The last time I moved into a new house, it was stressful. Actually, that’s not the most accurate statement—every time I’ve moved, it has been stressful!

There are so many decisions that come with moving. Finding a new home. Making an offer. Going through the closing process. Choosing the day to move. Packing—so much packing. And then unpacking and trying to settle into a new space.

It’s a lot.

During the last move, I found myself face-to-face with a leadership lesson.

I had packed and organized everything, and then the movers arrived. It was clear they knew what they were doing. They walked through the house, talked through a plan, explained how they would approach it, and then got to work.

For the last seven years, every spring and every fall, I’ve led a six-week leadership development series at a local university.

We’ve always met on Thursdays from 9-11 am, and I have my departure time down to a science. If I pull out of my driveway at exactly 7:45 am, I know how long it will take me to get onto the interstate and how long I will wait at the 170/64 merge.

In fact, I can also promise you that if I leave on time, I will park my car on the 5th floor of the parking garage that is attached to the building where I facilitate. Not only will I park on the 5th floor of a very full garage, but one of the first five spots on the right, just past the elevator, will be open. I will pull into one of those spots at 8:22 am on the dot.

I say all this with absolute certainty.

I love international travel. Some people like to bring home magnets or shot glasses from a trip, but I prefer to buy a small piece of local art. Those pieces are now displayed throughout my home. They serve as great talking points with guests and as a reminder to myself that I want to be a global citizen.

On my last trip, I found a piece I really loved. It was painted on a small 7-by-9 canvas and wrapped around and stapled to a simple pine stretcher frame. If you’ve traveled much, you know this setup well. Smaller pieces of art stay on the frame and fit neatly into a carry-on bag. With larger ones, you remove the staples, remove the frame, and roll up the canvas for easy transport home.

Our group was spending about a month on a cross-cultural immersion trip in the Republic of Georgia. We tried new foods, visited cultural landmarks, learned about Georgia's history, and, somewhere along the way, strangers became friends.

One of those new friends was a delightful Georgian named Malkhaz.

Picture a man with white hair and a long white beard. Imagine infectious laughter. Sense what it feels like to be in the presence of someone who is very wise.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself spending a lot of time in my car, running errands, squeezing in Christmas shopping, and tying up loose ends that always seem to pop up at the end of the year. I mean, doesn’t everyone forget that property taxes are due in December?

Somewhere between one stoplight and the next, I started noticing that people approach waiting in different ways.

In high school, I worked for a few years at a fast-food restaurant. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it was a much-needed paycheck. I was fortunate that my first real job included a manager who treated people well. He knew our names. He noticed when someone was having a hard day. He cared about the customers, but he also cared about the people behind the counter.

Looking back, I didn’t have the language for it then, but this was healthy leadership.

It had been a long Friday, and I had no one to blame but myself.

I had stacked my calendar like a Jenga tower—four events in one day, each involving clients I love, and work felt life-giving. But even good things, when piled too high, can become too much.

By the time I finished the final workshop, I was running on fumes. I tore apart my backpack, hoping to find a granola bar. Nothing. I checked my car console. Empty. I even cracked open my glove compartment—a home for forgotten things—still nothing.

I hate that I even have this story to tell. It’s been years, but as I type these words, I feel angry and disappointed that this moment ever occurred.

I was still a college coach, and one of our players had a lingering injury.

Our head athletic trainer came by the office and shared that he believed the only path to recovery would be for this student-athlete to go to the hospital, but at this point, she was refusing to do so. He asked if I would speak with her about this, which I was glad to do.

As a college coach, I took a strength-based approach to leading our team. I believed our job wasn’t to fix everything about a player, but to help them do what they do best — and then build a team where those strengths fit together like puzzle pieces.

This approach to developing people and teams has stayed with me for decades.

When I think about skills, I often divide them into three simple categories:

First, I believe over time, most people will learn to identify their superpower. It’s not always glamorous, but it’s consistent. It’s the thing you can rely on when the moment matters most.

I was seated in a circle with a group I had worked with many times before. They had committed to the long haul of team development, the kind of work that isn’t solved in a single workshop, but over time, layer by layer.

When I first met them, things weren’t good. You could feel it in the room. If something didn’t change, people were going to lose their jobs.

But session after session, they began to grow. They started naming the hard things. They brought unresolved conflict to the surface.

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At the Reset Retreat, participants learned the importance of setting down emotional baggage, and how transformational moments happen when leaders work within a supportive community.

Leadership is about learning to travel light—not just in baggage, but in life.

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Great teams, like Coldplay, thrive when every member contributes to the collective success. This blog explores how leaders can create environments of collaboration, where credit is shared, and team success is the focus, not individual recognition.