The Strength Catalyst

When You Love the Work Too Much: Delegation, Boundaries, and Letting Go

• Colleen Boselli • Season 1 • Episode 7

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0:00 | 30:21

In this episode of the Strengths Catalyst Podcast, Kathleen Leary, Executive Director of Canine Partners for Life, joins Colleen for a candid conversation about growing into a new role while building and supporting a developing team. Kathleen shares the challenge of stepping back from doing, learning to delegate more intentionally, and navigating the pull of a mission that never really turns off.

This episode explores delegation, work-life boundaries, and the shift required to create a more sustainable and empowering way of working.

Episode Show Notes

You can get your own set of the Introspective Strength Cards online at https://www.introspectivecards.com/

SPEAKER_01

Hello and welcome to the Strength Catalyst. I'm your host, Colleen Vaselli. I'm an executive coach and a strength strategist. And on this podcast, I talk with nonprofit leaders and change makers about how understanding and using their strengths can help them lead with more clarity, confidence, and intention. And here's a striking set of facts for you. Fewer than two in 10 people use their strengths every day at work, even though doing so makes us three times more likely to experience life satisfaction. So what a missed opportunity if you don't know your strengths well. That's what I'm all about. I can also tell you that employees who feel their manager helps them use their strengths are 23% more likely to be thriving. So our strengths do matter, right? Today's guest, Kathleen Leary, brings a lot of this to life. She is the executive director of K9 Partners for Life. They are a remarkable organization. They pair highly trained service dogs with people who have disabilities. And before our conversation today, Kathleen completed a strengths profile assessment. So in our discussion, she talks about what it looks like to apply her strengths strategically to empower a new team, to build confidence, for her to delegate more intentionally, and to create a healthier boundary for herself in her role that can often feel like it's a 24-7 requirement. So let's get started. Well, hello, Kathleen, and welcome to the Strength Catalyst Podcast. It will be my pleasure to get to know you better in this conversation and to offer you this opportunity to deeply explore how you can use your strengths more effectively in your newish role as the executive director for K9 Partners for Life. And before we get started talking about how you can be an even more effective leader by leveraging your strengths even more wisely, I'm eager for you to tell our listeners about your role and to share the K9 Partners for Life mission.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. I'm really excited to be here. So I am the executive director of K9 Partners for Life. We are a nonprofit organization that trains dogs to become service dogs for people with disabilities. As the executive director, I serve as the bridge between our mission, our team, and our community. I provide strategic leadership, support program, excellence, and cultivate the relationships and resources needed to advance our work. I try to focus on the strengthening of our internal operations, empowering our staff, ensuring that our organization is positioned for the long-term success. Our mission, in my own words, the essence of our mission is to create meaningful, lasting partnerships between people with disabilities and our highly skilled service dogs. We are committed to improving access, safety, and independence for those that we serve while maintaining the highest standards of training, care, compassion for every dog in our program.

SPEAKER_01

So before we started this recording, and in preparation for this over the last couple of weeks, I know you've been thinking about your strengths. And before we talk about your strengths, I'm curious to know what do you see as the superpower strength or strengths that make Canine Partners for Life a really special organization?

SPEAKER_00

As a whole, as an organization, I think that the teamwork, the relationships that we've built with one another, we communicate well, we all work towards the same end goal. We're looking to make sure that we are making successful partnerships. And that is what's most important is making sure that we're all on the same page and working closely together.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm eager to talk about partnerships in all its many forms in our conversation today. Let's just sort of start by talking about your strengths. So I'm curious to know what part of your role as the executive director feels most energizing and sort of most you. You know, what strengths do you think you're using in those moments when the best of you is showing up for all the partners that you are associating yourself with?

SPEAKER_00

I like to think that I have good leadership skills. Um I am big on trying to motivate the staff. Um, you know, I like to make sure that everybody knows what a great job they're doing. You know, this is not easy work. There's a lot of different steps involved, and it takes many people to make this organization a success. So I try to go out of my way, or actually, I depend on some of my senior staff too, in case I miss something, to make sure that we are identifying, you know, the positive things that our staff is doing, what their strengths are, um, making sure that we are acknowledging those things so that everyone knows what a great job they're doing.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm curious to know, like just to build on what you just said there, how specifically do you go about helping your team members recognize their strengths and what energizes them?

