Leigh's Leadership Lessons: End Of Year Reflections on 'Aliveness'

In this special 2025 EOY solo episode of The Space In Between, host Leigh Morgan reflects on the lessons of 2025—both her personal insights as well as key lessons from 55 podcast episodes this year.  She explores the “quiet shift” that's happening across workplaces, families, and communities: everyday people choosing nuance, integrity, and aliveness over disconnection and certainty. She explores why high agency is the expressed form of aliveness—less about controlling outcomes and more about choosing how we meet the moment—then offers three grounded lessons for 2026: clarity matters more than certainty, courage doesn’t need theatrics, and connection is a practice. She shares personal stories and specific practices that have helped her navigate an incredibly fulfilling - and sometimes unpredictable - year. 

The practices she describes are mainstays for staying grounded and choiceful even amidst a polarized world: know your boiling points, seek other seekers, and tell stories. Join us for another great show, and please leave a review and share if you feel moved!

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Space In Between Podcast. I'm your host, Lee Morgan. This podcast is for listeners who are fed up with the hyperpolarized nature of the world today, and who craves spaces where current events can be discussed in constructive, enlightening, and delightful ways. Let's get started. Hello, friend. Thank you for joining me today on this special end of year episode of The Space In Between Podcast. It seems like every year in late December, I ask myself, how the heck did the year go by so fast? And also, and this won't surprise you, I always make time to take stock of the year. What have I learned? What were the highs and the lows? What lessons can I take into the new year? Well, today I'm gonna share some personal reflections and also share some really poignant, really important themes from the 55 Podcast episodes I've done in 2025. So first one big insight was that I found myself holding two truths at the same time. On the one hand, there is real fracture in the world. Polarization continues to influence how we relate to one another, and that's not good. It doesn't feel good, and for many people, suffering, loss and fear has been a feature and not a bug in the system. The other truth runs alongside this reality, and it's actually my personal truth. It turns out that 2025 has been one of the most fulfilling and meaningful years of my life. Honestly, I can't remember a year that felt more enlivening or spiritually expansive. And for sure, this podcast has been a huge highlight. And so too, were some. Twists and turns. Some expected, some not, but they all ushered in so many delightful and new beginnings and really incredible connections and insights. So I'm super grateful, but while this is my dominant 2025 story, I've also become more aware of something really subtle, taking shape beyond just me and more at a collectively. Changes aren't happening everywhere for sure, and definitely not all at once, but enough that I keep noticing them. And so today I'm gonna talk about it. It's gonna be the focus of this podcast. So what I'm witnessing is a quiet shift. It's a reorientation and how people are choosing to show up at work in their communities and families and also, and how people are leading. Many of us, of course, carry real concern about where we're headed, and real frustration about how hard it feels to bridge divides without losing ourselves in the process. At the same time, I'm connecting literally every week with people who are willing to sit in nuance and complexity rather than just rush past it and I'm not talking perfect people, or these aren't people from one political orientation or identity or one part of the country. I'm talking thoughtful everyday folks. Who are committed to strengthening the fabric of the places and spaces they influence and are a part of what I'm noticing is a potent combination of concern alongside what I call and, and personally experiencing as aliveness. Howard Thurman once talked about this. He said, don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. What the world needs is people who have come alive. And I love that statement because let's face it, the stakes feel higher these days. The world can feel unstable, and because of this reality, how we show up, how we meet this moment matters more than ever. If I had to name one theme. Running through the podcast conversations this year, it would be this, that high agency matters agency is the expressed form of aliveness. Being in high agency means that more often than not, we remain engaged and intentional in how we meet what's in front of us, even when we don't have certainty or control about what's in front of us. So high agency isn't about fixing the world, it's about choosing how we meet it. It's taken me a long time to really understand that distinction. I know I've confused agency with control more than once, sometimes now, but way less often than in the past. And what I've learned again and again, is that agency is something that. Lives inside of us. It's not given to us. It's something that's cultivated, that's curated by ourselves, and it can be enhanced when experienced in the collective or in communities. What shows up in our orientation in the world, in our posture to ourselves and others. It shows up in how we respond when things feel complex, unresolved, or emotionally charged. And it doesn't mean that we don't have strong feelings, that's for sure.'cause I've had a lot of strong feelings this year, and it doesn't mean that we abandon our values or pretend we're above the fray. It means we stay present. I'm responsible for how we show up. Now as I look towards 2026, and you might be listening to this in 2026, there are a few lessons about high agency. That I'm carrying with me that have been shaped by my lived experience, certainly by the podcast conversations, and also by watching everyday people make grounded choices in a really difficult time. So I'll share those lessons. There are three, and the first lesson is this, clarity seems to matter more than certainty. Clarity matters more than certainty. This year, I've noticed how often the leaders that I trust stood firm in their values while also acknowledging how complex the moment is. They were clear about what they cared about, they were clear about what they were paying attention to, clear about where they felt responsible, and they were honest about what they didn't yet know, or they were honest when they were not so clear. Everett Harper spoke powerfully about this on the podcast about leading as a black CEO during COV and in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. He talked about the tension of holding responsibility for his company while also navigating his own grief, his own anger and uncertainty both around him and feelings inside of himself. What stayed with me though was his clarity about his role and how he aspired to be a change agent in the world. So at least in my experience, and I think Everett gave a beautiful testament to this high agency, doesn't require having all the answers. It's about knowing who you're accountable to and staying tethered to that even as conditions change around you. The second lesson is that courage doesn't need theatrics. I'll say it again, courage doesn't need theatrics. Some of the steadiest leadership I witnessed this year was actually kind of quiet. Quiet in comparison, of course, to the bombastic nature of