My Circus, My Monkeys

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 it's perhaps the perfect season to discuss boundaries. In this episode, you'll learn the difference between boundaries and rules. And you'll discover how you can set both a...

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 share the three key components you'll need to implement to ensure you have an effective and sustainable transformation. 

We're thrilled to announce our newest program,...

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 attending a conference and five hacks that will ensure you make the most of your conference experience.

We're thrilled to announce our newest program, the Strengths Accelerator Academy...

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 positions. In this episode, I outline the changes for supervisors in the last two years and discuss two of the recommendations by CUPA-HR to retain supervisors. Whether you’re supervising non-...

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 a book by Joseph Nguyen, "Don't Believe Everything You Think" that really resonated with me and I believe adds another layer of understanding to this concept. Even be...

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 how to focus on the most important aspects of what you do so you and your team have a reasonable workload and students get the most important things they need.

We're thrilled to an...

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 absorbed their work. Either way, it means you and the folks around you are most likely doing more work, often without any additional compensation. So, in honor of Labor Day, let’s talk abou...

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 with those folks to decrease your frustration or anger and be more productive.

We're thrilled to announce our newest program, the Strengths Accelerator Academy! If you've wanted to d...

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 discuss how you and your team can harness your collective Talent Themes to be more productive over the next month. That includes better planning and hitting more of your goals with l...

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 Strengths University and really researching how to be an effective supervisor. 

Please enjoy this replay of episode 111 while the host, Anne Brackett, recovers from a recent car accident. Eve...

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 using CliftonStrengths, Differences Are an Advantage. This principle is key to getting the best outcomes for yourself, your team, and your students. 

We're thrilled to announce...

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, including perhaps you. Join me as I speak with Dr. Carolyn O'Laughlin about how to better support neurodiversity in the workplace.

We're thrilled to announce our newest program, the St...

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, Laura Jarvis Brackett, a trauma focused therapist, back to discuss what complex trauma is and how it might be impacting you, your team members, and even your students. Now this is a longer epi...

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 tuning. In this episode, we talk about the function of autopilot programs from the perspective of an actual pilot. You are on autopilot 95-99% of the day. If you don't know what you...

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 to think? And finally, do you and your team simply have too much to do on a regular basis? In this episode, I’m revisiting my interview last fall with Karen Smolarek, Director of TRIO Student ...

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 leaders in my department.” And ends with “What types of things can I focus on to truly adjust the culture?” So we discuss not only how to grow leaders, but also how to truly adjust your culture so t...

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 ways you can better manage these stressful times, so you can not only get the most done, but also the most important things done.

We're thrilled to announce our newest...

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 considering using it with your team or on your campus, in this episode we cover three very do-able ways you can integrate Strengths on your campus.

Want more information on how to im...

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 - Strengths, Supervisor Skills, and (Effective) Systems. We'll cover why these three S's are so important and how to get started if you want to be more successful in...