SPEAKER_00

I meet with senior staff every week. We sit here for a couple of hours and we discuss things that are going on throughout the week, negatives and positives. And then, you know, we we discuss each situation, we address them, we we figure out what the game plan will be. So-and-so is doing a great job. We need to acknowledge that. Whether it's a one-on-one conversation or we send out an email blast or we acknowledge anniversaries and birthdays and things of that manner, because um, I like keeping that family-oriented, positive energy. I want people to be happy in their job. I want them to come to work and enjoy what they're doing and know that they are being recognized for the good that they do.

SPEAKER_01

So, in that way, I think about the name of your organization, canine partners for life. It's really you think about your own colleagues, your team right there as really important partners. Um, and how do you think about the partnership between one of your clients and a service dog? Like, where do you see strengths being built on both sides of that partnership that you are nurturing in the leadership that you offer there?

SPEAKER_00

I was being fairly new in the role. A lot of our recipients are just starting to get to know me. Like I had mentioned we had just done our most recent graduation this past weekend. So I got to be more one-on-one with some of our recipients. When we partner up a dog with a recipient, that's where our name comes in, Canine Partners for Life. We are there for them from day one. They have access to us all the time. They have an emergency phone number, they they build relationships with our trainers. We offer graduate Zooms where everyone can get on and discuss. We are always here to support them, whether it's something behaviorally or medically or just something that there's a bump in the road for them. We we do everything we can to get them through that. And if they are local and they want to come onto campus, they are more than welcome to. And we will we will help them as much as we can.

SPEAKER_01

That sounds like one of your great strengths, therefore, is a resolver, kind of thinking you through the problems, the challenges, and digging deep to understand it. And then, of course, figuring out what the solution would be so that hopefully that problem doesn't rise again, because you've also got a strength of thinking ahead to what could go wrong and having a having a plan for that. And all this work that you're doing, which, as you suggested there, you know, suggested that as an organization, you are there from day one. And you suggested to me in one of our prior conversations about how this role that you play in the organization is a 24-7 function. And that, of course, means that it's probably really hard to manage uh all of the demands of the role and do them to the standard that you want to do them. And as you said to me in our conversation a couple weeks ago, it's really hard to switch it off and kind of manage the work life in a way that is as healthy as it can be for all the demands that you have to use your strengths with your family and other things outside of your work. So, one of the ways that I have observed people over my 25 plus years of a coach is that sometimes it's really hard to close our laptop, turn off the light, you know, say goodbye uh to the task list for the day when our strengths are so well aligned with our job. Um, because you're getting presumably so much energy from having a mission-oriented role and seeing the opportunities to grow that you see right there uh at K9 Partners for Life, because it fills you up, it's hard to stop doing those things. And I see that with a lot of people with whom I work. It's like their job fits them like a glove in so many ways, and that's fabulous, except that it's kind of hard to cut off the high from that and so to stop. And so a couple of things that some people that I've worked with have tried, and I'll put these out there for your reaction. One is to think about well, how can I use some of the strengths that give me a lot of energy that we've been discussing here today in other aspects of my life outside of my work, so that I get that satisfaction, that high from being from learning new things and building self-esteem and being humble and growing? But I am getting it from content that is outside of work so that I'm succeeding and enjoying other aspects of my life. So I wondered does that conjure up any ideas for you as to ways you could use your strengths in your personal life a little bit more to help with that work-life balance goal that you have?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so um you pretty much summed it up. I love what I do, I absolutely do. And I've I in all of my leadership roles, I have loved what I've what I do, which is I've always been dealing with animals. And and it can be a 24-7 job because you're you're dealing with lives. So, you know, they they depend on us, and that's just the way it is. And I certainly do not mind at all the phone calls, the text messages, the emails. But for me personally, I I have an issue of the turning it off, like hitting that off switch. And because I I I I tend to get stressed, I get a little anxious when I, if I am say I'm on vacation or I'm off more than a couple of days, I don't want to come back to work piled up. So I, you know, can be sitting on the beach, you know, going through emails and things of that nature. I've tried because it has affected my personal life and my and my kids and things of that nature. So I've finally, after many, many years, of learned to prioritize what's important, making those decisions while I'm still looking at the emails and things like that. But but being able to separate what can wait till Monday and what needs to be addressed now. Um, when I'm on vacation, can someone else in the organization handle this for me if I were to forward it to them so it doesn't have to wait till I come back? Um being able to delegate when need to, when I need to, I've gotten much better at it, but could probably continue to get better at it. So yeah, that's been something that I have struggled with for many, many years of is when to just turn it off.

