KATHY ARCHER
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When Leadership Gets Hard: What to Do When Everything Goes Sideways at Work

30/6/2026

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When Sarah got the text from her boss Derek asking her to come to their office, her stomach dropped.

She had a stinking suspicion that she knew what it was about, and she was worried and, honestly, annoyed.

Her boss had a habit of creating these triangulated messes. Staff would bring him a complaint, and instead of sending them back to deal with it directly with Sarah, making sure staff knew she had the authority, he'd tell the staff he'd "talk to her," and it made things so much more complicated than they needed to be, and Sarah felt like he'd undermined her.
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As she sat there fuming, Sarah rolled through the events of the last few days in her mind. She'd talked to Diane a couple of days ago about her behaviour at the staff meeting. She was always so negative and dropping sarcastic comments again and again. At one point, when Sarah had had enough, she called her on it. Sarah followed up with Diane afterward and was firm about the need for her behaviour to stop and for her to work on being more of a team player.

She knew Diane wasn't happy. She'd heard the ramblings from other staff, and her admin support whispered to her on her way in that Diane had been in Derek's office.

Sarah pushed herself away from her desk, knowing she may as well get it over with.

After meeting with her boss, Sarah felt deflated. She was questioning if she was cut out for this. Maybe leadership wasn't her thing. Was she too hard on people? Was she the problem? Had she been getting this whole leadership thing wrong?

She wasn't doing leadership wrong. Nobody had taught her how to do it right. She'd been handed a job description, told what meetings to attend and what forms to fill out, but nobody sat her down and taught her how to handle conflict, manage relationships or lead with emotional intelligence. That part she was supposed to figure out on her own.

I know that feeling. Not Sarah's exact situation, but that gut punch when something goes sideways at work and suddenly you're questioning everything. I spent 25 years in the nonprofit sector. I've had hard conversations with my boss. I've had staff go around me. I've sat in meetings wondering if I was the problem.

That's actually why I do this work. Because I've been where you are. And I know how alone it feels. And I don't want you to have to go through it alone.

If you've read this far, I suspect something is off for you at work.

Maybe your situation looks nothing like Sarah's. But I wonder if some of this sounds familiar.
  • Your boss yelled at you in front of your team. You stood there, face burning, trying to hold it together while your staff watched. You made it through the rest of the day. But you haven't been able to shake it since.
  • Or your performance review blindsided you. You thought things were going okay. Not perfect, but okay. And then you sat across from your supervisor and heard things about yourself you weren't expecting. Now you're replaying every conversation, every decision you've made in the last six months.
  • Or a board member called with a staff complaint, and you're still replaying that conversation three days later. You've been trying to raise the bar. Hold people accountable. Do the right thing. And this is what you get for it.
  • Or there's no single moment you can point to. Just a slow build. The tension that won't go away. The Sunday night dread. The mornings when you're already exhausted before you even walk through the door.

You don't have to be in a full-blown crisis for this to be hard. Sometimes it's just the weight of it all. The exhaustion, self-doubt or dread. And it sucks to feel that the real you, the one who is caring and capable and actually really good at this work, has gotten buried somewhere under all of it.

And you can't talk to anyone about it. Your staff can't know. Your board can't know. Your colleagues are caught up in their own stuff. So you just keep carrying it.
You're not falling apart. But you're closer to the edge than you'd like to admit.

I get it. I really do. And I'm not just saying that. I've been there!

So what do you do when you're in the middle of it?

Ask yourself this first: Are you actually stopping long enough to deal with it? Or are you just pushing through and hoping it gets better?

Pushing through doesn't work. Trust me, I tried that for years. What does work is having a process to follow because your brain can't think straight in the middle of a crisis. That's why I use The Infinite Leadership Loop with my clients. It gives you a framework to hold onto when everything feels out of control. And it starts with a pause.
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When you are full of doubt, what you need to do is PAUSE. You literally need to stop.

Right now you're spinning. Your mind is going a million miles an hour, and none of it is helping. You're stuck in a negativity spiral, and if you don't interrupt it, it will keep you there.

