Growth

11 posts

A Closing Conversation about the R’s … and Weaving the Echoes

These four R’s — Relationship, Reflection, Renewal, Resonance — are not a linear path. They move through us like a spiral, calling us again and again to deepen, to listen, to tend.

In this final Conversation, we’ll consider how the R’s can offer a living rhythm for developing and growing the leader in you — one that evolves, that honors the fullness of your personhood, and that fosters awareness and authenticity in how you lead.

Over our time together so far, we’ve looked at Relationship, Reflection, Renewal, and Resonance as Leader rhythms, each of which offers a window into leadership that is more human, more connected, more whole.

But leadership is not a linear practice. These R’s do not sit in tidy corners.
They move, fold, and interweave like strands of a living tapestry.

A moment of Renewal may deepen the Relationship to self and others.
Resonance may serve as a call to Reflect in new ways.

Our inner landscape shifts constantly, and so does how we show up in the world.

Leadership is a weaving — of presence, of patterns, of meaning. And no two weavings are the same.

At the heart of this weaving, there are often inner Echoes — subtle resonances that shape how we move through leadership spaces. You may already sense some of them: a preference for close collaboration, or for wide-view systems thinking; a draw toward courageous challenge, or toward quiet restoration.

We touched on how the patterns of presence move within the leader’s self, which are the Echoes. The R’s and the Echoes work in tandem.

Each R invites us to notice different facets of our presence, as people and as leaders. Echoes emerge through this noticing — they reflect which patterns are most alive in us at a given season. Just as Renewal is cyclical, so too are the Echoes we embody.

Our Center Echoes give voice to these inner patterns.
They are not prescriptive types or roles — they are companions to notice and honor.

As you continue your own leadership journey, you’re invited to explore what Echoes might be present in your Center right now.

How Do We Explore Our Echoes?

As you continue your own journey along the cReative Leadership path, you’re invited to explore what Echoes might be present in your Center right now.

Let’s start with the introductory Echo Center Exploration.

To be clear, it is not a test or a label.

It is a reflective doorway — an invitation to notice what is resonant now, and to explore how that resonance moves through your leadership.

Step through the door of Exploration by clicking here.

The weaving of leadership is lifelong. Let’s begin another thread.

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

A Conversation about Echoes (“What Is an Echo in This Work?”)

There was a brief mention in the last conversation about Echoes: We each carry Echoes — patterns of energy, instinct, and presence that move through how we live and lead.

In this Conversation, I’ll share how Echoes are part of cReative Leadership — and invite you to notice which may be most alive in you right now.

Why Look for Echoes in Leadership?

Because as we mentioned earlier, leadership is a journey and rarely a fixed thing. Becoming a leader of any kind is a journey shaped by experience, memory, instinct, reflection — and by the ways we absorb and amplify the energies around us.

An Echo is not a static type. It’s a sense of what patterns are strong in us right now, and how we are moving through the world as a leader, collaborator, human.

• Echoes shift. You may find one calls most strongly now, and another rises at a different season of your life or leadership.

In this journey, you are invited to listen for your Echo (or Echoes!) — not to define yourself, but to notice where you are most at home, most Centered, and where you might want to explore next.

How to Look for Echoes?

There are all sorts of ways to look for your echo(es). You might have felt the pull to take a particular assessment, like the StrengthsFinder, Meyers-Briggs, DiSC, EQi, or the myriad other tools and typologies out there. You might have explored astrology. Or faith.

And maybe you’ve gotten some answers. That’s great!

But maybe it feels like something’s missing or that the assessments and typologies, no matter how many you take, are not a full picture of who you are.

Part of the challenge with those assessments is that they often lead us to an exploration of where we are lacking or how we’ve fallen short of some standard measurement.

And that shouldn’t be.

We should have a way to follow a path that both shines a bright light on where we excel as well as how to use the skills we might never have realized we had for this work — for any work.

