My Circus, My Monkeys
My Circus, My Monkeys supports supervisors on every level working in education or any field focused on growth and development. Discover how to manage the chaos by learning essential supervisor skills, increasing employee engagement, and using the CliftonStrengths framework to empower you and your team. We’ll dive into the latest research in fields like psychology, sociology, neuroscience, education, and beyond to help you maximize yourself and your team to make an even bigger impact on your students and clients lives. Just as importantly, you’ll improve your own sense of well being as you decrease the chaos and stress and increase the balance in your life.
Episodes
169 episodes
A Quick Year End Wrap Up in 3, 2, 1
As we wrap up 2025, it’s a good idea to take the time to reflect on the year. And if you’re already thinking, nope! I have neither the time nor energy for such pursuits, just hold on to your horses. I’m going to make this as quick and painless ...
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Season 1
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Episode 170
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7:40
'Tis the Season for Creating Boundaries
It’s a stressful time of year. If you’re in Higher Ed, you’re wrapping up the fall term and planning for the spring. Plus, you’re smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. That's a ton of expectations and stress for you and your team, so i...
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Season 1
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Episode 169
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32:22
The 3 Key Components of a Strengths-Based Culture
Have you been wondering how to effectively establish a Strengths-based culture with your team or organization? It's a fantastic way to increase your overall productivity, engagement, and wellbeing. But there are challenges. In this episode, I s...
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Season 1
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Episode 168
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31:24
Five Hacks to Make the Most of Your Conference Experience
Going to conferences can be a fantastic experience. But with so much going on in such a short amount of time, how can you make sure you're getting the most out of your time and money? In this episode, I'll talk about three main goals of attendi...
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Season 1
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Episode 167
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19:00
Survey Says: What the 2025 Higher Ed Employee Retention Survey says about Supervisors
CUPA-HR has released the results of another Higher Education Employee Retention Survey. The 2025 results found that supervisors are facing even more stress and responsibilities. But surprisingly, supervisors are now less likely to leave their p...
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Season 1
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Episode 166
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25:55
How to Overcome Over Thinking
If you're like me, you have a tendency to over think. And that tendency often steals a lot of my energy and makes me feel like BLEEP. I've talked about how our stories and beliefs can get in our way in previous episodes. I recently came across ...
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Season 1
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Episode 165
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34:20
But Really, What Do We DO When We’re Down a Team Member?
In our last episode, I discussed a big picture perspective of how to navigate the all too common experience in Higher Ed of being down a staff member. In this week's episode, I continue the conversation but with more tangible to-do items. Learn...
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Season 1
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Episode 164
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37:12
How to Survive When You're Down a Team Member
What happens to you and your team when you're suddenly down a staff member? Many of you are knowingly dealing with this right now. And for some of you, it isn’t even knowingly because someone left long before you got there and your position abs...
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Season 1
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Episode 163
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33:04
Navigating Your Team Member’s Annoying Strengths Behaviors
Do you have a coworker or team member who frustrates you? More specifically, does the way they operate conflict with your strengths so much that it drives you crazy? Well in this episode we’re going to talk about what you can do to work better ...
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Season 1
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Episode 162
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23:20
How to Use Your Team's Superpowers to Slay Back-to-School
It's that time of year again. You and your team are swamped prepping for the fall semester. But you don't have to let things get overwhelming because you and your team can use your superpowers to slay the stress and chaos. In this episode, we d...
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Season 1
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Episode 161
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36:14
What We Wish We'd Known About Supervising
In 2017, Alicia and I founded Strengths University to help supervisors feel more confident, empowered, and less stressed. Alicia joins me on today's episode to talk about what we wish we would have known about supervising before we started Stre...
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Season 1
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Episode 160
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30:26
Why Differences Are an Advantage
If you’ve ever had conflicts on your team, encountered problems you need to solve, or need to accomplish the right things to help you students succeed, you'll want to listen to this short episode. We'll dig into one of the Guiding Principles of...
