Every workplace has quiet heroes.

Not always the ones with titles or recognition — but the ones who show up day after day while carrying invisible burdens the rest of us may never fully see.

In this reflective episode of I’m Just Getting Started, we explore the idea of compartmentalization — not as denial or avoidance, but as a deeply human survival skill during difficult seasons of life.

Through the story of a remarkable colleague navigating profound personal challenges while continuing to serve students with presence and professionalism, this episode examines how resilience often looks ordinary from the outside.

Leadership isn’t only about direction and decision-making.Sometimes it’s about witnessing, encouraging, and creating moments of steadiness for people who are quietly doing heroic work.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why compartmentalization can function as endurance rather than avoidance• How work can become a stabilizing refuge during turbulent life seasons• The leadership skill of noticing invisible effort• Ways small moments of encouragement sustain people under pressure• Why professionalism often masks extraordinary resilience• How leaders can create emotional steadiness without solving every problem

⭐ Key Leadership Takeaway

Some of the strongest people in any organizationare the ones fighting battles you will never see.

Leadership maturity includes:

recognizing hidden effort

honoring emotional endurance

offering normalcy during abnormal seasons

understanding that encouragement is often enough

🎧 Reflection Question

Who in your workplace might be carrying more than you realize?

And what small act of steadinesscould help them carry the next load forward?

Episode Description

Crazy Ivans: The Leadership Discipline of Looking Back

What if the most strategic move in leadership isn’t forward—but backward?

In this episode of I’m Just Getting Started, we explore the concept of the “Crazy Ivan,” a Cold War submarine tactic used to disrupt patterns and reveal what’s hidden.

Organizations rarely pause long enough to look back. But when they do—intentionally and with purpose—they uncover patterns, assumptions, and tensions that quietly shape their direction.

This episode offers a practical framework for building reflection into leadership rhythms, including how to analyze success, create meaningful team dialogue, and develop self-awareness through structured reflection.

Because sometimes the clearest way forward…is to first understand what’s been following you.

🧭 What You’ll Learn

• Why constant forward motion can hide critical insights• How “Crazy Ivan” moments create clarity and awareness• Why success is often more useful to analyze than failure• How to build reflection into one-on-ones and team culture• A powerful third-person reflection technique for employees• How to surface hidden patterns without creating defensiveness

⭐ Practical Leadership Tools from This Episode

1. Dissect Success in One-on-Ones

Instead of only reviewing problems, ask:

“What worked well—and why?”

Success creates safer, more productive insight.

2. Use Reflective Team Questions

Try prompts like:

What are we doing that no longer makes sense?

What have we stopped questioning?

What feels harder than it should?

Then share responses collectively.

3. Third-Person After-Action Reviews

Have employees write reflections as if they are their own supervisor.

This creates:

objectivity

honesty

clarity

🎧 Reflection Question

What in your organizationhave you quietly stopped examining?

🎙️ About the Podcast

I’m Just Getting Started explores leadership, growth, and the long work of becoming—through real stories, practical frameworks, and reflective insight.

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If this episode resonates:

⭐ Follow the show⭐ Share with a colleague⭐ Keep building your leadership practice

It might seem unusual to talk about leadership and Taylor Swift in the same conversation — until you look closely at what she has built.

In this episode of I’m Just Getting Started, we explore the leadership lessons hidden in cultural influence, long-term vision, generosity, ownership, and reinvention.

Taylor Swift’s career offers a compelling case study in how leaders build loyalty, shape culture, and play the long game. But her model also raises important questions about shared leadership, accountability, and what leadership looks like in traditional organizations.

This episode reflects on what everyday leaders can learn from her approach — not to lead like a pop star, but to lead with clarity, care, and confidence.

Because leadership that lasts isn’t about spotlight.It’s about the systems and people that remain when the lights go down.

🧭 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why deeply understanding your audience is a leadership superpower• How playing the long game builds credibility and impact• The importance of ownership, boundaries, and agency• How culture is created through meaning and belonging• Why reinvention strengthens leadership identity• The role of generosity and trust in building loyal teams• How hiring exceptional people — and letting them work — multiplies leadership effectiveness• Where vision-centered leadership must adapt in shared organizational environments

⭐ Key Leadership Takeaways

Leadership that endures:

* Understands people before trying to move them

* Protects what matters while sharing success

* Builds loyalty through meaning, not just metrics

* Evolves without losing identity

* Trusts capable people to carry important work

* Plays the long game with patience and clarity

🎧 Reflection Question for Listeners

Where in your leadership right now do you need to:

* trust your team more

* share visibility

* protect your ownership

* or take a longer view of success?

Leadership growth often begins with a simple awareness of context.

📌 About the Podcast

I’m Just Getting Started explores leadership, growth, resilience, and the long work of becoming.

Each episode offers reflective stories, practical insight, and grounded frameworks for leaders navigating real complexity — in conference rooms, classrooms, communities, and everyday life.