We shouldn’t need to look at comparisons to other people because we are all unique. But, you might wonder, if we don’t look to others, how can we know ourselves?

And this is where the cReative Leadership differs. The cReative Leadership path encourages us to look at the world differently, to see our connection to the world around us. If we think about Resonance, we must think about where and how we exist. We are surrounded by people, yes, but more. We are connected to it all.

In our next Conversation, let’s consider how the R’s connect to our Echoes. I hope to see you at that point along the path …

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

A Conversation about Leading With Resonance, Not Rhetoric

  • Inner self: Recognizing what makes us vibrate with truth or alignment
  • Authentic self: Choosing ways of being that ring true in the world
  • Leadership: Leading in a way that others feel (and can attune to), not just observe

The most powerful leaders are not always those with the loudest voices or the largest followings. They are those whose presence resonates — whose way of being rings true in ways others can feel and trust. Resonance is not performance. It is alignment — between inner truth and outer expression. It is the deep echo others experience when we lead from that place.

In this Conversation, we’ll reflect on Resonance: how we notice it, how we cultivate it, and how we invite others to attune to it in their own leadership journeys.

In music and in physics, the idea of resonance is about vibration. We could think of the phrase “that resonates with me”, where what someone tells us gives us a certain feeling, a certain shiver, a vibration of meaning. When a feeling resonates within us, we feel aligned, whole, and satisfied. We “vibrate” or “resonate” with truth, with alignment. If we are walking our journey with intention, taking necessary pauses to check in with ourselves, we know when we’ve hit alignment.

There was a series on Netflix called The Residence and one of the characters talked about this sort of discovery and knowing like this:

At some point, you go from not knowing something, to knowing, to seeing it. When that happens, who knows …

Cordelia Cupp

We may not know when our self is in alignment but when we do, we just … know.

And once we know, it’s hard to ignore. A leader who ignores their Center, their resonance, their alignment is one who doesn’t ring true in their engagement with others. Such a leader struggles to bring teams together.

The Resonant Leader:

Each of us carries resonances — patterns and energies that echo through the ways we speak, lead, and create.

These Echoes are not static labels; they shift with us, reflect our inner rhythms, and invite us to notice which aspects of our leadership presence are currently most alive.

People notice when we are being real and when we are faking it. Sure, everyone has bad days, or days when we aren’t being as true to our selves as we can (or should). But if we have reached a point at which we are living as close to our Center, our authentic self, in all areas of our experience, our leadership will survive that one-off bad day. No one who has an opportunity to know us will be thrown off-kilter by it but instead, will attribute it to the right source — just a bad day, rather than thinking we’ve been fake all along!

In the next Conversation, we’ll turn toward these patterns more directly — the Echoes we each carry, and how they shape our presence in the world.

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

A Conversation about Why Renewal is an Act of Stewardship

Becoming a leader is not a sprint. And yet, too often, we treat it as though it should be — constant motion, constant output, constant presence.

Renewal invites us back to a different truth: that all living systems require cycles of rest, restoration, and replenishment.

How we tend to our own renewal is important — and how we design cultures that allow others to renew may be one of our most radical acts as leaders.

In this Conversation, we’ll explore Renewal as an act of stewardship — for ourselves, and for those we lead.


Last time, we stopped along the path to identify why reflection is necessary for building resistance to extra stress and reactive loops.

What’s your energy cycle? Have you ever thought about it? Do you have a regular cycle of sleep? What’s keeping you from having one, especially when every day has the same number of hours?

It’s difficult to keep focus on anything when we are tired. We are no good to anyone if we are exhausted and distracted. Our creativity becomes non-existent. And if you don’t think you need a creative streak, think again! Leadership is all about innovation and creativity.

If we care for our own energy by understanding when we need a break, a stretch, a nap, or cup of tea, we are more apt to recognize when someone else needs those things as well. Understanding our authentic selves helps us become someone who leads in ways that honor human limits and rhythms — our own as well as the limits and rhythms of our colleagues.