Close your office door. Go for a walk. Take a deep breath. Something to stop the spiral in your mind and help you feel more grounded.

Then PONDER and process everything that is going on. Grab a journal and just start writing. Get it out of your head and onto paper. The anger. The hurt. The self-doubt. The stories you're making up about yourself. The beliefs that got triggered.

Don't try to fix it yet. Just notice what's there.

But pondering isn't just about processing the hard stuff. It's also about getting clear on where you want to land. So ask yourself: how do you want to feel on the other side of this? More composed? More in control? Like yourself again? What do you actually want to happen here?

Sarah did this the night after her meeting. She sat at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and just wrote. It didn't fix anything. But it slowed her down enough to actually think.

I used to do this too. When something blew up at work, my first instinct was to go, go, go. I'd try to fix it, manage it, push through it. It took me a long time to learn that stopping first actually gets you there faster.

Once you've slowed down enough to actually think, that's when the real pondering begins. This is also where you start to separate what actually happened from the story you're telling yourself about it. When we're spinning, we add a lot to the story in our heads. We turn one staff complaint into proof that we are a terrible leader. We turn one hard conversation into evidence that we don't belong in this role.

I've done this. More times than I'd like to admit. One minute, I think I'm doing okay, and the next, I see myself getting fired. My mind can do crazy things. And I see it in almost every leader I work with.

Sarah had to do that work too. She had to see that the actual situation, a staff member who didn't like being held accountable, was very different from the story she was telling herself, which was that she was the problem.

She wasn't the problem. Though she did have a role to play in what came next, and she needed help seeing that.

Once you're clearer on where you want to be, you can start thinking about how to get there, which is the PIVOT part of The Infinite Leadership Loop. This is where you start thinking about the thoughts, energy and actions you need to get to the vision you saw for what you want to happen.

For Sarah, that meant figuring out how to have a direct conversation with her staff member again about her actions, this time to make a difference and not have her staff go to her boss. Sarah also needed to address the pattern with her boss so it wouldn't keep happening.

With this plan in place, Sarah can PROCEED with courage and maybe even some vulnerability into that conversation with her PEOPLE, her staff and her boss.


​Sometimes it's enough to slow down, get clear on what you want to happen, create that plan and move forward on your own. But sometimes you can't get there alone. The spiral is too strong, the situation is too loaded, or you just need someone in your corner who gets it.

Sometimes You Need Someone in Your Corner

That's where I come in. I call it an SOS call.

Sarah booked one about a week after that meeting with her boss because she was still spinning. She was still lying in bed at night, playing the whole thing and questioning herself every time she said anything around her staff.

In one call, we got her out of her head, feeling more grounded and in control of her thoughts. We looked at what was really going on with her staff member, her boss and the dynamic she'd been navigating for months. Then we mapped out how she would handle the next conversation.

She didn't leave with all the answers, but she had more clarity, felt more hopeful and was confident she had a plan. And she felt like she had someone on her side. I know that feeling too. That was one of the greatest gifts I got from coaching when I was introduced to it as a floundering leader: not having to feel like I had to do it all alone with no one on my team.

If you'd like someone on your side for a conversation that makes you feel less alone and more supported, book a SOS call today.

These calls are for when something has hit the fan, and you need to talk it through with someone who gets nonprofit leadership. I lived it for 25 years. I know what it's like to lead in this sector, under these pressures and impossible expectations.

You bring the problem. We dig in together. You walk away with a clearer head and a next step.
It's $97.

It's for leaders who haven't worked with me before. I'm hoping it is a low-barrier way to get support right when you need it most. Because you shouldn't have to do leadership all alone!

I'm here to help. If you're in the middle of something right now, this is for you.
Book and SOS Call
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How to Not Take Feedback Personally at Work

6/2/2026

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That knot in your stomach before a tough meeting? Here's what to do about it.