SPEAKER_01

All right. So, since one of your goals, again, is being self-motivated and setting goals and targets for yourself, what's a goal or a target you could set for yourself around delegation? You just said maybe I could be better at that. So let's just let's just think about the next quarter. What kind of little challenge could you create for yourself that motivates you to stick to your intention of getting better at delegating?

SPEAKER_00

I think that there are certain things that I have been dealing with that I could probably delegate to other people, which in the long run will help them grow with the organization, um, giving them those responsibilities, things that may actually already or will end up falling under their job description. You know, obviously I can be CC'd on certain things just to make sure that it's being handled properly. I have an open door policy, I'm always here. So, but I think maybe, you know, handing those off to other staff members, team members, so that they can continue to take on more responsibility, learn and grow.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and your likelihood of following through on that is greater if we remember that one of your other strengths is esteem building. And if you really want to help these people feel people feel confident in themselves, then you doing that is gonna set them up for the higher likelihood of that. And it's gonna give you the sort of satisfaction of not only having the delegation, but also providing yourself and them with the opportunity to be uh have their esteem built. One of your other strengths, Kathleen, is your strong moral compass. You know, your knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, uh, having really strong values and making decisions and taking actions that are consistent with your strong moral compass. What role does that moral compass play in the way that you frame or think about or act as a leader who is going to be getting even stronger and stronger at delegating?

SPEAKER_00

Morally, there's a lot that goes on in these types of organizations that you have to make sure that, you know, you're you're you're dotting your I's across your T's. So I like to make sure that ultimately we're following guidelines down to the way we should be, making sure that we are being successful in our partnerships, making sure that we're being successful, successful in our team building. You know, these things are very important. I like to be very straight up and honest with people, you know, so they're there's they know what the expectations are. You know, it's it's it's extremely important to me to make sure that everybody is on the same page.

SPEAKER_01

And I and I see looking at your strengths report that equality is also one of your very top strengths. And that is the strength that you have that's all about being sure that you're generally speaking that your actions and your decisions really are rooted in fairness and equality. So, what role does that particular strength play in the way that you lead?

SPEAKER_00

I am a huge believer in equality. Um, no one should be treated any differently than anyone else. It doesn't matter who you are, who you love, what your disability is, none of that matters. You're a human being and you should be treated just like everybody else.

SPEAKER_01

One of the strengths I want to point out that we haven't talked about at all, um, is your number one lead strength, and that's your beautiful strength of humility. And that uh definition suggests that you want to be sure that when successes occur, that other people get credit for their contribution rather than you taking it for yourself. So talk to me a little bit about that magical strength and how your humility is a central part of your leadership skill set.

SPEAKER_00

Um, as I had mentioned before, we are, I like to think an amazing organization. You know, people should be given the credit when credit's due. I would not be a successful leader without an amazing team behind me. They're the ones that are, you know, in the in the trenches every day doing it, no matter I don't, it doesn't matter if you were in a development program or cleaning kennels, you know, you all play, they all play such an important role in this organization, they should all be applauded for what they're doing. It's not, I'm not going to take the credit. They're the ones that are that are doing it. And I want to make sure that every one of them knows how important they are and the part that they're playing.