When we are able to think about our own thinking (also called “metacognition” if you’d like to dig a bit into the concept), we can be more focused on why we act and react the way(s).

And change our path when needed.

We can also guide the paths of others to build cultures that normalize renewal over that “grind and grind more” mentality that does less good than harm.

But the grind is how individuals and organizations get ahead?

It is, sort of. The “grind” is typically how people get ahead financially. And while that might make some of them happy in the short-term, it doesn’t last. Financial “success” wears off. There are only so many things a person can buy in a lifetime. Sure, it’s great to look out for our families, friends, and community, but there is no guarantee or definition for what is enough.

There is a saying that people live up to the lifestyle they become accustomed to. If we work to earn a certain amount, chances are we’ll spend up to that figure — we’ll buy a larger home or a new car, or maybe we start taking those trips we talked about.

But wait: we’re working so hard and for so many hours that we don’t have time to spend in the rooms of the larger house or to drive the new car and certainly can’t have fun on the trips because we’re checking our texts and emails.

Doesn’t sound like a great way to live, year in and year out, does it?

The better question is: What am I grinding for?

This is not to suggest the grind is all bad! It’s important to take care of our obligations, to give to the community, and so on. But if we are forgetting to center ourselves, to focus on the people and the land and the air and the beautiful things around us, we are missing out.

And being a good leader is encouraging those around you to extend grace to themselves.

Just like you extend grace to yourself.


As we honor cycles of Renewal within ourselves, we begin to notice subtle patterns — energies that echo through our ways of being, and that shape how we engage with others.

In the next Conversation, we’ll explore this idea of Resonance — and how tuning to our deeper Echoes can shape the presence we carry into the world.

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

A Conversation About Reflection and Why the World Needs Leaders Who Can Hold Silence

In a world obsessed with action, reflection can feel like a luxury.

It is not. It is a necessity — for grounded leadership, for clear seeing, and for sustaining wise action.

Reflection is not self-monitoring or second-guessing. It is a practice of noticing, of tending inner landscapes so that our outward expressions arise from greater clarity and congruence.

Leaders who model reflection create spaces where thoughtful action becomes normal, where pause is valued, and where reaction is softened by awareness.

In this Conversation, we’ll consider Reflection as a leadership rhythm.


The Importance of Pause Practicing:

How often have you started your day before sun-up and by the time you closed the last email, finished the last call, or put the dot on the last page of the report realize it’s a few hours past a reasonable time for dinner?

How often have you been in the office, felt like you blinked, and hours had passed?

It’s not that we’re working harder. If you laughed at that, I get it, I really do! But hear me out:

If we went back a handful of decades, people relied not on their mobile phone alarms to get them up in the morning. They were up with the sun (or the crowing of a rooster, or the bustle of the dog or cat) and finished their work day around sun down or so.

Sure, that sounds like a farming analogy. My grandmother swore by The Farmer’s Almanac, and it seemed like not just for her gardening. She was born in 1898 and believed in the saying, “early to bed, early to rise”.

Throughout her days, she visited her same-age friends, checked in on neighbors, participated with her social groups, and did things retired women do. However, she always took time for herself, to sit quietly on the porch or in an Adirondack chair in the backyard.

To sit quietly …

How often in the midst of our busy-ness, do we pause?

It’s important.

It’s like breathing with intention.

Breathing just happens, sure. But when we ground ourselves in the practice of breathing, the action doesn’t just involve one “motion” — it’s not all inhale or all exhale. It’s not continuous both but there are pauses.

Try taking a deep but natural slow breath in. Notice how there’s a pause at the top of the breath, just before the exhale.

That’s the feeling of intentional breathing. It’s a good practice to have. It helps ground that daily rhythm.

This intentional breathing can also be useful as part of a reflective pause practice. Before making a big decision, before that one-to-one conversation with a challenged team member, before meeting with the person we report to, reflective pauses help us think things through.