I was talking to Sandra earlier this week. Sandra is a manager of a busy, short-staffed program. And, she has a meeting with her boss coming up, and she’s been dreading it for a week.

“Every time I think about it, the knot in my stomach gets tighter,” she told me.

She knows what’s coming. Her boss will point out everything she’s doing wrong, highlight her weaknesses, and Sandra will walk out feeling beaten down instead of supported.

Sandra’s mind has been working overtime, imagining the worst: being fired on the spot, raked over the coals, belittled.

Here’s what I told her: Most of what you fear will probably happen. Your boss will pick you apart. She will be mean about it.

Here's What You Can Control

But here’s what you get to control 

You don’t have to believe all of it. You don’t have to take it as the absolute truth. You get to choose which parts are helpful and which are just noise.

To help her make choices that would help her feel more in control, confident, and aligned, I walked Sandra through how to prepare for the meeting using The Infinite Leadership Loop.
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The Inner Work: Pause, Ponder, Pivot, Proceed

First, PAUSE

Before you react to what she says, take a breath. Even if she’s waiting for you to respond.

Then, PONDER

Get clear on what’s actually true vs. what’s just mean delivery.

Her boss will say: “You have too much overtime. You’re not good at managing your time. You’re always late with reports.”

Here’s where Sandra gets to choose how she hears it.

Victim mindset:

I don’t know how to do this work without overtime
I’ve never been good at managing my time
I’m not leadership material


Response-able mindset:

I’ve been working hard and putting in extra effort
I’m committed, and I care about my job
Yes, the overtime is killing me. I want to reduce it - not because my boss is telling me to, but because I want to figure leadership out AND have a life.


PIVOT your thoughts

Shift from “I’m not leadership material” to “I’m learning, and I care about getting better at this.”

Then PROCEED

Get ready to have the conversation, holding onto that truth instead of the mean delivery.

This is the inner work. But it doesn’t stop there.

Then Comes the PEOPLE Part

The PEOPLE part 

This is when Sandra actually walks into that meeting with her boss. She’s done the inner work, so now she can engage with her boss differently. She can listen to the feedback, take what’s useful, and let the rest go. She’s not reacting from a place of feeling small. She’s responding from a place of strength.

What Happened Next

By the end of our call, Sandra was still nervous. But instead of feeling like a victim of the conversation, she felt in control of how she’d hear it and what she’d do with it.

The tightness in her stomach had started to ease.

Join the Book Club!

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If you’re tired of that knot in your stomach before tough meetings, you might be interested in the 6-week Mastering Confidence Book Club starting March 6, where we work through The Infinite Leadership Loop together.

- You’ll learn how to become response-able.

- How to take back your power.

- How to handle tough conversations without feeling beaten down.

Dates: Fridays 12-1:30 PM Mountain Time on Zoom. March 6 - April 17

Details and registration here: Mastering Confidence Book Club

Join the Book Club
I know what it’s like to dread those meetings. To feel like you’re walking into a conversation where you’ll be torn apart. But you don’t have to keep feeling powerless. You can learn to take back control of how you hear feedback and how you show up. That’s what being response-able means, and you can do it too!

Remember, you don’t have to do leadership alone.  I’m here to help.

~ Kathy 

Do the Inner Work. It’s Worth it!

P.S. If you’re thinking, “I need this book club, but I’m not sure if now is the right time”, trust me, there’s never a perfect time. But there is a right time. And if you’re still taking that knot in your stomach to every tough meeting, that time is now.

P.P.S. Sandra messaged me after her meeting. “It worked,” she said. “I still felt nervous, but I was in control of my emotions and my responses. I didn’t feel small.” That’s what this work does
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If you’re carrying a lot, this one’s for you

28/1/2026

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​It’s a lot right now, isn’t it?

The news. The uncertainty. The weather. The constant pressure to show up for your team, your community, your mission, let alone what’s going on in your personal life! Sometimes, I don’t know about you, but I feel like the world feels like it’s spinning faster than I can keep up with.
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So, just know, if you’ve been feeling that weight, you’re not alone.