SPEAKER_01

So let's circle back to the goal of you attempting to have an even stronger work-life balance. How do the things that you said in the last few minutes about your other strengths, humility and equality and your moral compass, how do those contribute to your plans to have greater, take greater initiatives to ensure that as we kind of think ahead of the next few months or the next year, that your work life balance is going to be stronger than ever?

SPEAKER_00

The team here is great. We, you know, as I mentioned, we have a lot of people in new roles and strengthening their confidence and their skills is part of the plan to be able to have a more balanced work life. Because if they can be successful in their roles and take on the things that can come off of my plate, it's only just going to strengthen them and strengthen the organization.

SPEAKER_01

I hope I demonstrated to you by kind of taking you through that thought process that you have the strengths to be able to achieve all your goals, but that will take that one particular is work-life balance. If you just see it through the lens of your strengths and tactically how you can use them, and mindset-wise, how you can frame the reason why you're doing this through your strengths. And when you think about it that way, then your likelihood of doing it is so much greater. Um, one of the other things that we talked about discussing uh in this conversation today, perhaps, is your desire to be as effective as you can be as a persuader and motivator of your very important board members. Talk to me a little bit about how you might be able to use some of your strengths that we've been discussing here so far more effectively with that important set of partners in your world.

SPEAKER_00

Building the confidence of the board is important. Showing them what their strengths are, what the needs of the organizational is, and what they are capable of doing to help us grow. I think having them recognize that while things can make them nervous, you know, or whatever that situation may be, they can absolutely overcome it because, you know, they have they have the strengths just like the team does that that works for CPL, and they can absolutely grow and help us continue to grow by realizing what strengths they have.

SPEAKER_01

One of the ways that you might think about developing your relationships to make them even more strategic with the board members is for you to put yourself through a little self-exercise, strength spotting the board members, and maybe ask yourself, all right, well, board uh member A, from the way they show up in the meetings, seems to really have a strength of creative thinking and being very planful and really deepening relationships. That's a little different from board member B, who has a strength of X and Y and Z and board member C, et cetera, et cetera. Because what I've noticed over the years is that when people can very much personalize their approach to the various constituencies or friends, family, whatever with whom that they are interacting, and really think about what really matters to that person, what strengths are they seemingly getting a lot of energy from and bringing forward? And how can I relate to them in that particular way and set yourself up for that by even making yourself a little list that becomes your sort of little disciplined process that you say, well, I'm having a meeting with board member A today. Let me just pull my list out and remind myself that this person is of this mindset and this particular, these particular strengths that I've spot. And how can I interact with them in order for them to have the most confidence they can in my in my relationship with them and a higher likelihood that working together as productively and strategically with our strengths in mind will enable us to partner and do even more together. I give that to you to think about. And that strengths profile report that you have, the last two pages of it is the strengths dictionary, and it lists all the strengths in alphabetical order with a one-sentence description of that strength. That is a really handy tool to be able to give yourself a little disciplined process to look at all the strengths and then to identify uh in your mind, you know, which ones go with whom.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, it's very it's very, very helpful.

SPEAKER_01

And you know, I forgot to ask you, Kathleen. Did you receive those introspective cards? I did. Do you have them there?

SPEAKER_00

I do, I do, they're right here.

SPEAKER_01

So those cards are designed to. To help people remember to use their strengths. You know, have a tactile device, uh, if you will. Um, so I was thinking maybe you could pull one and you could read one side of it, the quote side of the question side, and we'll just see if how, whatever it sparks any thoughts for you on how you might want to use that particular strength more intentionally in your role.

SPEAKER_00

Um, the one I actually pulled says, To whom can I offer genuine praise to boost their confidence?

SPEAKER_01

All right. And you don't have to name names, but does somebody come to mind, given that that's what you pulled? Yes, it does. All right. And so what's your plan? So you're a goal setter. Like, when might you follow through on whatever just came to mind there?

SPEAKER_00

Probably one day this week, you know, I can visit with that person, ask them how their day is going, you know, what's new? Are you having any issues? Is there anything that you need help with? What, you know, what can we do to make your day better? And let me just tell you, especially after this weekend with graduation, I cannot stress enough. Everything you did to help us out. We appreciate you and everything that you've you've done.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure that will make that person feel well. How does it make you feel just thinking about that?

