Inward Inquiries - Email Campaign Kickoff

For the past four years, I’ve worked with organizations navigating transitions, growth, and all the messy in-between moments.

From C-suite teams to middle managers, to entire departments, my work is about one core thing: helping people create connected, intentional workplaces —the kind where culture isn’t just something that happens, but something we build together. In conversations with folks across industries, one pattern keeps showing up: so many of our workplace struggles boil down to people problems.

Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to just be a human at work? The truth is, we’re all carrying around invisible baggage - beliefs, stories, wounds, and wisdom - that shape how we show up. Sometimes our “stuff” aligns with someone else’s, and it's a match made in heaven. And other times, we’re expected to collaborate daily with people whose inner worlds don’t quite sync with ours; and that’s where tension, miscommunication, and dysfunction can creep in.

Since we can’t mandate people to process their blind spots or rework their conflict styles, we’re left to navigate the full spectrum of humanness at work.

And this is where I come in. 

I believe that when we make room for people to show up as their full selves — not just their roles — something powerful happens. Connection deepens. Understanding expands. Teams shift.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot (often the hard way!) about what it takes to intentionally build real culture. I’ve had sleepless nights replaying tough group dynamics. But through it all, I’ve seen what’s possible when teams are willing to go deeper, to ask what they need from each other as colleagues, and as humans doing purpose-driven work.

That’s the heart behind this channel. I hope you stay awhile and I hope something here resonates. Because at the end of the day, we’re all just trying to make sense of our relationships...at work, at home, and everywhere in between. 

With purpose, Lucy

Interpersonal Insights from the Field

Each week, I’ll share a story from my work, always paired with an insight, as well as a practical application tip. If you’re an organizational partner of mine, don’t worry - I won't share names or obvious identifiers. I will also change details to keep things untraceable. (No dirty laundry is getting aired here!)

My intention is to share from a place of reflection and wisdom because I believe the more we talk about our “stuff,” the less broken, dysfunctional, or hopeless we feel. In a world where social media makes it way too easy to compare ourselves and assume everyone else has it all figured out, my hope is that these stories feel real, relatable, and transferrable to your life.

Work is a Mirror to Your Personal Life

How you show up at home is how you show up at work, because work is a microcosm of your real life. Your relationships with coworkers? They’re often reruns of your relationships with your spouse, siblings, parents, or in-laws. Don’t believe me? Check out Sylvia Lafair’s book Don’t Bring It to Work: Breaking the Family Patterns That Limit Success. You'll have your therapist on speed dial before Chapter 2.

A few years ago, I did 1:1 coaching with someone who was also part of a leadership skills group I was facilitating. In our 1:1s, this person kept ranting about a colleague he worked with. He was so repulsed by her character and alleged shortcomings that he said it was hard to even be in the same room as her. He insisted he could not bring himself to work collaboratively in her presence. It just wasn't in the cards.

As a coach, your job is to ask questions that help the person uncover what they need. No matter how much I asked, any self-awareness about why this person triggered him so much was completely out of reach. It made group facilitation tricky, to say the least.

In our next coaching session, he seemed frustrated from the onset, so I asked what was going on. He launched into a diatribe about his ex-wife. He said she was vile, horrendous, and when she came to pick up their kids for shared custody that morning, he would not even walk to the door because he could hardly look at her.

The pattern was uncanny, and yet he could not see the connection. I asked if he noticed the similar feelings to what was happening at work and he just shrugged it off. 

Some food for thought...

• Are you constantly critiquing your child or spouse's every move? That critical lens probably follows you into meetings, feedback sessions, and hallway chats.

• Are you the family mediator when drama ensues? Bet you’re the peacemaker at work, too.

• Are you the one ranting about one friend to another? (I see you, White Lotus.) Chances are, you’re consistently doing the same to a co-worker. 

Insight:

Our relational habits don’t clock out. Being accountable and humble enough to own our part in workplace dynamics isn’t easy. But it is how cultures evolve. Self-awareness isn’t soft, it’s strategic. 

Application:

Start noticing the relational patterns you fall into outside of work. Take an inventory (downloadable worksheet below) about the last three moments of emotional distress you have had...what's the common thread amongst those incidents? If you’re brave enough, ask someone close to you what role you tend to play in group dynamics. You’ll probably learn a lot about how you show up at work. And the more we know, even if it's difficult to face, the better off we (and our team) will be.

Bonus Worksheet