Summer shift: lighter rhythm, clearer priorities

Reader,

First, thank you for continuing to receive my emails. It means so much, and I love getting your replies.

In this one, I’m sharing how I plan to shift this content—and why.

A little context.

Any leadership approach that can’t land the plane—all the way to the ground where you actually live and work—is useless.

It has to meet you where the rubber meets the road.

In the daily moments. In the challenges that require a response now, not later.

Over the last six months, I’ve shared tangible ways to think about leadership and team to:

Demonstrate the power and usefulness of my model
Offer perspectives that help you get better results in a team
Provide actionable steps to develop yourself and others

There’s still a place for this kind of content—and I’ll bring it back in the future.

But now, it’s time for content that matches the season.

Summer rhythms.

For many of us, summer just isn’t the season to sit down and process big concepts.
It’s a time for less. Lighter.
To free up what’s been stuck.
To be in motion—even adventurous.

So, I’m shifting my newsletters to mirror the season.

A view of Jenny Lake on the way to Needle Eye Tunnel.

The path to clearer priorities.

Last week, my husband, three kids, and I went backpacking in the Rocky Mountains.

Up the rocky trail to Lost Lake.
Across a boulder field on the side of a mountain.
Up, up, up to the Pipeline Trail.
A two-mile detour to the top of Eldora Ski Resort.
Then back to the trail for an overnight at Arestua Hut.
Up and over the Continental Divide at Needle Eye Tunnel.
And finally, down to Moffat Tunnel, where we’d left a car before the trip.

Our dog, Pepper, carrying her pack over the divide.

Three days. 17 miles. Nearly 4000 feet of vertical. 11,670 feet at the top.

The payoff?

Strength. Endurance. Fun.

And a view that’s impossible to see unless you’re at the tippy top.

Why am I sharing this?

Because this is also the path to clearer priorities.

Confused priorities.

When we don’t know which step to take next...
When everything feels jumbled, confused, and overwhelming...
It’s usually because we’ve lost sight of the bigger picture.

In the weeds, everything seems important.

The power of a higher perspective.

But when we look up, ahead, and further down the path—most things fade into the background.

From a higher vantage point, the real priorities emerge.

Back when I was leading a business community, I saw the true power of perspective.

We focused on the future—just out of reach, yet coming quickly—and it changed everything.

We viewed every challenge and opportunity through the lens of:

The change that's coming.
The critical ways we must adapt.
What it takes to move your leadership and team forward.
Where you're trying to get to.

The payoff?

A higher vantage point that reveals what simply can’t matter in light of where you’re headed.

It's true for Founders and CEOs.

And it's true for rising leaders.

Perspective changes everything.

So over the next few months, I hope to engage in a conversation with you that:

Cuts through the noise
Sees farther down the path
Discerns the real priorities from the ones that won’t move you forward

Less. Lighter. In motion.

A new format.

The format will shift too—so that each email offers a quick read that can:

Provide a higher perspective
Help you see farther down the road
Zero in on what really matters right now
And keep you moving forward

And, I'll be sure to ground the higher perspective with at least one actionable idea you can apply right away.

For example:

What it takes to draw out the best in a new generation of leaders
How words like security, entitlement, purpose, and balance are being misunderstood between CEOs and their teams
What collaboration and accountability look like in self-directed, high-energy teams
Why leadership models of the past don’t work now
How leaders unintentionally get in the way of their team's potential

And more.

Step 1: Slow down.

The first step to gaining a higher perspective?
Slow down long enough to look up.

So, for this week, I'd love to share my favorite post on the topic from Steve Chandler.

It doesn't seem like it would be true.

It doesn't seem like slowing down would get more done.

But it does.

Every day I do it, I get more done.

Every day I experiment with slowing down I understand the tortoise and the hare.

If I'm doing the right thing, I can do it as slowly as I want, and my life will get better.

If I'm doing the wrong thing (caused by a stressed, rush-rush contaminated decision-making process) it doesn't matter how fast I go, I'm going to be even more STRESSED when I'm finished because it wasn't the wisest thing for me to be giving my time to.

And I know it, and it stresses me out to know it.

If I am on the wrong road, it doesn't matter how good I get at speeding down the road. It's the wrong road.

I need to remind myself of this: Slow down and win.

Take your sweet, gentle time and have this one conversation ahead of me be relaxed and warm so that the relationship I have becomes relaxed and warm.

Slow down.

E v e n s l o w e r t h a n t h a t.

There you go.

Enjoy!

Sara

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