And...Those of us who lead in the nonprofit world are really good at taking care of everyone else. We pour ourselves into our work because we care deeply about the people and causes we serve.

But we’re terrible at extending that same compassion to ourselves.

So if you’re feeling heavy right now, this email is permission to take what you need. Not everything here will be right for you, and that’s okay. Just grab what speaks to where you are.

When you need to be kinder to yourself

A lot of us were never taught how to practice self-compassion. We learned to push through, to be strong, to keep going. But self-compassion isn’t weakness. It’s what allows us to keep showing up without burning out.

If you’re being harder on yourself than you’d ever be with someone you care about, I want you to check out Dr. Kristin Neff’s work on self-compassion. She’s a researcher who’s spent years studying this, and her approach is practical, not woo-woo. I go back to it again and again when I feel off, scared, anxious, overwhelmed or sad.

You can find her work at self-compassion.org. There are free exercises, guided meditations, and resources that can help you shift how you talk to yourself when things feel hard.
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My biggest takeaway from learning about self-compassion was learning to hug myself. I do it often now. I know, it sounds a little weird, but honestly, sometimes there is no one else around to do it, or who wouldn't give you the hug in the way you need it.

Sometimes the most important leadership work we do is learning to treat ourselves with the same kindness we extend to everyone else.
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When you need help with a difficult conversation (like, today)

​Speaking of being hard on ourselves, let’s talk about those conversations you’ve been avoiding.

You know the ones.
  • The talk with the employee who is underperforming.
  • The board member who keeps overstepping.
  • The colleague you need to address, something uncomfy with, but keep putting off because what if it goes sideways?

I just put out a new YouTube video called “Scared to Talk to Your Employee? Try This First.” It walks you through my TIP formula, a simple three-step process to prepare for difficult conversations so you can walk in feeling grounded instead of anxious.
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And you know me, the video is practical with strategies you can use immediately. And it might help you finally have that conversation you’ve been dreading.

When you’re done second-guessing yourself

If confidence has been shaky lately, if you’re lying awake at 2 AM questioning every decision, if you’re exhausted from the constant loop of “Am I doing this right?” then this might be for you.

The Mastering Confidence Book Club is a 6-week live program where we work through my book together. But this isn’t just reading and discussing. You’ll get coached on your actual leadership challenges, practice the framework in real-time, and leave with a personal system for rebuilding confidence whenever it wavers.

We start March 6 and meet Fridays from 12:00-1:30 PM Mountain Time for six weeks (with a break for Good Friday, so we run through April 17). I keep the groups intentionally small, so you get real coaching and connection with other women leaders who understand what you’re dealing with.

You can learn more about the Mastering Confidence Book Club and join here
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When you need to replenish (not just push through)

​Here’s something I’m excited about: I’m speaking at the Lead with Heart Summit on April 16, 2026.

This is a virtual gathering for nonprofit leaders who are exhausted from being told to just push through. The whole event is designed around this question: What if leading well didn’t mean sacrificing yourself?

I’ll be talking about “The Myth of After-Hours Wellness: How Real Leaders Restore Themselves AT Work.” Because the truth is, most of us can’t squeeze self-care into the margins of our already packed lives. We need to learn how to weave restoration into how we actually show up during the workday.

You can learn more here - Early bird tickets are on sale now until Feb. 3.

If you’ve been running on empty and trying to figure out how to lead without losing yourself, this might be exactly what you need.
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When you need deeper support

​Sometimes what we need isn’t another workshop or training. Sometimes we need someone to walk alongside us, help us see what we can’t see on our own, and coach us through the specific challenges we’re facing.

If that’s where you are, I have a few coaching opportunities available right now:

Gallup Strengths-Based Coaching

This is for you if you’re exhausted from trying to be good at everything.
The CliftonStrengths assessment shows you your natural talents, the things you’re already wired to do well. Then we build goals based on your actual strengths, not what some job description says you should be good at.
We stop trying to fix your weaknesses and start leading from what makes you brilliant.
  • $2500 for the assessment + 6 months of coaching (bi-weekly)
  • $1300 for the assessment + 3 months of coaching (bi-weekly)

Leadership Circle Profile 360 Assessment and Coaching

​This is a 360 assessment that shows you how you’re actually showing up as a leader, not how you think you’re showing up. You get feedback from your direct reports, peers, board members, and anyone you work with regularly.

