"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." ~ Indira Gandhi

Photo Credit: Kevin Jordan, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, October, 2025

Greetings -

I hope you, your families and friends are well! 

As 2025 begins its final descent, I am, over the coming weeks, looking forward to a time of reflection and meaningful connection with family and friends. The holiday season provides an opportunity (though it's certainly not limited to this time of year) for the thoughtful and creative expression of gratitude and generosity, both at work and at home. With that in mind, I would like to thank each of you for your gifts of kindness, energy, spirit and, for many of you, your business.

For those traveling over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, have a fantabulous time, be merry and stay safe. My best wishes to you and yours!

Leaders continue to struggle with the multiplicity of demands placed on themselves and their teams. Ever-growing to-do lists, unclear, or worse, non-existent priorities, coupled with finite capacity, imperil their ability to lead themselves and their teams effectively. Fatigue, burnout, and a lack of motivation and engagement are some of the many deleterious (and often, organizational-induced) effects of the modern work environment.

This edition's reading and listening reflects these themes, while providing pragmatic approaches, mental models and other tools to navigate the great grey area that is our present state. Neither a panacea nor a one-size fits all, they are, however, an eclectic and useful range of thoughtful points of view to consider.

With respect and deep admiration for you all, happy reading and listening!

Be well, take good care of yourselves, families and community. 
-kj

PS - (Missed a newsletter? Past editions can be found here: https://www.kevinjordan.coach/blog. And if you hit paywall on an article(s), feel free to send me a note and let me know what you need. I have subscriptions to many of the sources that I cite.)

Featured: The Restorative Power of Small Habits.

As our work landscape continues to evolve, so too has the role of leaders and what it means to successfully lead in today's workplace. Faced with unremitting professional and personal demands, increased pressures and expectations and anxiety about the future, leaders and their teams are struggling to mitigate burnout, exhaustion and entropy as they navigate these many demands. The questions are not what are the issues; rather, they are how best to address them. And, “am I enough?”

Separating the signal from the noise is paramount to finding appropriate, specific paths to restoration and rejuvenation contextualized to our unique circumstances. In doing so, we have the opportunity to shift our current mental models of work-life interconnectivity. Most importantly, we can then create the space and energy to reframe our approach to establishing new, positive and sustainable changes.

"Increasing daily resilience not only helps with everyday well-being, it also helps leaders stay effective in crisis situations because it builds the skills to be mindful of their energy and methods to keep it at optimal levels."

Articles

Harvard BusinessReview: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Small Breaks During a Busy Workday. "Many people operate from the belief that there’s too much to do and they can’t afford to pause during their workday. But taking effective breaks is essential to preventing burnout."

Harvard Business Review: When the Best Leadership Skill Is Just Being Present. "When leaders practice attunement, employees don’t just feel heard—they feel anchored. And in a world that’s increasingly chaotic, that’s the difference between disengagement and resilience. As a leader, your presence alone is powerful. You don’t always need the perfect words. You don’t always need to solve everything. You just need to show up—with an open heart, a calm body, a curious mind, and the willingness to notice."

Gallup: Purposeful Work Boosts Engagement, but Few Experience It. "Employees with a strong sense of purpose at work are 5.6 times as likely to be engaged in their jobs as those with a low sense of purpose. They are also much less likely to feel burned out or be watching for or actively seeking a new job. These outcomes reflect better individual experiences at work and are associated with improved organizational outcomes, including productivity and profitability."

Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge: In Tough Times, Psychological Safety Is an Asset, Not a Luxury. "The ability to report mistakes and raise concerns without fear can be a powerful organizational salve. Research by Amy Edmondson and colleagues probes how psychological safety influences burnout and employee retention."

Harvard Business Review: Most Leaders Don't Celebrate Their Wins - But They Should. "When leaders constantly push forward without pausing to recognize progress, they risk burnout, diminished resilience, and poorer judgment...By making progress visible, separating real from self-imposed urgency, and redefining what celebration looks like, leaders can strengthen confidence, sustain motivation, and stay grounded in what’s working—even amid relentless demands."