SPEAKER_00

Great. You know, it always makes me feel great because I don't think that everyone, not every organization, every business takes the time out to recognize someone. And and it can really be a huge downer for somebody, you know, when they're trying very hard and they're not being acknowledged. And and when you do acknowledge that person, it just boosts their self-esteem and motivates them to just, you know, to be a better person and to continue what they're doing and enjoy their work.

SPEAKER_01

One of your strengths that we didn't even talk about yet or already, whatever in this podcast, is gratitude. And that is, of course, you know, your appreciation for the good things that you have in life and not taking people, presumably like this person or things that you have, um, for granted. And one of the things that I've learned as a strength strategist over the years is that we tend to express gratitude and appreciation to other people consistent with our own strengths, because that's what we really value and appreciate and get energy from. Yet, as we were discussing earlier, when we were talking about your board members, everybody's different and everybody uh is motivated by different things and has an inclination toward approaching their leadership or their involvement or their volunteering, whatever, or their board membership through their particular strengths. So, another little suggestion I have for you is to think about well, if you're gonna express gratitude or appreciation to somebody, really be thoughtful about how I can tie this to where they seem to be most energized, where they're bringing their most, their most motivating strengths forward because then it's gonna really fall with them in a way that's much more deeply appreciated and received.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I it's interesting because one of the things that I tell everyone, staff, volunteers, recipients, donors, is we need to remember when it comes to the dogs that they all have their own personalities, just like we do. You know, they they have different strengths, they have different quirks, they have different likes and dislikes, and we need to remember that. So, you know, it's the same, we need to do that more with people. You know, just like the dogs. What what what can we do to persuade them to, you know, get through this challenge? So it's the same with with people. We need to we need to look at them and and just take a moment to think about how can we motivate them, how can we, you know, acknowledge their strengths to make them realize that we we are paying attention and that we do appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01

Is there anything else about your strengths that's top of mind for you right now that we haven't yet spoken about that would be helpful for you to explore while we're focused on making you the best executive director of canine partners for life that there has ever been and ever will be?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. I think I think you touched on everything.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Well, so if you think about think about what we've talked about today, if you could give one piece of advice to other um nonprofit executive directors about leaning into their strengths, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I think the best piece of advice that I could give when you're having a bad day, um, whether you're overwhelmed, stressed, whatever that situation is, take a step back for a second, shut the door, just sit there and just breathe and then just regroup. Because if you're that stressed and you keep going, you're gonna make poor decisions. So sometimes for me, when I just take a second, shut the door, even if it's just two minutes, just to regroup, get myself my head back on straight, get myself back together, it seems to help me a lot.

SPEAKER_01

Fantastic, I'm sure. Uh that many people will benefit from thinking about that. Even just you say take a breath, it caused me to want to take a breath, you know? Like, all right, that's such a good idea because we're on such fast-forward mode. All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your experience with our listeners for being vulnerable in this conversation today and uh being willing to talk about your strengths in a way that will hopefully not only help you be that much more intentional in how you use them, but also help the people who are listening be introspective on what their strengths are and how they can use them uh with intention in a similar way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, thank you for having me and pointing things out. It was extremely helpful for me.

SPEAKER_01

Ah, what a thoughtful conversation with Kathleen. She showed us how powerful strengths can be when we use them intentionally to set clear goals, to grow our teams, to delegate with purpose, and really to create a more sustainable rhythm for our work in our life. And her reflections really are good reminders that strengths aren't just what we're good at. They're the tools that we could use and apply with real strategies. So, in the show notes for today, you'll find links to Canine Partners for Life. You'll find a link to the introspective strength cards, which are a really simple and creative way to build self-confidence and energy into your life every day by using the cards. And you'll also find a link to the strengths profile assessment, the same one that Kathleen took. So, in closing, thank you for listening to the strength catalyst. And until next time, keep leaning into your strengths and using them with intention.