For nonprofit women leaders who are so busy taking care of everyone else, this matters because you often have no idea how your leadership is actually landing.
You get the assessment, a two-hour debrief where we go through your results together, and coaching to set goals and work on them.
  • $2000 for the 360 assessment + 3 months of coaching (bi-weekly)
  • $3200 for the 360 assessment + 6 months of coaching (bi-weekly)

If you want to explore coaching, you can book a call with me here or hit reply with any questions.
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So there it is. Take what you need. Leave what doesn’t fit.
If you’re carrying a lot right now, I hope at least one of these resources helps lighten the load.

You don’t have to do leadership alone.

~ Kathy
Do the Inner Work. It's Worth it!
P.S. You can't lead with integrity when you're running on fumes. You can't show up with composure when you're overwhelmed. I know taking care of yourself feels selfish or impossible sometimes, but it's actually what makes you better at everything else. A better leader. A better partner. A better mom. A better human.
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I used to feel powerless in my nonprofit meetings. Here's what changed

21/1/2026

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I was sitting in our common area running our team meeting, and everyone had pulled their chairs from their offices into this slightly crowded circle. The U-shaped admin desk sat in the middle, doors open all around us. I wouldn't say it was cozy because it was crowded, but still, it felt comfy enough.

I was about to tell my team something they weren't going to want to hear, though I suspected they knew it was coming.

"I need to let you know about a decision I've made," I said.

"We have to stop working with clients who fall between the cracks. They now need to fit into one of our three programs clearly. I know we've always kind of slid them in because they have nowhere else to go. Our funder says they won't pay for that work anymore, and I can't find a way to make it work."

The room went quiet.

Jacqueline was the first to pipe up. "That really sucks!"

Dan chimed in. "Are you serious? But what about Becca's family?"

"Nope. They're one of the ones we'll have to phase out."

"Ugh," Dan groaned. "I kind of knew that was coming. I get it."

And one by one, they all nodded or acknowledged in some way that they understood the decision I'd made.

Something inside me recognized this moment. Not just what they said, but how it felt. I was delivering news that went against everything we believed in, turning away vulnerable people and clients we loved working with, and I felt confident. Not happy about the decision. No. Confident in how I communicated the decision. Steady. Strong.

But two years before that...

Two years before that, I couldn't have handled this 

Two years before that, I was walking up the stairs to a meeting in that big empty office space on the second floor. When I reached the top, I could already see it: two camps. On one side, the people who supported me. On the other side were the three people who were against me. They were whispering!!

The room felt huge with harsh light coming through the big windows, barely any furniture, just some chairs arranged like battle lines.

I started the meeting with easy topics, hoping to get people to like me.

But as soon as I communicated a final decision I'd made, I got challenged. Even though I'd hinted at it for a while and they knew it was coming, there was pushback.

I tried to explain. I tried to defend myself. But nothing I said landed. The people on my side spoke up a little, but mostly they stayed quiet. They didn't want to go up against the ring leader, Tina, on the other side of the room with her arms crossed and her face tight and tense.

Then she said, "I already talked to Bruce. He says we will find another way."

My stomach dropped. Bruce, my boss, hadn't said a word to me about it. And now, in front of everyone, I'd been thrown under the bus. Made to look out of the loop. Powerless!!

When the meeting ended, I walked back downstairs to my office with tears in my eyes. My thoughts started to swirl, and I was convinced my boss was planning to fire me. I felt my credibility slipping, the respect of my team, everything I'd built for years, and my family's financial security. All of it, crumbling.