🔔 Follow + Share

If this episode resonated with you:

⭐ Follow the podcast⭐ Share with a colleague or emerging leader⭐ Leave a review to help others discover the show

Leadership is not a solo journey.We grow faster when we grow together.

Nine years ago, while preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation, Anthony Donovan received one of the most meaningful gifts of his life — the birth of his godson.

In this reflective episode of I’m Just Getting Started, Anthony explores the unexpected leadership lessons that have come from being a godfather to a joy-filled, Lego-building nine-year-old. From rediscovering the power of play to understanding the deep trust placed in him by his godson’s mother, this story becomes a meditation on joy, responsibility, and the relational side of leadership.

This episode is a reminder that leadership is not only about outcomes and authority. It is also about wonder, growth, and the quiet ways the people we love shape who we become.

In This Episode

• Why joy is a critical — and often overlooked — leadership discipline

• How children model creativity, resilience, and curiosity for adults

• The leadership power of relational trust and influence

• Why playfulness fuels innovation and connection

• A personal story about milestones, mentorship, and meaning

Episode: You Don’t Have to Step in It to Know It’s a Pile of Crap

One of the earliest lessons people learn in organizations is that every workplace has messes.

Broken processes.Unclear expectations.Outdated policies.Systems held together by workarounds.

None of that is surprising.

What is surprising is how often new employees feel like they have to personally experience the worst version of a problem before they’re allowed to believe it exists.

As if credibility requires stepping directly into the mess.

In this episode, we explore a simple leadership truth:

You don’t have to step in a pile of crap to know it’s a pile of crap.

Good leaders don’t force people to learn every lesson through pain.They teach discernment — the ability to recognize problems, listen to institutional wisdom, and avoid unnecessary mistakes.

This episode explores how leaders can help new employees learn faster, avoid needless frustration, and build wisdom without requiring wounds.

In This Episode

• Why new employees often feel pressure to “test” problems themselves• The hidden cost of letting people learn only through painful mistakes• The difference between learning and martyrdom• How leaders can teach discernment instead of endurance• Practical phrases supervisors can use to help new employees avoid known pitfalls• Questions new employees can ask themselves before repeating someone else’s mistake

A Leadership Reminder

Experience matters.

But not every lesson needs to be learned the hard way.

Sometimes the most mature thing a leader — or a new employee — can do is simply listen to the people who have already stepped in the mess.

Quote from the Episode

“Stepping in a pile of crap doesn’t make you more credible.It just makes you smell bad longer than you needed to.”

About the Podcast

I’m Just Getting Started explores leadership, growth, and the everyday lessons that shape how we lead people and organizations.

Each episode reflects on practical leadership ideas drawn from real work, real teams, and real experiences.

Subscribe

If you enjoy the show, subscribe and share the episode with someone who’s learning to lead — or someone who’s just starting a new role.

Because the truth is…

we’re all still just getting started.

How to Lead at 70% Without Losing Trust

I’m Just Getting Started

You will not always be at 100%.

Not emotionally.Not mentally.Not physically.

And yet… the work doesn’t stop.

In this companion episode to “The Cost of Leadership When You’re Leading Through Pain,” we explore a practical and deeply human question:

How do you lead well when you’re operating at 70% — without eroding trust?

This episode covers:

Why leadership culture over-glorifies full-capacity performance

The difference between calibrated transparency and oversharing

Why pretending you’re fine can quietly damage credibility

How withdrawing erodes clarity and confidence

Protecting non-negotiables when your energy is limited

Delegating in a way that builds trust instead of signaling weakness

Managing tone when your emotional bandwidth is thin

Lowering ego without lowering standards

Why steadiness matters more than intensity

We also talk about how to teach this to younger professionals:

Leadership is about sustainability, not heroics

Awareness of your capacity builds trust

Emotional regulation is more important than energy level

Borrowing capacity is a strength, not a flaw

A simple reflection for leaders in a 70% season:

Am I still fair?Am I still clear?Am I still consistent?Am I regulating before reacting?Am I delegating wisely instead of hoarding?

If the answers are mostly yes — you’re leading well.

Leadership isn’t measured by your best days.

It’s revealed by how you show up on your limited ones.

Trust doesn’t require perfection.

It requires steadiness.

Even at 70%.

Absolutely — here are your show notes in your voice and tone.

🎙 Show Notes

The Cost of Leadership When You’re Leading Through Pain

I’m Just Getting Started

The work doesn’t pause when life breaks your heart.

And that’s the part no one prepares you for.

In this episode, we talk about the leadership truth we rarely name out loud: some of the most defining moments in leadership happen when you’re hurting.

Not because you chose them.Not because you wanted them.But because life handed you grief, fear, loss, or exhaustion — on the same day it expected you to attend meetings, solve problems, and show up steady.