Holding Silence:

Another couple times that lend to reflective pausing is first thing in the morning and before going to sleep at night.

When we wake up, our mind is like the empty sponge, ready to soak up the day. Before the hectic overdrive kicks in of getting off to work, perhaps getting children in order or older relatives sorted, taking time to breathe and consider helps us begin with purpose and organization.

People might use the morning when they first get up or as the last thing they concentrate on before bed for spiritual practice. Or, they might be working on a project and spend that time, thinking about possible next steps. I’ve done that at night and in the morning, I have a clearer vision on my next steps.

Cultivating reflection that deepens outward expression, not just self-monitoring.

Understanding our inner thought life allows us to assess our authentic self and how what we’re working on aligns with that self.

We can then walk into our workspace, the community, or with our family or friends in ways that allow us to model reflective practice.

Here are two meeting scenarios:

In Meeting A, the conversation is constant and, dare I say, frenzied. People talk over each other, answers come before the questions are finished, and the leader bellows over everyone or says nothing and lets the team burn out their energy, then offers a “solution”. Members of the team walk away from the table, feeling unheard, ignored, or maybe supported and valued because their answer was chosen or at least similar enough to the leader’s recommendation.

In meeting B, the leader encourages conversation but ensures everyone has their turn without anyone over-talking anyone else. This leader asks for solutions when challenges are presented. They might answer a question with a question (“What do you think about that?“) or leave space for others to answer. They check in with those who might not speak up. Multiple solutions are the order of the day. Team member leave the room, encouraged to continue the conversation and to bring other ideas.

The leader in Meeting B takes time to hold silence and managers to slow the reactive loop that sometimes develops in team engagement.

And it all begins with reflection.

Take some time for yourself, for reflection. What does a time of reflection, of intention, look like for you? How does reflection look in your personal and professional practices?

If you don’t take time now, how might you start doing so in future?

If you’d like to explore this path, let’s connect…

Your Journey Sentinal, Andree

A Sidebar Conversation about Leaders and Leadership

When we hear the word leader, many of us think of someone at the front of a room.
A CEO. A principal. A director with a polished speech.

But leadership, in its truest form, arises first from within.

Leadership begins as self-leadership — the way we are in relationship with our own inner life, the authenticity we cultivate, and the presence we bring into the spaces we inhabit.

In our last Conversation, we touched on the importance of relationship. We’ll also talk about reflection, renewal, and resonance. Each of these begins with an inner rhythm — with how we move through our own being before we extend outward to connect with others.

Leadership, at its heart, is one series of these inner rhythms.

The Leader’s Pathway:

Leadership begins in our relationship to self — how we tend our patterns, notice our needs, honor our rhythms.

From there, we cultivate an authentic self that we can bring forward — not as performance, but as presence.

And it is through this authentic presence that we engage the world outside ourselves — through an external self that is attuned, relational, and capable of fostering spaces where others can thrive.

This is the rhythm of leadership held here in the practice of cReative Leadership.

And here is an important truth: We are all leaders.

Leadership is not limited to those with formal titles. It is not reserved for those in positions of power.

We lead in every moment where we offer presence, foster possibility, or create space for others to rise.

Parents lead. Peers lead. Artists lead. Caregivers lead. Even the quietest voice in the room may lead — through the resonance it creates, the steadiness it holds, or the invitation it offers.

Leadership is relational — it arises when we are in right relationship with ourselves and others.


One of my favorite reminders of this truth comes from science fiction — Larry Niven’s Ringworld.

Niven writes about a race known for their flight and resilience, called the Puppeteers.

The Puppeteers are led not by the boldest or most visible, but by one called The Hindmost — they also call this leader the One Who Leads from Behind.

In a culture shaped by caution and care, The Hindmost embodies a truth we often forget: that leaders as people and leadership as function need not always be at the front. Sometimes it is the unseen hand, the one who tends direction quietly, creating conditions for others to move and flourish.

