Hurricane damage.  Flooding.  Civil conflict. 

Whatever the disaster, as humanitarian leaders it is essential we know how to quickly adapt and do the best we can.

And that means being productive while also maintaining our sanity.

My guest today Jenelle Eli is an expert in adapting to extreme environments.  This in part is because her success in her role as Senior Director of Media Relations ...

Do you ever feel like you're not qualified for the position you're in?

If so you're not alone.

Especially for women, it is common to feel what is called "imposter syndrome" or that you don't really belong in your current role.

So how can you overcome it?

The key is awareness and knowing how to recognize it.  

In today's episode Chenai Kadungure and myself discuss what imposter syndrome is,...

If you listen to this podcast you already know how important leadership is in the humanitarian and international development space.

Great leaders can motivate others toward achieving a shared vision.

Not so great leaders can cause team members to work long hours, lose motivation and quit their roles.

So how do we become great leaders, the kind that we admire?

One way is by going WILD.

The ...

Last week we discussed what to do before you set goals for the year.

Today I am sharing an unconventional way of achieving your goals more easily and quickly.

I had not considered this part of goal setting before, but now that I am it has made a BIG difference in how I achieve my goals.

A few simple questions and reflection can put you on track to end your year on track and becoming the pers...

A new year has begun - and that means new possibilities!

The best way to achieve a future you're excited about is to define what you want.

Goal setting is how we define the future we want.

Setting goals is motivating and exciting, but many of us overlook a best practice in setting goals.

In this episode you'll learn what to do BEFORE setting next year's goals as a humanitarian leader.

This...

This episode is a continuation of last week's, which includes advice my husband Shannon and I have based on 32 years' combined experience in the aid worker and humanitarian field.  In this episode you can learn:

• Best thing you can do for your health when living in a difficult environment
• Our best advice for surviving long distance relationships (we have five years experience)
• Daily habits t
...

Just when you think you've established a healthy eating routine... you have to travel to the field.  Whether it's the community or a field office, eating healthy can be challenging when travelling outside of our home base. 

I have struggled with eating healthily in some very rural areas, but it is possible.  In this episode I share with you six tips that will help you to maintain your diet when...

Office gossip can be very damaging to a team and organization, not to mention the reputation of yourself and others! Gossip can lead to low staff morale, feelings of mistrust, and even problems with staff retention. It is therefore essential that we understand how to recognize gossip, what it is and why it happens. In this episode I share this as well as five ways you can turn the toxicity creat...

Everyone has one or more moments in their life they will never forget where they were or what they were doing when an unexpected event took place.  For me it was a typical hot sticky evening in South Sudan, with a broken generator in the hundred degree heat.  I remember getting up in the night to douse my hair with water to cool down enough to get to sleep, and lying back down hearing fireworks ...

In today’s episode Virginia da Graca and her colleague Nuno Delicado share a tremendous challenge they faced which we all fear--- that is, having less funding for programming.  But in this case, their funding wasn’t just slashed a few thousand dollars--- it actually went from an annual budget of $77,000 to zero--- yes, ZERO. 

Being in this situation made them challenge assumptions about what op...