Respect - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

Respect is necessary to enable trust and high performance.

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

A Simple Exercise to Define Your Signature Leadership Values

December 10, 2025

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…

Bright north star shining in a clear night sky, symbolizing clarity and direction in leadership.

Why Every Leader Needs a Signature Leadership Style (and Why Values Are Your North Star)

December 8, 2025

Trust at Work

When things get tough, great leaders lead from values and get results. Skills like managing deadlines, resolving conflict, running meetings, and inspiring teams all matter. But the leaders people remember — the ones who build trust, inspire commitment, and deliver results — anchor those skills in something deeper. They lead with a signature leadership style, shaped by a small set of values that guide their hardest decisions. In unpredictable times, values become a north star. They steady you, strengthen your…

Try empathy kindness compassion for My Gratitude Project

Empathy and Turkeys: A Thanksgiving Reflection | My Gratitude Project Day 26

November 26, 2025

Gratitude Project

Empathy and turkeys — a half-serious post on the day before Thanksgiving? Should we empathize with turkeys? This is treacherous moral ground, and I am of the opinion that in our morals, we must each be guided by our own conscience. Vegans don’t eat any animal products, often because of a sense of empathy with them. I respect that. I also know that domesticated animals wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for farming. Most farm animals wouldn’t survive in the wild—or…

Empathy and Love: Seeing Through the Glass Clearly | My Gratitude Project Day 23

November 24, 2025

Gratitude Project

Empathy and love are inseparable. Both lead to healing and clarity. We all know the sound of empathy and love. Like love, empathy speaks in low tones, like a late-night DJ on a jazz station. Empathy. Is. Slow. It doesn’t rush. It allows people to take back their words and say it again better. There is space for reflection between words and ideas. In Corinthians 13, the Bible describes love (sometimes translated as charity), but it may as well be…

Healing with Empathy: When Listening Opens the Door | My Gratitude Project Day 22

November 22, 2025

Gratitude Project

Even in the toughest moments, healing with empathy can open a door. Recently, I counseled a client to try healing with empathy. For confidentiality, I won’t go into details, only to say that she wanted to repair a badly broken relationship. It wasn’t her fault. The whole situation was difficult and messy, involving trauma, addiction, blaming, half-truths, and bald-faced lies. It was not going to be easy, and she understood that, but it was her best shot if there was…

Empathy and Body Language: Listening Without Words | My Gratitude Project Day 14

November 14, 2025

Gratitude Project

Sometimes we forget to pay attention to empathy and body language: the loudest clues that have no sound at all. Let’s take a moment to talk about empathy and body language. Our bodies are always talking, signaling how we really feel. Regardless of what our words say, our bodies give us away. Unless you are a professional poker player or actor, you probably don’t think about or control how your face and body posture broadcast your feelings to the world.…