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Season 1
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Episode 159
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13:43
Honoring Neurodiversity in the Workplace: An Interview with Dr. Carolyn O'Laughlin
One of the great things about using a Strengths-based approach, is leaning into the unique differences each one of us offers. In this episode, we dive further into that idea by honoring the neurodiversity of those who might be on your team, inc...
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Season 1
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Episode 158
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54:14
Addressing Complex Trauma in the Workplace: An Interview with Laura Jarvis Brackett
For many of us in Higher Ed, this semester has risen to the level of traumatic. Now we are used to dealing with trauma to a certain extent, but today I want to tackle a new topic for us - complex trauma. And to do this I’ve invited my sister, L...
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Season 1
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Episode 157
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1:01:31
Why You're Not Getting the Results You Want: Lessons from the Sky
Are you and your team getting the results you want? I know you're busy almost every day. But does that busyness actually get you where you need to be? If you're not getting the result you want, your autopilot programs might need some fine tunin...
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Season 1
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Episode 156
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26:56
Let's Revisit the Impact of Empowered Supervision
Do some of these stressors sound familiar? Are you tired of not getting what you need from your supervisor? Are you frustrated that your team isn’t doing things the right way? Are you and your team rushing from meeting to meeting without time t...
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Season 1
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Episode 155
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34:17
How Can I Develop Younger Leaders & Truly Adjust Our Culture?
Have you found it challenging to develop your younger employees into the leaders of tomorrow? In this episode, we answer a question from a listener that begins with, “Dear Anne, I am feeling like it is hard to build up the next cycle of lea...
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Season 1
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Episode 154
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23:41
Midterms Are Overwhelming! How Can I Get Everything Done?
Whether it's midterms, the end of the semester, or prepping for the beginning of the semester, when things ramp up, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder exactly how you're going to get everything done. In this episode, we'll dive into four ...
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Season 1
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Episode 153
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20:05
3 Ways to Use CliftonStrengths on Campus
Did you start having folks do Strengths on campus, but then things just kind of stalled? We often get asked, "How do you actually implement CliftonStrengths on campus?" Whether you already started this process and it fizzled out or you're consi...
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Season 1
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Episode 152
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19:28
The Three S's You Need to Be a Successful Supervisor
If you're a supervisor, you want to be successful - both for yourself and your team. But since most supervisors don't get the training they need, where do you start? In this episode, we cover the three S's you need to be a successful supervisor...
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Season 1
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Episode 151
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21:38
The Most Important Thing You Can Do for Your Team & Students
The new administration certainly started off with a bang. This left many of us scrambling to understand what changes might impact us, our team, and our students. In times of uncertainty, it’s all too easy to get sidetracked by worry. Unfortunat...
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Season 1
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Episode 150
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30:20
What Do We Do Now? An Interview with Dr. LaShawnda Fields
No matter which way you voted, the new administration poses challenges to the Higher Ed field, especially those working in DEI. Many of us are concerned for ourselves, our team, and our students. In today's episode, Dr. LaShawnda Fields, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 149
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45:13
It's 2025 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1: Let's Get Moving
Happy New Year! It's 2025. We wrapped up 2024 talking about how small shifts in thinking and behavior can significantly change the trajectory of your life. If you wanted 2024 to turn out differently than it did, you probably had a list of thing...
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18:03
Create Big Change in Your Life Through Small Shifts
As the end of the semester and year approaches, it's natural to think about all the things you have and haven't done. There's probably a few things that you wanted to change about yourself or your work, but you never quite got there. Thinking a...
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Season 1
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Episode 147
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8:41
Election Edition: Processing the Present, Focusing on the Future
If you work in Higher Education, you're most likely concerned about what the election results mean for you, your institution, and your students. In this episode, we talk about ways to better process all these emotions, understand how we got her...
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Season 1
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Episode 146
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31:22