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There is a one-page summary of a program I built sitting right here on my screen, it has been finished for weeks, and later this month I am going to stand up in front of a small group at my church and actually present it. For a while I kept it close and only shared with my husband, telling myself it needed one more pass, just a little more polish. Truth is, it was already good enough, as they say. What it really needed was for me to breathe in some courage, step onto the branch, and find out whether it would hold me.
Where am I?
I am a Christian. That is the core of who I am, deeper than my job title, deeper than my skin color, and much deeper than anything I could ever print on a business card. For most of my corporate life, I kept that part of me in a back room with the door pulled closed. My professional self always knew it was there. However, I didn't often introduce that part of me to others. This season of sabbatical is the first time I am opening that door on purpose.
What came out of that is a program I call Become His Hands & Feet in the workplace. It brings my faith together with the corporate coaching content I have been teaching for years. I will be honest: saying that plainly, in a work context, still makes me a little uncomfortable, but I am learning to say it anyway. Here is the part that steadies me, and it is the best part: by acknowledging who is in control, I do not have to carry the grand vision on my own. I just have to listen and respond when God nudges me toward the next thing. That takes a surprising amount of pressure off a Type A personality who is used to owning the entire plan. Do I still identify as a member of the A Team? 100%. But I recognize more and more, with each passing day, who is the MVP of my team.
What do I bring?
Like so many things, this idea didn't start with me. About ten years ago, an executive I admire built a program to help women rethink their careers and, just as importantly, take action, with monthly themes like confidence, personal brand, and networking. I was lucky enough to be in the pilot. When she expanded the program across the organization, I suddenly found myself leading the next group of women in my location, with what felt like impossibly huge shoes to fill.
Here is what that year taught me: you cannot teach what you have not been willing to live. To lead that content well, I had to own it and embody it first, and it changed me as much as anyone else in the room. Then I got curious about whether the content only worked for women like me. I pushed myself to bring it to other employee networks, including Veterans, half expecting it to fall flat. It did not. I have coached plenty of men in the years since, and every one of those conversations has been a gift and a blessing to both of us.
That is the quiet secret of coaching that I keep relearning. I do not have to be the smartest person in the room, and I do not have to have every answer. Good coaching is a back and forth. My job is to bring my experience and let it help someone else see themselves clearly enough to step out. Which, of course, is exactly what I am trying to do for myself right now.
How do I move forward?
So here is my one concrete step, and it is a big one for me. Later this month I am launching the pilot of Become His Hands & Feet, at my own church, during our Fall family night. I built the thing. Now I have to stand up and offer it to real people, and find out if it lands.
If you are curious about what the program actually is, I put together a one-page summary you are welcome to look at, and please reach out if it resonates with you. I have so much more to learn and pour into the program, but I am excited to take it on its first test flight.
And if you are standing in your own in-between, looking up at a branch you have been circling for a while, this is me nodding at you from mine. You do not have to be certain it will hold. You just have to be willing to reach. If you are a person of faith, say a prayer, light a candle or throw a Hail Mary. Either way, I will send a shout up from the choir to you. Then, when you are ready, reach away, and know you already have support.
A question for you
When you picture the branch you have been circling, the one you are almost sure will hold, what is the single thing keeping you from reaching for it?
Come sit with me in the space between. Loose Ends lands every Wednesday. Real talk from the unfinished, one honest moment at a time.
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