We all have opportunities to lead — often in ways that do not resemble the images we are handed of what a “leader” should look like.

Self-leadership is where this begins.

If you’d like to explore the idea of self-leadership more deeply, you may find reflections in works such as:

As we journey in cReative Leadership, let’s begin with the understanding that being a leader looks different for each of us.

Next, hold to the recognition that leadership is an inner practice first — one that shapes how we move through the spaces we inhabit, and how we invite others to move with us.

You are welcome to continue these Conversations here — in a space where leadership is expansive, relational, and human. Next time, we’ll return from the sidebar to consider the importance and influence of Reflection.

Your Journey Sentinal, Andree

A Conversation about Relationship

Relationship is the ground from which everything grows. Before we consider our leadership outward, we begin with our relationship to our own life — to our patterns, our narratives, our needs.

From there, we can bring forward an authentic self that others experience not as performance, but as presence.

And in leadership, how we enter relationship matters more than how we manage outcomes. Spaces where mutual trust and permission are cultivated become spaces where genuine collaboration can take root.

In this Conversation, we’ll explore Relationship as a leadership quality — first within, then between.


How do we understand our relationship to our own life?

Have you ever looked at yourself, in the eye, in a mirror? Like really look yourself in the eye — not the casual glance to straighten a scarf or even the practiced (dare I say automatic) look while shaving or applying a face? Try it.

Take two minutes to sit in front of a mirror and look yourself in the eye. Recognize what you see there.

Inner and Authentic Self:

Are you connected to the space around you? Have you ever considered how your feet feel on the floor or the way the cotton of your shirt swishes against your skin?

What about emotionally and spiritually? When was the last time you thought about your self, the you that’s more than skin and bone?

Some of us never think about the part of us that’s inside, that’s our Center.

We’re missing a vital component to deeper understanding of how we “tick”. We are missing an understanding of our own patterns, needs, and tendencies.

When we don’t recognize and get to know the self that sits behind those eyes staring back at us in the mirror, how can we come into meaningful relationship with anyone else?

Sure, maybe you’re thinking, “Well, I’m not at work to build relationship but to build a team, to get the work done!”

Here’s the truth: we cannot work meaningfully without having a connection to the people around us, to the people working with us each day.

And here’s another truth: it’s possible to carry the authentic relationship we have with ourselves outward — into our work and relationships — without losing its clarity or integrity.

Leader and External Self:

There’s an adage that we often spend more time with work colleagues than we do with the people who are in closer proximity due to familial, faith, or community connection.

Leadership is not a title or a role reserved for those in charge. It is a way of being in relationship with those around us — whether we’re a CEO, a mentor, a volunteer, a parent, or a colleague on a team.

Imagine being around people for hours on end, who you have no connection with …

Seems rather bleak, doesn’t it?

And many of us do that: we go to our offices or log into our workspace and never give much thought to the people around us.

Reading those words is sobering and it stems from somewhere.

We are people, in relationship with ourselves first. If we don’t cultivate knowledge of our Center, knowledge of our interior self, we won’t be able to build relationship with others. Without this ability to know self and to see that others are on a journey, too, we fall short of genuine connection.

When leaders foster genuine connections with those around them, they can reach levels of innovation and creativity far beyond what can be attained with superficial engagement.

Becoming a leader who is aware of their internal and external self means moving from “transactional” relationships to spaces of mutual nourishment and permission. And with intention, we can do that.

It begins by tending our relationship with self — and by recognizing that every genuine relationship we build outward begins there.


If this conversation resonated with you, I invite you to hold that feeling. In the coming conversations, I’d like to invite you to begin exploring your own Center …

We’ll engage with the idea of Reflection soon, but first, let’s dig a bit more into this idea of leadership.

Your Journey Sentinal, Andree

A Conversation about Thought-Stewarding

As I mentioned in our first conversation, cReative Leadership is a change in direction, an unseen bend in the road that revealed itself when I took time to sit with Recon Leadership.