But between that meeting and the second one, I did something. I got coaching. I learned how to have a real conversation with my boss about why Tina needed to go, and he worked with me to let her go. I took leadership training. I learned what leadership actually means. I learned how to make decisions, how to share hard messages, and how to trust my own judgment. I practiced. I built the skills I'd never been taught.

I became competent. And with competence and practice, I began to feel confident

But in that second meeting, surrounded by my team, Dan had just said they trusted my decision even though they hated it. And everyone around the crowded room had nodded their agreement and support.

Suddenly, in that pause, I realized: I can make hard calls and survive them.

Not everyone had to agree with me. Not everyone had to like the decision. I didn't need to be liked. I needed to be trusted. And standing there, steady and strong in my message, I was.

I wasn't the same person who walked down those stairs with tears in her eyes.

I wasn't the person who felt everything slipping away because one aggressive voice said I was wrong.

I was the leader who could hold the weight of a hard choice and keep moving forward.

What changed between those two meetings?

I learned something about confidence that nobody had taught me before. Confidence isn't some personality trait you either have or don't. It's built on three specific things:

1. Competence

If you've never been taught how to lead through conflict, make tough calls, or navigate organizational politics, it's hard to know what to do.

You need the actual skills. I had to learn them through coaching, courses, and practice. You can't "confidence" your way through something you don't know how to do.

2. Courage

Once you learn new skills, you have to actually USE them. That takes guts. It means risking failure, looking foolish, and making mistakes in front of people.

I had to practice having hard conversations, setting boundaries, and making decisions people wouldn't like. Each time I did it, it got a little easier.

3. Confident Mindset

Even with skills and practice, if you don't believe you can do it, you won't.

Your thoughts matter. I had to shift from "I'm losing everything" to "I can make hard calls and survive it." That belief is what let me stand in front of my team and deliver bad news without falling apart.

You need all three to feel grounded confidence.

This is exactly why I wrote Mastering Confidence

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Build your leadership confidence

I heard about too many nonprofit leaders walking down the stairs with tears in their eyes.

Smart, capable people who cared deeply about their work but were drowning under the weight of it.

They dealt with the impossible decisions, the competing demands, the constant feeling that one wrong move could cost them everything.

That was me. And I figured out how to stop drowning. That's why I do this work now. So other leaders don't have to feel that way.

You deserve to lead with the kind of confidence that actually holds up when things get hard.

Ready to build real confidence?

I'm hosting a 6-session book club on Mastering Confidence starting March 6th.

We'll work through the competence-courage-confidence framework together. You'll get practical tools. And you'll be with other nonprofit leaders who understand what it's like to carry this kind of weight.

My job, as I see it, is to help nonprofit leaders stop drowning in work, doubting themselves, and carrying it all alone, so they can lead with confidence, set boundaries, and finally take control of their leadership and life so that they have energy left for the rest of their lives at the end of the day. I'm always here to help you do just that! 


~ Kathy 

Do the Inner Work. It's Worth it!

P.S. More details on the book club coming next week, but if you already know this is for you, grab your copy of Mastering Confidence and register here.
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The Feedback You Never Got -> And How to Get It Before Year-End

18/12/2025

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​As we wind up week three of December, I bet you’re frantically trying to wrap up projects before the holiday break, sandwiching an “important” meeting between a team holiday event and running to your kids’ concert. All the while responding to “just one more thing” before you put on your “Out of office” email, if you are lucky enough to be able to do that.

Maybe you’ve started to mentally check out, counting down the days until you can finally take a breath. In our perpetual state of overwhelm, it’s easy to see how that’s your daily mantra: Just let me get this done, so I can enjoy the break.

And you deserve a break! And I don’t want to add one more thing to your list before you go. However, there is one really important thing you may have overlooked. Something you need to do before you return to work or the busyness returns. You need to PAUSE and PONDER. You need to create a bit of space to look back over the last year before you dive headfirst into the chaos of the new year.

Most nonprofit managers skip this step entirely. They jump straight from December 31st to January 1st without ever pausing to learn from the year they just lived.