public discourse today. And what that steady leadership looked like. It, it looked like restraint often without self erasure. It looked like staying present in tense moments, not ducking, not checking out. It looked like making thoughtful decisions. The decisions weren't always right, but making thoughtful decisions without needing to be witnessed or affirmed. And that's a hard thing to do. In a culture that often rewards volume and certainty, it takes real agency to lead or simply show up without performance. That kind of courage goes unnoticed too much. But when it happens, even when unnoticed, it builds credibility over time and it builds trust and connection over time. And the third lesson is this. Connection isn't just a feeling, it's a practice. I'll say it again. Connection isn't just a feeling, it's a practice. I've talked this year about self-righteousness, about grievance culture and how we play a role in all of that, even when we might not want to. And I've talked a lot about knowing your boiling points because I've had to pay attention to those dynamics myself. So even in a really fulfilling year, I've had moments where I wanted to check out moments when my thinking narrowed. When I use black or white language, it's either or, or moments when feeling right, felt easier than staying open. But what I'm learning and still practicing is that connection doesn't happen automatically. It's something we choose again and again. Often when it would be easier not to. So before I talk about the practices that help me choose to show up, I wanna ground this in a brief personal moment or personal story because this work is not abstract for me. There was a moment this year when I felt pretty overwhelmed and a little low agency, but I had enough agency and and aliveness to notice the signs that this was happening. It was when visas were revoked or delayed for Afghans who had helped us troops during the war, and the policy actually cut up any Afghan who was in the process of immigrating or had lawful otherwise lawful status. Here, and as some of you may know, I mentor Shia Hazara. Afghan a really lovely, amazing young woman, and I know her sisters and her family. When I heard the news, I felt my body went tense, my attention scattered, and I really felt angry and most importantly felt scared for the people that I cared about. They had it much worse or were at much more risk. I noticed that familiar internal pressure in my mind do something even though I wasn't yet clear about what that something was. What I did was I took time and I paused. I took some deep breaths and I knew I was near my boiling point and I needed time to lower my internal temperature. The. External situation. The conditions didn't suddenly change, but my thinking got clearer, which is a good thing because I was able to identify a few concrete ways that I was able to support my mentees and connect with others who were advocating on their behalf. And that that pause reminded me that even when circumstances were really crappy or complex, that I still had agency in how I could meet the moment. When I look back on that experience and others like it, a few steady practices stand out, and these are practices that I return to. And ones you've heard on this podcast before, and the first is know your boiling points. I just spoke to that around the situation involving my mentees, but it's basically recognizing the signals that tell me or you that your nervous system is in charge. And usually that means we're less curious, we don't listen, and thinking can be a little both righteous and sometimes fuzzy. So for me, agency begins with awareness, knowing your boiling points. I've gotten so much feedback about sharing this practice. The second practice is seek other seekers. Seek out people who ask real questions, who have authentic curiosity, people who are willing to learn, who care about integrity more than being right and in order to seek out other seekers. It means we're not near our bowl point because we have a level of curiosity and openness. And this year's reminded me how much steadiness I find being around people who are able to be engaged. That's true, even when the answers aren't very obvious. So. Seek other seekers and I would encourage you, go listen to my podcast with lemon Price from earlier in 2025. She holds really different political views than me, lives a very different life. She's in a red state. I'm in a dark blue dot. She has become a friend and she is a seeker, but we couldn't be more different in so many of our views. But this just goes to show that seekers come in all different flavors if we are open. The third practice is telling and listening to stories, not arguments, not positions, stories. Stories create moments of human to human connection. Mei Ma Fox, in one of the very first podcasts I did in 2024, she speaks eloquently about this, so go listen to that podcast. What we learned is that when we tell stories and when we really listen to others, we stop encountering each other as a position or an identity. And we open the possibility for seeing the fullness of a person. We can see their history, they can see ours, they can see our hopes, we can see their hopes, and we can live in contradictions. Storytelling can also lower the temperature, and it does that by not actually erasing disagreements, but by softening the edges just enough for curiosity to peak its head. So those are the three practices. Know your boiling points, seek other seekers and tell stories. As I look ahead, I can tell you one thing that I'm not taking forward. I'm not taking certainty. What I'm caring for is what I've seen up close through this podcast and through my lived experience. It's, it's really a quiet. Gosh, I'm not sure how to say this. It's a quiet strengthening of authentic, open-hearted connection. Yeah, that's it. It's a regrounding, if you will, in aliveness and responsibility. There's definitely times when we need to put our head in the sand because things feel overwhelming, but I'm finding that happening less and less, and I find that inspiring. I'm also finding people being more present, more willing to tell their stories. And we've talked about how telling stories is a practice, but that that bolsters me and it gets me inspired. All of this won't end suffering, and it won't always restrain leaders or hold leaders accountable whose actions cause harm. That can be frustrating. But my friend, something real is happening. This year has taught me anything. It's that agency is a doorway into the space in between, and it's an inner compass that we can return to even when circumstances don't change. And that's important.'cause things can be tough these days, but the sense of agency aliveness, well, it's always available to us. Even now. Sometimes it's quiet. Most of the time it's imperfectly expressed. I'm raising my hand if you could see me, but it's always there and always available. That's good news. I'm grateful that you've spent this time with me, and I'm grateful for the care and intentionality that you bring to how you meet this moment in your style and in your way. And here's to 2025 and to a 2026 that is more alive than ever, ever before. Thank you for being in the space in between with me. I really appreciate it. Wishing you a wonderful, wonderful New Year. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Space in Between podcast. If you did, please hit the like button and leave a review wherever you listen to the show and check out the space in between.com website where you can also leave me a message. Take good care.