Harvard Business Review: 5 Critical Skills Leaders Need in the Age of AI. "The bottom line is this: AI will not deliver value simply because firms spend money on tools and infrastructure. It will deliver value when leaders develop the new competencies needed to transform their firms and teams so that they can make full use of the technology’s potential to provide real strategic advantage."

The Wall Street Journal: How Did We End Up With Performance Reviews, Anyway? "They’ve long been reviled by employees. The good news is that many companies are rethinking their approach."

Blog Posts & Opinions

Seth's Blog: Getting To No. "When we offer a generous “no” to someone we care about, we honor our work and their role in it. We care enough to offer them insight about the change we seek to make–and to tell them the truth about what we can’t do at the same time that we’re celebrating what we can do."

The New York Times: The Interview. "Brené Brown Doesn’t Want to Be Your Self-Help Guru Anymore."

Psyche: What makes ‘toxic positivity’ different from a healthy attitude. "Excessive positivity, while well intentioned, can silence the genuine struggles all of us face and can create an environment where only certain sides of ourselves are valued, forcing us to wear masks that don’t always fit. To improve our individual and collective wellbeing, let’s embrace the full spectrum of our humanness and foster spaces within us and around us where it’s OK to be OK, and also OK not to be OK."

Podcasts 

TED Radio Hour: The Art of Choosing What To Do. "The way we spend our hours defines our lives...TED speakers explore how we make choices about time, meaning and attention in a world of infinite options."

Worklife with Adam Grant: How To Say No. "In a world filled with requests, many of us are struggling to stay afloat. Even if you’re not a people-pleaser, the desire to maintain a positive reputation can make it hard to turn others down. In this episode, Adam explores the art and science of delivering an effective “no.” He highlights strategies for setting boundaries with others to create space for yourself—and healthier relationships with those around you." [For a deeper dive, check out the companion podcast with Adam and Linda Babcock, "...a professor emerita of economics at Carnegie Mellon and co-author of “The No Club,” a club of people who help each other set boundaries. Linda and Adam share some of their personal struggles and lessons with around no, discuss Linda’s research on why women take on more non-promotable tasks at work, and explore novel strategies for us all to guard our time against people who don’t respect it."]

Nonprofits Are Messy Podcast: Is “Martyritis” Killing Your Organization? "This episode is about breaking free from the compulsion to juggle everything and instead, prioritizing self-care, wellness, and the ability to say “NO.”" [These insights are by no means limited to folks working in nonprofits!]

Arts, Music & Humor Corner

The New York Times: Barcelona is Made of Math. "For Mr. Santos, math can also inspire ideas about structures that have already been built — a new way to see and appreciate the world. Inspired by this idea, The New York Times created a virtual tour of some of the most striking architecture in Barcelona, a city where math and exploration meet." [This is visually stunning and quite informative. For a deeper dive into one of the features of this story, La Sagrada Familia, please check out this companion piece in The New Yorker.]

Flood: Of Monsters and Men’s New Realities. "Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir discusses marching on with the Icelandic band’s fourth album, All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade."

The New Yorker Humor: Thanksgiving Rider. "This document acknowledges that Lauren (“Talent”) has agreed to appear for a MAXIMUM of THREE (3) days and TWO (2) nights at the residence of her mother (“Venue”) during the Thanksgiving holiday, pursuant to the terms of this agreement."

Reflections

“The entire self-help industry in one sentence: Do what makes mornings exciting and nights peaceful. Will this make me excited to wake up? Will this let me sleep in peace? Everything that fails both tests is noise.” ~ Shane Parrish

"Someday, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer." ~ Phillips Brooks

All Else Is Extra Weight
by Conner Bouchard-Roberts
Food, clean water, shelter.
Means, companionship.
Curiosity, humor.