My Circus, My Monkeys

For many of us in Higher Ed, this semester has risen to the level of traumatic. Now we are used to dealing with trauma to a certain extent, but today I want to tackle a new topic for us - complex trauma. And to do this I’ve invited my sister, Laura Jarvis Brackett, a trauma focused therapist, back to discuss what complex trauma is and how it might be impacting you, your team members, and even your...

Are you and your team getting the results you want? I know you're busy almost every day. But does that busyness actually get you where you need to be? If you're not getting the result you want, your autopilot programs might need some fine tuning. In this episode, we talk about the function of autopilot programs from the perspective of an actual pilot. You are on autopilot 95-99% of the d...

Do some of these stressors sound familiar? Are you tired of not getting what you need from your supervisor? Are you frustrated that your team isn’t doing things the right way? Are you and your team rushing from meeting to meeting without time to think? And finally, do you and your team simply have too much to do on a regular basis? In this episode, I’m revisiting my interview last fall with Karen...

Have you found it challenging to develop your younger employees into the leaders of tomorrow? In this episode, we answer a question from a listener that begins with, “Dear Anne, I am feeling like it is hard to build up the next cycle of leaders in my department.” And ends with “What types of things can I focus on to truly adjust the culture?” So we discuss not only how to grow leaders, but also ho...

Whether it's midterms, the end of the semester, or prepping for the beginning of the semester, when things ramp up, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder exactly how you're going to get everything done. In this episode, we'll dive into four ways you can better manage these stressful times, so you can not only get the most done, but also the most important things done. If you...

Did you start having folks do Strengths on campus, but then things just kind of stalled? We often get asked, "How do you actually implement CliftonStrengths on campus?" Whether you already started this process and it fizzled out or you're considering using it with your team or on your campus, in this episode we cover three very do-able ways you can integrate Strengths on your campus...

If you're a supervisor, you want to be successful - both for yourself and your team. But since most supervisors don't get the training they need, where do you start? In this episode, we cover the three S's you need to be a successful supervisor - Strengths, Supervisor Skills, and (Effective) Systems. We'll cover why these three S's are so important and how to get started i...

The new administration certainly started off with a bang. This left many of us scrambling to understand what changes might impact us, our team, and our students. In times of uncertainty, it’s all too easy to get sidetracked by worry. Unfortunately, worry doesn’t make anything better and zaps our energy. That means you’ll have less energy to push back or forward. In this episode, we talk about how...

No matter which way you voted, the new administration poses challenges to the Higher Ed field, especially those working in DEI. Many of us are concerned for ourselves, our team, and our students. In today's episode, Dr. LaShawnda Fields,  Scholar of Equitable Experiences in Higher Education and teacher of social work practice, joins us to discuss her thoughts on the election and even more imp...

Happy New Year! It's 2025. We wrapped up 2024 talking about how small shifts in thinking and behavior can significantly change the trajectory of your life. If you wanted 2024 to turn out differently than it did, you probably had a list of things you meant to do to upgrade how you showed up as a supervisor and in your life that you never quite did. In this episode, we talk about getting into a...

As the end of the semester and year approaches, it's natural to think about all the things you have and haven't done. There's probably a few things that you wanted to change about yourself or your work, but you never quite got there. Thinking about having to add them to next year's to-do list can feel discouraging. In today's episode, we talk about how just making small sh...

If you work in Higher Education, you're most likely concerned about what the election results mean for you, your institution, and your students. In this episode, we talk about ways to better process all these emotions, understand how we got here, and plan for the future amidst uncertainty. Link to article, Election Grief Is Real. Here’s How to Cope https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/e...

Supervisors frequently encounter similar challenges. When those problems pop-up, it can be easy to focus on the situation. When that happens, you spend loads of time and energy dealing with recurring problems. But when you dig deeper and find the root cause, you can change the systems that are creating the problem. In this episode, we break down three common supervisor challenges to discover what&...

If you want to be a better supervisor, you probably think you need to focus on information related to how to manage your team, right? While you do need to know what effective supervisors do, that's only part of the solution. Who you are now impacts the type of supervisor you are now. If you want to upgrade how you supervise, you also need to upgrade your identity. In this episode, we discuss...

We’ve discussed in many episodes just how important self-care and stress management are to you as a person and a supervisor. Today, we have a guest, Morgan Starr-Riestis, who has a degree in neuroscience, is a licensed therapist, and had developed her own system to fill the gaps that current mental health practices miss when it comes to healing and growth. In this episode, Morgan goes into more de...

It can be challenging to give yourself permission and space to invest in yourself. But you cannot effectively supervise your team, if you don’t have what you need. In today’s episode of My Circus, My Monkeys, I interview Karen Smolarek, Director of TRIO Student Support Services at University of Wisconsin – River Falls and incoming President of the Educational Opportunity Association (EOA). Karen h...

The beginning of the school year brings excitement and challenges. Add to that people's emotions and motivations and leading your team can become complicated. In this episode, we unpack a question from an HR Director about how to manage team members who seem to shut down when their excitement is thwarted because their ideas or suggestions aren’t implemented. We'll unpack what might be go...

It's August. For most folks in Higher Ed, it's one of the busiest time of the year. If you've already been wondering whether you should stay in your job, this episode might seem like poor timing. But if you're trying to decide whether to stay or go, you need to know whether your institution and your supervisor really have your back. If not now, when? In this episode, we dig int...

One important aspect of performance management is setting clear expectations for your team members. That can be challenging because supervisors are often so busy, we don’t feel like we have the time to get clear on what we expect. To make things even more complicated, there’s often a story that good employees should go above and beyond basic expectations. In this episode, we unpack where the idea...

You know there are plenty of things that need to be fixed on your campus and in Higher Education. But when you have staff members that only seem to focus on the negative or are chronic complainers, it can negatively impact your team and add to your stress. Complaining is often a symptom of a larger problem, so in this episode, we’re going to dig into why folks on your team might be focusing on the...

In a recent coaching call, someone asked me what they're supposed to do with all these emotions people are bringing to the workplace these days, especially with newer generations. We had a great discussion, so I wanted to break down a few of the key points we discussed for you here. In this episode, you'll learn the role emotions play in making decisions, how to figure out what those emo...

Using CliftonStrengths with your team is a fantastic way to increase your productivity, innovation, positivity and sense of wellbeing. And when we finally find time to set aside for that initial training, it can be a great experience. The tricky part always seems to be what comes next. For many teams, life gets in the way and that initial excitement just fades away. That’s why in this episode, I’m...

Chronic stress negatively impacts so many things in your life, including your relationships, decisions, creativity, productivity – the list goes on and on. But you know those people and situations that stress you out? You have the power to make them less stressful. In today’s episode, you’ll learn how to deconstruct the situations that cause you stress. Then you’ll learn how to upgrade how you rea...

Employee retention continues to be a hot topic in Higher Ed. Over the past six months, Alicia and I did a session titled, "The Truth About Employee Engagement" at conferences and as webinars based on the data collected in the CUPA-HR 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey.  In today's episode, we're going to cover a few key take aways from that session, including the #...

Last week, we watched the 2024 solar eclipse. Normally, the sun shines brightly bringing warmth and light into the world. But when there's clouds or a pesky moon that gets in the way, there's darkness. This is a great metaphor for our own lives. The world needs our warmth and light to transform. In this episode, we talk about how things in our own lives might be eclipsing our brilliance....