In my leadership development plan I found myself writing a lot about resilience, health and wellness. This is something I’ve had a lot of challenges with over the last six years – wanting to do more, pushing myself to places of deep burnout and illness. I’ve been in a constant pattern of taking on intense work, never quite having total time to recover – and immediately launching into something new. And so, as I begin this next chapter of my career, I am hoping to be deeply intentional about my decisions in regards to wellness, and to be dedicated to the pursuit of personal resilience. Our reading from last week entitled, “Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavor” by Michael Ungar has offered me some food for thought and resonated with other texts I’ve encountered. Ungar writes about resilience depending more on what we receive than what we have within...

Readings over the past few weeks from CALS 505 have encouraged me to think critically about the power of carrying values throughout our work, especially in navigating large institutions. As Brown notes in Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts, “If we do not have clarity of values, if we don’t have anywhere else to look or focus, if we don’t have that light up above to remind us why we’re there, the cynics and critics can bring us to our knees” (2018, p.185-186). Within large institutions especially, I have found that the specific culture of the team/department you are on can vastly impact an individual’s perception of values.  In reviewing last week’s materials, I was reminded of a previous situation where I experienced the consequences of a lack of values within an institution. At a previous job, I had worked to try and make our payment processes more...