I teach my students a different way. Why? Because we all know that most women in leadership never get reliable feedback on their personal growth. That can leave us feeling overlooked and undervalued.

Right now, my students in the Training Library are going through their Annual Analysis, taking a moment to
  •  Celebrate how far they’ve actually come.
  •  They’re discovering patterns they didn’t know existed.
  •  They’re celebrating wins they’d completely forgotten about.
  •  And they’re identifying what actually works for them instead of trying to model someone else’s strategy that doesn’t fit.
​"I had a really tough year and went through so many challenges. Doing the Annual Analysis helped me realize I learned so much about myself as a person and as a leader this year and I feel like it has really made me a better person for it."
~ Member of The Training Library

The Cost of Skipping Your Year-End Leadership Review

​ know you’re busy. Trust me, I get it. You’ve got a strategic planning session in January to organize, a report due before you sign off, a staff schedule to figure out, and probably a million things waiting for you at home.

So why should a busy nonprofit manager take the time to review the past year? Because skipping it costs you. Here’s how:
1. You don’t know what actually worked
Maybe you think you need to attend more networking events next year, but when you look back, you realize the most valuable connections came from the small mastermind group you joined, not the big conferences. That’s important information.

2. You repeat the same mistakes
If you don’t pause to notice that every time you overcommit in January, you burn out by March, you’ll do it again. And again. And again.

3. You miss celebrating your progress
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched a woman leader go through this review process and literally tear up when she realizes how much she’s grown. She’d been so focused on what she hadn’t done yet that she completely missed the transformation she’d made.

4. You set disconnected goals for next year
Your goals aren’t built on the foundation of what you’ve learned about yourself. They’re just random things that sound good or that someone else told you that you should work on.

5. You stay stuck in the gap
You stay stuck in what Dr. Benjamin Hardy calls “the gap.” We often set goals based on who we want to be or what we want to accomplish. But your happiness as a leader is dependent on what you measure yourself against.

The Gap is when you measure yourself against an ideal.
It’s when you think, “I wanted to be more confident this year, but I’m still not where I want to be.” Or “I wanted to have a better work-life balance, but I’m still overwhelmed.”

The Gain is when you measure yourself against where you started.
It’s when you think, “A year ago, I couldn’t have that tough conversation without losing sleep for a week. Now I can prepare for it and handle it with composure.”

When you’re doing your year-end review, I want you in the gain. I want you to celebrate how far you’ve come, not beat yourself up for not being at some imaginary finish line yet. There is no finish line in personal development. It’s a journey, and the only relevant comparison is to who you were a year ago.

Have I convinced you yet? Good. But before you run off to do this on your own, I need to warn you about something called recency bias.

Need a gift for that special person on your team, a colleague, your sister, or maybe even yourself? Grab Character Driven Leadership for Women or Mastering Confidence or maybe even both!
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The Recency Bias Trap That Derails Women Leaders

Recency bias means whatever’s been going on in the most recent past, maybe the last few weeks or months, is what dominates our thinking.
  • If you had a stressful December with budget cuts and difficult staff conversations, then suddenly the whole year feels like it was a disaster.
  • If you go to set goals after you’ve had a relaxing two weeks off over the holidays or while on the beach, you might look back and think, “You know, it wasn’t that bad.”

But both of those perspectives are incomplete. They’re not giving you the full picture of your 12-month journey. You’re missing so much of the story.

​This review process is about gaining a wider perspective on the entire year. Not just the highlights. Not just the hard parts. All of it. The full, messy, beautiful, complicated journey of your growth as a nonprofit leader.

Key Areas for Your Leadership Development Review

You don’t need to do a deep dive into every single day of the past year. That would be overwhelming and unnecessary. But there are some key areas worth exploring.

Your growth and self-discovery
What have you learned about yourself this year? Maybe you realized you’re more resilient than you thought. Maybe you discovered a trigger you didn’t know you had. Maybe you identified a value that’s more important to you than you realized.

Skills you developed
What did you actually get better at? Public speaking? Delegation? Having tough conversations? Financial management? Write it down.

