Slingshot Designs

Tag: Self-Leadership

  • What Becomes Possible When We Stop Spending All Our Energy on Survival

    What Becomes Possible When We Stop Spending All Our Energy on Survival

    There comes a point when survival gets so expensive that you forget what your energy was for. Six months of investigation, advocacy, medical answers, boundaries, and rebuilding capacity taught me something unexpected…

  • Love, Paperwork, and Hot Febreze

    Love, Paperwork, and Hot Febreze

    Love doesn’t become stronger because life gets easier. It becomes deeper because two people keep choosing to learn each other through every season. Sometimes that looks like Iceland. Sometimes it looks like paperwork,…

  • When the Garden Stops Growing

    When the Garden Stops Growing

    How do you know when it’s time to create distance from someone—or when it’s time to repair the relationship instead? The answer isn’t found in one painful moment. It’s found through careful investigation, honest…

  • Covered in Joy

    Covered in Joy

    A tiny pollinator disappears into a flower, emerges covered in pollen, and reminds us that some of the best work happens where no one is looking.

  • The Residue We Carry

    The Residue We Carry

    Yesterday, it took me three washes to remove sticky tomato pollen from my hands. It reminded me that the harshest voices we carry often aren’t our own—they’re residue left behind by relationships, workplaces, and…

  • The Garden in My Mind

    The Garden in My Mind

    The older I get, the less I believe gardening is about growing plants. It’s about learning discernment—knowing what to cultivate, what to wait on, what to remove, and what to intentionally plant in its place. It turns…

  • Cardinal Chronicles: If You Know the Taste

    Cardinal Chronicles: If You Know the Taste

    There is a particular kind of grief that rarely gets talked about. It isn’t the accusation itself—it’s the wondering that follows. If You Know the Taste is an invitation to think more critically, lead more…

  • The Work That Doesn’t Show Up on the Spreadsheet

    The Work That Doesn’t Show Up on the Spreadsheet

    Some of the most significant costs in our lives never appear on a spreadsheet. Administrative burden quietly consumes time, attention, and capacity—at home and at work. What if leaders focused on building capabilities…

  • Steel Toes & Plaid: Midnight Chicken Crisis

    Steel Toes & Plaid: Midnight Chicken Crisis

    A late-night disturbance in a neighbor’s chicken coop became a lesson in stewardship, discernment, and the courage to take the next responsible action. Sometimes leadership begins by refusing to ignore the sound that…

  • Compliance Is Not Trust

    Compliance Is Not Trust

    Administrative Harm: Field Notes from the Patient Side A completed form is not evidence of informed participation, psychological safety or trust. One unseen electronic signature reveals how easily administrative…

  • Ask the Question That Removes the Burden

    A good survey question does more than collect feedback. It reduces burden, clarifies value, and shows whether the system is asking the right people to do the right work.

  • Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

    Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

    A backyard game with Dylan became a leadership lesson in trust, change, play, and why resistance is often risk assessment—not refusal.

  • Worry Is Creativity’s Shadow

    Worry Is Creativity’s Shadow

    Worry and creativity both create something from nothing. The question is what we are building with that imagination.

  • What Problem Are We Trying to Solve Today?

    What Problem Are We Trying to Solve Today?

    Leadership begins long before the first meeting. A cup of coffee, a yoga pose, and one simple question reminded me why alignment always comes before strength.

  • When KPIs Tell You It’s Too Late

    When KPIs Tell You It’s Too Late

    The best organizations don’t wait for metrics to tell them something is wrong. They pay attention to the behaviors creating those results in the first place.