Doing Leadership
Differently
with Babs Kelly
Courage is what moves us from getting life done as though it is a bullet point on a to-do list to meeting each moment with the attention it deserves. Compassionate, honest, and generous attention.
We all have courage inside of us. When we mindfully practice our courage we cultivate conditions in our lives at home, work, and in the community for trust, creativity, leadership, big thinking, and inspired ideas.
With courage, we create environments in which we and the people around us are invited in and given space to show up with the best of human qualities such as curiosity, kindness, compassion, generosity, honesty, respect, wisdom, and even more courage. We show up with commitment to a purpose that is bigger than ourselves. We show up to have impact.
Courage at work humanizes our conversations, decisions, and actions as well as our skills and practices such as strategic planning, business and service initiatives, change management, and leading and supporting people. With courage, the work we do is more enriching and effective for everyone — for us, the people we work with, and the communities we serve.
This project is for courageous leaders. Courageous leaders who are taking the first steps on their leadership journey, courageous leaders who are exploring and transitioning to what is next, and courageous leaders who are looking back on a long road and want to keep going.
I believe that we all have courage and that we are healthier and wiser with our courage when we connect with each other and generously share stories, questions, ideas, curiosities, and friendship. I have a vision for a courageous leaders community where our hearts, minds, and daily leadership practices build an energy that has others saying “hey, I want in on that”.
Join me in building this community — our world needs more courageous leaders.
Here's how:
This project is my calling — a calling to bring my life experiences, skills, and gifts to cultivating and nurturing courageous leadership.
I offer the following, tailored to your unique and specific needs:
Coaching
I coach individuals and teams who want to investigate and cultivate the intention, values, and actions of their leadership. Whether you are thinking about preparing for your next position, retirement, or big changes at work for yourself or for the team, my whole person coaching method and individually designed programmes nurture your curiosity, attention, and success. Ask me about the 10 session Leadership Journey coaching package!
I also do group coaching, from here on in better known as Courageous Circles. Imagine you and four to six of your colleagues and friends join me, your guide and coach, in a confidential online group experience devoted to setting and celebrating professional aspirations and goals, to generously and kindly being accountable and supportive, and to cultivating and nurturing the habits, beliefs, and leadership stories that will energize you and your work. You set the pace and the schedule (one to ten 90 minute sessions) and I'll be there for you.
Please note that all coaching sessions are via the Courageous Leaders Project Zoom account.
Designing and facilitating governance and leadership workshops and retreats
Workshops and retreats reflect and inform organizational culture — do not leave them to chance. With nearly 3 decades of experience along with advanced education and training in designing and facilitating workshops and retreats, I will work with you to ensure a meaningful experience and desired outcomes.
Facilitating generative and strategic thinking and planning
I work with organizations that are ready to make a difference in why and how they do their work. If you are thinking what I'm thinking when it comes to the same-old-same-old “where are we going?” discussions and are ready to go big and beautiful with why your organization exists and how you want to do your work (and really isn't this why you get up in the morning?), then let's talk about how we can do this.
Designing and hosting purposeful discussions, meetings, and gatherings
When you bring people together It is your way of saying to everyone that their time is valuable and that they are wanted at the event. It is also your opportunity to disrupt the same-old ruts or habits that emerge when you and your team or the whole organization get together.
Invite me in and I will spark the engagement you need to warm up minds and hearts so that everyone is ready to take the event from great to mindful-shifting awesomeness. Whether it be an exploratory BIG discussion, a problem-solving meeting, a staff professional development day, a conference, or time away for the team to get re-energized, I'm here for setting the environment and holding the space for getting curious and engaged about how we work together, how we serve our communities, and how we reach for something bigger than we thought was possible.
I approach my work with friendship and positive regard and have developed what I call whole person coaching and facilitation. As a whole person each of us has experiences, strengths, hurts, resiliency, and beauty that we bring to our courageous leadership.
As said by the Zen monk and teacher Shunryu Suzuki,
Each of you is perfect the way you are . . . and you can use a little improvement.
My life includes two kind-hearted, wickedly smart, and good-humoured adult sons, a beautiful and loving husband, and a variety of cats and dogs that help ensure that a super clean and tidy home will never be a priority.
Whipping up things in the kitchen and feeding people brings me joy. I also garden and craft with great gusto, but little skill.
Some of my details include that I have been a successful public sector senior manager and not-for-profit executive director. I have an MLIS and an MBA. The MLIS makes me a librarian and information seeker — I can't help but seek out, make sense of, and share information relevant to my work. The MBA experience honed my skills and smarts for challenging barriers and forging new paths for healthy, wise, and successful leadership and work dynamics. Along the way I have pursued training and certification in skills and knowledge areas that bring depth and meaning to my work including facilitation, dialogue, coaching, creative problem-solving, design thinking, adult learning and instruction, organizational development, strategic planning, and advanced leadership and management. Most recently (April 2024) I received a Master Certificate in Mental Health and Psychological Safety at Work.
Brené Brown. Brené's gift of the words “strong backs, soft fronts and wild hearts” and her compendium of emotions and experiences in Atlas of the Heart re-energized my work in leadership and organizational development. Work with me, and you will most likely hear me giving a nod to Brené as I ask, “what is the story we are telling ourselves?”.
Christina Feldman. Christina's teachings at Bodhi College on recognizing patterns and the suffering they cause has led me to evaluate and better understand my own life and have provided an additional generous and kind lens for supporting leaders, teams, and organizations with their own growth.
Tuesday Ryan-Hart. A few years ago, when I first encountered Tuesday's work at The Outside, I felt like I had met a friend and guide. My belief that systems can change and that we enact that change with optimism, compassion, generosity, and curiosity is frequently re-fuelled by a podcast, blog post, or other words of insight from Tuesday.
Cyndi Saurez. Cyndi is the President and Editor-in-Chief at NPQ. I like process and Cyndi's work reminds me that it isn't just the process, we are here to affect change for a better world.
Scott Shigeoka. Scott is the author of SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World. If you are not in a book reading mood, just spend a few minutes on his website and I dare you to not to start to feel curious about, well, being curious. I am much taken with his wisdom that “curiosity is earned not deserved”.
Simon Sinek. Thanks to Simon and his The Optimism Company, my work always starts with “why?”.
Margaret Wheatley. Margaret first caught my interest in the early 2000s when a colleague recommended her work on complex problems and deep inquiry. I don't know exactly when or where I encountered her wisdom on giving preference to curiosity over certitude, but it is now one of my guiding principles.
I offer a complimentary 30-minute consultation, via Zoom, to answer your questions, map out some next steps, and begin our working friendship.
To honour our time, please leave details in the contact form, such as who you are, what is on your mind, and how you think we might work together.
