Psychological Safety - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

service based leader listening building respect and motivation

Why Service-Based Leadership Is One of the Most Effective Leadership Skills

December 15, 2025

Service-based leadership is about making work easier, clearer, and more human for the people around you. Service-based leaders inspire the most effort, loyalty, and follow-through.They aren’t the loudest or most dominant. They’re the ones who consistently remove friction for their teams — who listen, anticipate obstacles, and step in to help without making it about themselves. That kind of leadership doesn’t just feel good.It works. Key Takeaways Why service-based leadership gets results Why Service Inspires People to Do Their Best…

Confident leader in naval uniform standing at attention, embodying calm, steady leadership presence.

How Leadership Presence Brings Your Values to Life — Especially on the Hard Days

December 12, 2025

Trust at Work

Leadership presence is tested when pressure rises, emotions run high, and people look to you for steadiness. Key Takeaways When things are calm, leadership presence is easy. Most leaders show up as their best selves. Values feel clear. Decisions feel rational. Teams feel steady. But leadership isn’t measured by the easy days. Who you are as a leader—and how others see you and respond—is defined by how you handle the hard stuff. Leadership presence is what allows you to live…

Person journaling beside a winter window, reflecting on personal leadership values.

A Simple Exercise to Define Your Signature Leadership Values

December 10, 2025

Trust at Work

Leaders make their biggest leaps when they plan who they want to be when things get hard — and dedicate themselves to those values. Key Takeaways Why defining leadership values matters: Leadership presence isn’t charisma, confidence, or polish. It’s the steadiness that comes from knowing what you stand for and being able to return to those values in the moments that matter most. Your values shape the culture your team experiences every day — how people communicate, raise concerns, solve…

employee engagement vs employee satisfaction at work

Employee Engagement vs Employee Satisfaction: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters for Your Business

December 5, 2025

Motivation at Work

When comparing employee engagement vs employee satisfaction, which should you measure? If your company is still relying on employee satisfaction surveys, it may be time to shift toward measuring employee engagement — the metric most strongly linked to performance, retention, and profitability. For more than a century, researchers have tried to understand what helps employees thrive and what drives productivity. Today, most organizations focus on employee engagement, not satisfaction, because engagement is what truly predicts effort, innovation, and long-term value.…

when in doubt try empathy for My Gratitude Project

Gratitude and Empathy: My Tools for Healing | My Gratitude Project Day 28

November 28, 2025

Gratitude Project

For me, gratitude and empathy aren’t just professional skills, but deeply personal ones. In my experience, they are closely related. When everything feels like it’s crashing down and problems seem to be everywhere, these are the tools I turn to. I myself have had dark times, days when tears wouldn’t stop, when darkness was everywhere, and I felt broken and lost. The reasons don’t matter anymore. At that time in my life, I turned to mindfulness and meditation to bring…

Why Some People Struggle with Empathy | My Gratitude Project Day 24

November 24, 2025

Gratitude Project

When an office has a difficult employee, leaders come to me asking why some people lack empathy. It is common to believe that some people simply lack empathy. I understand why some people believe this, even though every human brain (and many animal brains) have mirror neurons in our brains that hardwire us for empathy. So, why do some people seem incapable of understanding others? I’m not qualified to discuss the effects on empathy of neurodiversity conditions like autism, narcissism…