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The Sage Hill Project Newsletter
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Reflections on Connection-Centered Leadership
Issue No. 5 - When Expansion Feels Like Exposure I leave for Vegas soon to speak at an Empower Her Conference and to launch my first solo book. I would be lying if I said my emotions weren’t running high. Not chaotic. Not unstable. Just my nervous system activated. Because expansion feels like exposure. I am being stretched. My visibility is increasing, and a calling that once felt internal has become concrete. What was once private is becoming public, and my nervous system i
mswonger
Feb 184 min read


Reflections on Connection-Centered Leadership
I ssue No. 4 - Architecture, Not Acceleration Most leaders are trying to climb when they should be redesigning the room. We’ve been trained to see transformation as linear. Take a baseline assessment, then improve the metric. Identify the gap, then master the skill. Shore up the breach by fixing the weakness. The goal… move up… specifically, up and to the right. But human systems don’t change like ladders. They change like ecosystems. When a team stalls, when a family repeats
mswonger
Feb 182 min read


Reflections on Connection-Centered Leadership - Issue No. 3: Why Psychological Safety Is the New Bottom Lin
Lately, I’ve been paying attention to the language leaders are using when things stop working. They talk about performance. About engagement.About retention, burnout, and culture. What they’re often circling—without naming—is safety. Not physical safety. Psychological safety. The kind that determines whether people can tell the truth, ask for help, take risks, or admit they don’t know. The kind that allows bodies to settle and minds to stay present long enough for learning, c
mswonger
Feb 112 min read


Reflections on Connection-Centered Leadership - Issue No. 2: When Pressure Stops Working
Photo Credit: Melissa Swonger, Grand Tetons 2024 After the first issue went out, many of you named the same tension—what happens when effort is high, intention is sincere, and yet change still feels stalled. You said some version of this: “I’ve been trying so hard.” “I’m doing everything I know how to do.” “Why does it still feel like nothing is shifting?” That question matters — not because it means something is wrong with you, but because it reveals something important abou
mswonger
Feb 62 min read


Reflections on Connection-Centered Leadership - Issue No. 1: Opening the Field
Photo Credit: Melissa Swonger, Grand Tetons, 2024 Lately, I’ve been noticing how much effort goes into teaching people what to do —and how little goes into helping them feel safe enough to change. We push strategies. We optimize habits. We demand resilience. But beneath all of it, I see the same quiet fracture repeating itself: people are trying to lead, heal, build, or believe while profoundly disconnected—from their bodies, from one another, and often from themselves. This
mswonger
Feb 42 min read
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