This episode explores:

Why leadership books rarely address leading through personal pain

The hidden costs of leadership during hard seasons

The emotional tax of compartmentalization

Why emotional delay eventually comes due — with interest

The burden of carrying everyone else’s weight while carrying your own

The exhaustion of overperformance and wearing the mask

How pain, when processed, deepens empathy and emotional intelligence

Why you don’t have to be whole to lead — just honest

We also talk about how to support a leader who is carrying pain:

Reminding them they don’t have to be perfect

Encouraging them to hand off part of the load

Extending grace for pain-induced edges

Quietly stabilizing the environment around them

Leadership during pain isn’t heroic.It’s costly.

But it’s also formative.

The moments you thought would break your leadership may be the ones that ultimately define it.

If you’re in a season like this — you’re not weak, you’re not failing, and you’re not alone.

And if you see someone holding the torch while carrying invisible weight — step in and steady the room with them.

Because leadership isn’t about pretending the wind isn’t blowing.

It’s about keeping the light alive anyway.

The Kenny Rogers Rule: Leadership Lessons from The Gambler

There’s an old country song that contains more leadership wisdom than a surprising number of management books.

In this episode of I’m Just Getting Started, we unpack how “Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em” is actually a masterclass in navigating difficult conversations.

We explore:

Why hard conversations often fail (too much, too soon, too long)

The difference between relief and resolution

When holding the conversation builds trust

When pausing protects the relationship

When walking away is strategic — not weak

The hard advice I once received: “Know your adversary”

Why reading the person across the table matters more than winning the hand

How to teach younger professionals emotional timing and conversational discipline

Practical reflection questions before entering high-stakes conversations

Leadership isn’t about saying everything you think.

It’s about knowing which move the moment requires.

Sometimes the strongest move is silence.Sometimes it’s clarity.Sometimes it’s restraint.

And sometimes… it’s pushing your chair back and living to lead another day.

In this episode, we explore one of the oldest and most powerful tools for building trust, connection, and culture in any organization — sharing a meal.

Across cultures and generations, breaking bread has always been more than just eating. It softens walls, opens conversations, and creates space for people to show up as themselves. And in leadership, those moments of simple human connection can do more to strengthen a team than any formal team-building exercise ever could.

After 30 years of working with students, staff, and teams, I’ve seen this truth play out again and again: real trust rarely grows in conference rooms. It grows at tables. It grows in small, relaxed conversations. It grows when people stop performing and start connecting.

In this episode, we talk about:

* Why meals often build stronger trust than meetings

* How food creates a natural, low-pressure environment for connection

* The “recipe swapping” that happens when people share stories, experiences, and ways they navigate stress and success

* How simple lunches or coffee breaks can give leaders context they can’t get anywhere else

We also walk through practical, field-tested guidance for using meals as a leadership tool without turning them into awkward or forced moments:

* Preparing for connection without overplanning

* Letting a meal just be a meal — and why that’s enough

* Why skipping alcohol helps keep boundaries clear and safe

* How to listen without trying to fix or over-interpret in the moment

* The importance of simple gratitude after sharing time together

Plus, practical examples for leaders who want to start small:

* One-on-one lunches to build trust over time

* Informal group breakfasts or snack breaks

* Celebrating small wins with shared food instead of more meetings

* Using meals as a way to learn about your team’s motivations, stressors, and lives beyond work

At its core, this episode is about something simple but powerful:When leaders sit beside their team instead of always standing in front of them, culture begins to shift.

Breaking bread won’t solve every challenge.But it will soften the space where trust has to grow.

And sometimes, the strongest teams aren’t built in strategy sessions — they’re built one meal at a time.

Why do so many high performers struggle when they first step into leadership?

Because they were promoted for doing — not for leading.

In this episode, we explore one of the most common (and least talked about) leadership transitions: the shift from being the person who gets things done to becoming the person who helps others get things done well.

Drawing on decades of supervising young professionals, this conversation looks at the predictable habits do-ers bring into leadership, why their first instinct is to “lend their talent” to cover team deficits, and how that instinct quietly turns them into bottlenecks instead of leaders.

We also discuss practical ways supervisors can begin shaping leadership habits before promotion happens — through delegation practice, leadership debriefs, and honest reflection on their own mistakes and decision-making.

In this episode, we explore:

Why organizations promote do-ers — and why that backfires

The do-er’s first leadership instinct: stepping in instead of stepping back

The critical shift from doing to making do

How delegation, coaching, and adaptability replace personal heroics

Why new leaders often feel like they’re failing when they’re actually growing

How leadership post-mortems and debriefs can prepare emerging leaders early

The power of modeling humility and naming leadership missteps

Practical ways supervisors can imprint positive leadership behaviors in high performers

Key takeaway

Doing gets you noticed.

Making do — empowering others and adapting in uncertainty — is what actually makes you a leader.