized, unfocused. When I probe those less-than-optimal descriptors, what often comes to light is that the structures and supports to engage board members effectively are not well developed. What are effective strategies for board engagement? As the Governance Chair for the YWCA Madison board, I promote the use of best practices in board engagement. 1. Develop a board composition matrix: As an organization, discuss the desired attributes, skills and experience that will strengthen the oversight of the organization. With a comprehensive matrix, invite board members to complete the matrix to create an accurate scan of the existing expertise and areas for recruitment. It is important to understand what talents board members possess and how they can contribute to the mission impact of the organization. A board member may have been recruited as an accountant, yet in previous chapters of their career, they worked in monitoring and evaluation. Without a board composition matrix, that talent may go untapped. There are various designs of a board composition matrix. Here is one template to support your thought process. 2. Establish appropriate board committees: Involving board members through committees is an excellent way of taking advantage of everyone’s talents and expertise. Committees are most effective when the board clearly defines their work. Annually, the board should review the committee structure to determine which committees should be constituted to accomplish the work. There are generally several standing committees named in the bylaws (Executive, Governance, Finance), and the flexibility of the board to appoint committees as necessary. BoardSource, the leader in nonprofit governance, has some excellent resources on Structuring Board Committees. 3. Qualities of effective committees: An effective committee has the following qualities: A clear charter and work plan A chair that can facilitate meetings well and involve all members in the work Members who are committed and accountable to accomplish their tasks An understanding that committees do not make decisions; rather they advise, recommend, or carry out a task If I asked you to describe the nonprofit board you serve on in one word, what would it be? If it isn’t engaged…impactful…effective.. let’s connect to explore how to move your organization to greatness by having a great board! For more information on nonprofit governance, check out one of these blog posts: What Sombrero are You Wearing? Every great nonprofit begins with a great board What’s Governance Got to Do With It? Next Level Board Leadership: What does it take?