We’ll have conversations about why “creative” is as it is here, but for now, let’s just take it slow, from the (fresh) beginning.

I’m a holistic thinker — or a holisting “be-er” if you like. As I worked on the visual aspects of the cReative Leadership space, I wanted some physical pieces to match. So, I crafted a business card. If we meet in person, I will be excited to give you one.

Creating the business card meant I had to consider how I would refer to myself in this space. I discovered that thinking about titles is exhausting!

We use them to signal what we do and what people can expect when they meet us. But most of the titles I could have chosen here — coach, consultant, leader — felt too hard-edged, too hierarchical for the kind of space I want to hold through cReative Leadership.

I chose Thought-Steward because it speaks to what I hope to do:

  • To sit with, not over.
  • To tend conversations and ideas, not direct them.
  • To be a keeper of space, not a deliverer of answers.

A steward honors the living thing they tend — whether a garden, a community, or an idea. That’s how I hope to show up in the dialogues that will unfold here.

You’ll see me close out these conversations sometimes as Your Journey Sentinel, too. That’s a companion word — the one who quietly watches from the edge of the wood or just in the shadow but keeps the lamp lit and invites travelers in when they arrive.

Soon I’ll be sharing more about the possible path(s) we could take together in your leadership journey. I look forward to your considerations, queries, and comments …

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

From Recon to cReative

This site isn’t new. But it is different.

What once lived here as Reconnoiter Leadership has grown into something more layered, more inward-facing, more alive.

It’s now called cReative Leadership — and it holds space for those who lead with vision, soul, reflection, and resilience. For those who move sideways before forward. For those who think deeply, feel fully, and refuse to flatten themselves to fit the mold.

If that sounds like you, I hope you’ll stay.

I’ll be sharing thoughts, tools, metaphors, and animal companions for this kind of leadership. Not a model, but a way. Not a fix, but a reframe.

You can learn more about the roots of cReative Leadership here, or simply follow along. I’m glad you’re here.

Your Journey Sentinel, Andree

Superpower #3: Consistently Committed to Growth

The last post may seem the opposite of having superpowers.

Or is it?

If you ask author Joe Badarracco, he’d likely suggest that stepping back, maybe shedding a tear or two, and taking a break are without question the stuff superheroes are made of. In his book Leading Quietly, Badarracco suggested that what he calls ‘quiet leaders’ are the result of ‘the sum of millions of small yet consequential decisions that individuals working far from the limelight make every day’ and they select ‘responsible, behind-the-scenes action over public heroism to resolve tough leadership challenges’.

But to make those decisions, to sit far from the limelight to make behind-the-scenes actions, a leader has to be able to sit with themselves. So often, we fight, push, struggle, and attempt to get things done, to the detriment of our own health and sanity.

I read this great piece about self-care a bout a week ago. The tl:dr (too long, didn’t read) of the matter was that the term self-care has become synonymous with ‘some thin gruel, sufficient for enabling the person to experience the unsustainable conditions for one more day’, a way to get past the horror of this day to survive to reach the horror of tomorrow.

Maybe that’s how you feel about your current personal or professional situation.

The remainder of that post related to people’s relationship with their faith practice, but the point is well-made as it relates to leadership as well. There must be more of a ‘why’ to what we do, something more than ‘fake it til you make it’, something more than ‘if I just [finish this report … get done this meeting … fill in the blank].

R-Leaders want to see their businesses grow but also want to see their people grow. They invest in professional development, mentoring, conferences and presentation opportunities, and advancement opportunities to develop that succession pipeline (more about that in a future post).

Sometimes however, one of the areas R-Leaders may not be so good at is looking at their own growth. It’s important to help others, but the leader must also help themselves to grow and thrive.

When was the last time you took a professional development course, a training to update current or learn a new skill, or enlisted the support of a trainer or mentor?

Now might be the best time to (re)evaluate your leadership position. Let’s connect today to explore your opportunities.