One of the major struggles in aid work that I have encountered both myself and amongst other aid workers is around protecting a certain number of hours during the work week to work on those “important” tasks. You know, the tasks that can help us make a bigger impact, and advance our teams and ourselves professionally. But somehow, it always seems like other things get in the way of working on th...

Coaching is becoming more recognized in international development as a powerful leadership methodology that when used properly will help your direct reports develop professionally, realize their goals and become the best version of themselves. That said, there are a lot of misconceptions of coaching, what it is and how to do it. In this episode I share three common misconceptions (the wrong way ...

It can be scary to seek feedback, knowing that if you are to get genuine feedback there are inevitably things you will find out about that you may not want to know.  Add to that the difficulty of receiving open feedback in some of the cultures where we work in the humanitarian context, and receiving honest feedback becomes even more challenging.  And what do you do once you have received that fe...

Over the last few months I took the advice of some time management books and tried batching.  Batching means implementing similar tasks in one block of time. I am surprised by how much this simple act has freed up my time! For example, I used to spend 8 hours on producing one podcast episode, but after batching I can do about three episodes in four hours! There is much to be said about batching ...

Being vulnerable as a leader can earn you more respect and trust with your team, and also make it more likely you will find out about any problems on the horizon before they become too great.

My guest today, Lane Bunkers, shares how being vulnerable has helped him in his 30 years working in international development and some ways you can do the same when working with your team that will make yo...

The art of delegation in the humanitarian field can be challenging, considering the wide variety of backgrounds of those we manage. Perhaps you have heard of monkey management, a popular article from the Harvard Business Review which explains delegation in terms of monkeys (tasks) and how those monkeys have a tendency to jump onto the backs of their managers.  This upward delegation burdens you ...

As aid workers we all strive to get the sometimes elusive "work-life balance."  It can certainly be tricky, with competing priorities at work and emergencies to respond. 

I chose today's guest, Matthew McIlvenna because although he oversees the emergency operations for WFP in nine countries, he somehow manages to go home at a reasonable hour and devote time to extracurricular activities (one of...

I am reading "The Art of Possibility” and in the section on leadership co-author Bill Zander, who is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, remarks on a momentous realization in his career in relation to leadership:  “The conductor of an orchestra’s true power derives from the ability to make others powerful.  So instead of asking “how good am I?” he replaced that question with “wha...

First impressions count. But second, third and ongoing impressions also count - especially when we are interacting with donors, community members, in government meetings or with our supervisor. Of course we all want to make a good impression on these and others in our life - but do we?  

My guest today, Gerry Sandusky, has over 30 years' experience in TV broadcasting and almost as many teaching...

Let's face it - in international development we are faced with a lot of stress in our day to day work.  This stress is only compounded when we go home and the generator is broken, there is a curfew for security reasons, or we develop malaria after last week's field visit.  To add to this stress further, as humanitarians we put even more pressure on ourselves to do our best because we know by doi...