Values alignment
Did you live in alignment with your values this year? Where did you honor them? Where did you compromise them? What does that tell you?

Emotional intelligence progress
How did you do with managing your emotions and understanding others? Where did you get triggered? How did you handle it? What’s improved?

Leadership development
How did you grow as a leader? Did you get better at coaching your team? At balancing tasks and relationships? At asking for feedback?

Self-care and wellness
How did you treat your body, mind, and spirit this year? Did you prioritize rest? Movement? Connection? Or did you run yourself into the ground? As a woman manager in the charity sector, you’re likely giving so much to others. Did you give to yourself?

This isn’t meant to be done in one sitting. In fact, I strongly recommend against that. Give yourself permission to work through this over a few days or even a week.

How to Actually Complete Your Year-End Leadership Review

First, gather some data
This is the prep work that makes everything else easier.
Go through your calendars, both the work one, the family one, and even that one on the fridge. Look at your photos from the year. Scan your journals or notes if you keep them. Check your text messages and emails. Look at what books you read, what podcasts you listened to, and what courses you took. You’re just refreshing your memory about the full year, not just the last few weeks.

​Then, look for themes and patterns
What kept coming up? What surprised you? What “aha” moments did you have? What emotions keep re-emerging? This is where the real learning happens, and you begin to have PIVOTS in your perspective. You start to see patterns you didn’t notice in the moment. You realize that every time you said yes to that one committee, you felt drained for weeks. Or that the months when you prioritized morning walks were the months you felt most clear-headed.

Next, celebrate the gains
Write down what you accomplished. How you grew. What you learned. Who you’ve become. Let yourself feel proud of that. Tell someone about it. Give yourself a high five. I’m serious.

And then, identify areas for growth
Not from a place of shame or “I should have done better,” but from curiosity. What do you want to explore next? What skills do you want to develop? What version of yourself do you want to grow into?

Your Next Step as a Growing Woman Leader


I know how it feels to have no clear way to get feedback on your personal development as a leader. No one was focusing on my inner growth and development either for years. Not the kind of growth about who I was, rather than what I’d accomplished. I had to create my own system for this.

Once I started regularly reviewing my growth, everything changed. I had the certainty that I was evolving. That certainty gave me the confidence to use my strengths and the courage to help others discover theirs, which helped develop a team and team culture in ways I couldn't have imagined.

I’ve now helped hundreds of women leaders in the nonprofit and charity sector do the same thing because I know that your ongoing personal and professional development is your path to success in leadership and life. Without regular analysis of how you’re doing, it’s hard to know what to work on next. And that makes it hard for you to excel.

FREE RESOURCE
​
So here’s what I want you to do today: Download my free Strategic Year-End Review Guide. It’s going to give you an exercise to strategically reflect on the past year so you can move forward with clarity and intention.
Do this free exercise
​

DO THE DEEP DIVE
If you want to go deeper with a structured system, grab the full Annual Analysis like my Training Library students are doing. I'd love to have you join us. The course includes 12 comprehensive worksheets covering everything from your self-discovery journey to your leadership development, plus guided lessons to walk you through the entire process. And as a Training Library member, you'll also get access to the full library of leadership courses, live coaching calls, and a community of women leaders who get it.
Join The Training Library

Do this today because if you don't prioritize your personal growth and development, no one else will. Stop waiting for someone else to tell you how you're doing. Become the ever-evolving woman leader you want to be known for by learning from your past.

~ Kathy 
Do the inner work. It's worth it.
P.S. My Training Library students are doing their Annual Analysis right now. Join us before the new year so you can start January with clarity instead of chaos.
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Tired of starting each year in survival mode?
My 3-week group coaching program, Create Your Nonprofit Leadership Blueprint, will help you
  • Set goals that actually stick,
  • Build sustainable habits
  • Create a personalized roadmap for success.
Join me starting January 9th and make 2026 your most intentional year yet!
Learn more about creating your Blueprint
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