Riverdrop Coaching & Consulting

What I'm Sitting With I hosted a PopUpThinkTank session the other week on significance scarcity, which, admittedly, you might be tired of hearing about! But I had an aha in the wee hours of the morning and wanted to share it with you. In my session, I shared the context that so many of the derailing moments I have witnessed or experienced started with behavioral patterns that reminded me of what can happen in scarcity: a turning inward; a hoarding, hunker-down instinct; a competitive,...

What I'm Sitting With I am sitting, alone, in a completely empty and quiet house on a weekday, for the first time in over a month. Maybe all summer. The kids are back in school. There are no construction workers at my house. The only sounds—beyond the clicking of my fingers on the keyboard— are from the clock in the hall, the dehumidifier in the basement, and the ebb and flow of cicada song outside my back door. It's particularly loud, now that I attune to it. It is at once peaceful and...

What I'm Sitting With Each year, we plan a beach trip during the summer. My husband is from the East Coast; there's something about the ocean that brings him to life. I didn't spend much time at any beach until high school, but I find that same peace there now. Some years we go to Bethany or Rehoboth, but for the last two we've come to the Outer Banks, renting the same house both times, north of Corolla on the 4x4 section. It's familiar —same rooms, same rhythm— and different: August...

What I'm Sitting With “Mama, can I look at your treasures?” My 4-year old son asked me as he opened the dresser drawer that holds all of the decorative boxes I’ve collected in my world travels. He insists that they’re from the “seven seas,” as if I’m a fictional swash-buckling pirate who has collected booty. In reality, the treasure box he spent the most time in contains a collection of coins. Not the rare minted ones, but the challenge coins that were given for a job well done, what feels...

What I'm Sitting With There is a saying —maybe you've heard it— that we judge ourselves by our intentions and other people by their actions. I haven't looked up where it comes from, but it's shown up for me (and my clients) in some interesting ways. I remember when my oldest was two or three, I got overwhelmed with frustration. I yelled. I might have slammed a door or stomped my feet. As soon as the frustration wore off, the guilt stepped in: I should have been able to maintain composure; I...

What I'm Sitting With Happy anniversary, newsletter! When I started writing this newsletter, my intent was to surface themes from my life and the lives of my clients as they pertain to life and leadership. Now that I’m a year in, it’s been an interesting exercise to see what the meta themes are, and if we can make any inferences about what leadership is asking of us lately. It’s basically the newsletter equivalent of a clip show. I hope you enjoy, and hope that you’ll share what is resonating...

What I'm Sitting With As I walked up my basement stairs on Friday night into the kitchen, I was greeted by the unmistakable smell of sawdust from our latest Big Deal™ home renovation. Almost immediately, I was transported to a memory from a little over ten years ago when I saw the new kitchen cabinets in our house during our first Big Deal™ home renovation. I could almost see myself standing in the middle of that half-finished kitchen, tears in my eyes, marveling at how beautiful the cabinets...

What I'm Sitting With As you may know, I’ve been preparing for a DisruptHR talk (this week! Thursday!), and while it has disrupted (ha) my content plans a bit, it’s also been filtering some things to the surface. A few months ago, I sat down with one of the event organizers. She told me the event would be loosely themed around getting HR into a more strategic position. I haven’t worked in HR, per se, but I do have a lot of experience being in a supportive function. The first thing that came...

What I'm Sitting With I have played piano for almost my entire life, to varying degrees. I was never a concert pianist, although I did one time accompany a friend while she sang (aside: I was probably over-confident in my offer, but she did great anyway). I have vague memories of a piano teacher named Gregg who dismissed me from his practice. The way I remember it, he made some comment after a lesson about how much I must have practiced. My dad admitted that I hadn’t practiced at all. There...

What I'm Sitting With Displaying humanity in leadership can feel risky. Feelings and discomfort invite an element of "too-big-ness" that is hard to hold. We say people are our priority. But when their humanity shows up in ways that disrupt control, timelines, or our sense of competence, it can feel much harder to stay aligned with that claim. Years ago, I sat in a 1:1 with an employee whose mother was dying from late-stage dementia. I had been in the role for just a few months and was still...