This is Johanna Rothman’s August 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Leaders often struggle with their actions. How hands-off should they be? When should they walk around and listen? Can they trust people to do their jobs? Can they support the people they lead and […]
How Can We Tell the Difference Between Real Leadership and Leadership Theater? Read More »
As a consultant, I offer (allow) many contact methods: my various email addresses, a few Slack channels, and several Discord channels. That’s not all. I also have contact forms on my websites, a phone number, and my various social media. If I had to add it up, I suspect there are over 15 ways I
How Many Contact Methods Do You Allow, Check, and Use? Read More »
We often hear “strength” used to describe leaders in our communities, at work, and certainly in politics. Often, those who talk about being “strong” equate that strength to “power.” While I do think there is a power component to strength, I don’t agree with literal power, where the “strong” leader uses/abuses his or her power
What Does Leadership Strength Mean to You? Read More »
Some people think leadership is the act of saying, “Come this way.” They think the leader is solely responsible for setting the goal and the direction. Worse, they might think the leader is the person who tells people what to do and how to do it. True, parents do that with children, especially when the
What Does Leadership Mean to You? Read More »
Many of us think of leaders as people with titles, bestowed leadership. In my experience, we all have the possibility to exercise our leadership—and part of that is seeing that we have alternatives we can consider. So adaptable leadership means we need to generate options, which means we need to see the reality of our
How Can You Incorporate Adaptability Into Your Leadership? Read More »
Many people keep searching for this “new normal.” In my opinion, too many of them want the new normal to be just like the old normal was. But we’ve learned so much through this pandemic. I don’t want to “go back” to the old ways of working and living. Instead, I want to go forward
How Do We Lead to Create an Adaptable New Normal? Read More »
I’m part of another group writing effort that’s just starting. We were using regular email, not a listserve to communicate. I got confused with all the emails because we didn’t use good email etiquette such as separating new topics into new threads. Because we didn’t have a list, I couldn’t apply rules/filters to make it
Do You Have Permission? Read More »
I see a push-pull situation at many of my clients. On the one hand, the managers want adaptability—the ability to respond to changes. And, on the other hand, the managers want great (some say perfect) estimates and assurances that the project will proceed as planned. I don’t see how you can have both things: assurances/guarantees
How Do You Encourage Your Own Adaptability? Read More »
Last month, I took a short vacation in Eilat while Mark went on a bike ride. I ordered some lunch in the lobby “bar.” (No, I don’t drink my lunch!) The bar manager took my order and we continued our discussion from the other day. How was my husband’s bike ride? I said he had
Do You Look for Mistakes or Happy People? Read More »
We often say we have two seasons, here in Massachusetts: Road repair and winter. I’ll add another season to that: falling leaves and acorns. We have a bumper crop of leaves and acorns in my neighborhood. The leaves are not the problem. You can see those little acorns in the picture I took, to the
What’s Hidden from Your View? Read More »