A Catalyst’s Reflection: What This Year Taught Me About Grit, Grace, and Growth

As this year comes to a close, I find myself grappling with two nameable truths: This work is deeply meaningful, and this work can be deeply demanding. 

Leadership years don’t just pass; they shape us. Some stretch our capacity, others test our resolve, and a few quietly reorient our purpose. This year, for me, did all three. 

In reflecting on the past year and on all the spaces I found myself in (systems work, coaching conversations, and the growth of Making Champions of Change) - all while handling life as a mom and personal grief. I keep returning to three words that framed the learning more clearly than any strategic plan ever could: grit, grace, and growth. 

 Grit Is Not Grind; It’s Centeredness 

At the beginning of 2025, my focus with Making Champions of Change was clear: expand access to professional learning. Asynchronous courses, implementation support protocols, and tools designed to make professional development easier to engage with and easier to apply were at the center of my work. Then something shifted: more reflection, connection, and learning opened more doors and conversations. More opportunities to build knowledge and continue growing. 

My own expertise has been shaped through big system work and training in southern California, intentional postgraduate and doctoral research, and principal and superintendent licensure acquisition in Minnesota. This learning began to intersect more deeply with the lived experience of coaching vulnerable teams through change. Over time, it became clear that more professional development wasn’t enough. Connection to knowledge and to each other mattered just as much. 

That realization planted the seed for what would become the Community Learning Network. By fall, clarity arrived in an almost unmistakable way. As the season changed, so did the work. Sharing knowledge with leaders: not behind a paywall, not in isolation, but as an invitation into conversation became central. Last week alone, over 2,600 leaders engaged by reading the blog around returning to purpose, and the community continues to grow. 

That growth affirmed something important: 

• Leaders are not looking for more content. 
• They are looking for coherence, connection, and meaning. 

When Grit Was Tested 

In August, the pace intensified. Our state team began ramping up for the year’s launch. Districts I had the previous year building relationships with started to connect. Professional development readiness conversations were scheduled. Summer workgroups pushed toward the finish line. Calendars filled quickly, often wall-to-wall, with meetings, travel, and preparation. Fifty-plus-hour weeks became the norm.  

Yet, this was only one part of my life. I was also parenting two toddlers, navigating personal grief, and continuing to build Making Champions of Change in the margins of evenings and weekends. 

Our team norm, “expect and accept non-closure”, holds as a reminder that systems change is ongoing work. But under the weight of increased demand, that norm no longer buffered frustration the way it once had. I felt it. In hindsight, I can see how my fatigue made me more attuned to the strain in others. 

During this time, my stepfather was slowly losing his battle with cancer. He passed away on the morning of December 14th. Grief doesn’t wait for calendars to clear. During all this, a trusted leader shared feedback with me about a direct, potentially harsh comment I had made about teaming. She didn’t approach the conversation with defensiveness or correction. She asked if I was okay. If I felt aligned. If I were still connected to the work. She helped me reconnect to purpose. Sometimes, reconnection needs to happen within a team. Sometimes it needs to happen one-on-one. In this case, both were necessary. 

Organizational research reminds us that leaders are most vulnerable to fatigue not when workload is highest, but when purpose becomes unclear or misaligned (Reactions Toward Organizational Change, 2022). I felt that tension repeatedly this year. 

Grit, I learned, is not about grinding through more. Grit is about holding steady in times of ambiguity. It is a posture of centeredness. 

Grace: The Space Between Expectation and Reality 

Grace showed up in quieter ways this year. As Making Champions of Change grew faster than I could have imagined, connections multiplied. Some leaders leaned in deeply. Others engaged briefly. Some relationships need follow-up. Others need closure. A few may even need repair. 

Grace lives in those in-between spaces. Reflection, especially at the pause points between major initiatives, helps leaders determine: 

• What needs to be reopened with curiosity? 
• What can be closed with gratitude? 
• What requires clarity to resolve lingering tension?

Education is a small world. Bridges are easier to repair when we return to them with humility and care. 

Grace, with others and with myself, became one of the most transformative leadership practices I leaned into this year. Research on change engagement shows that supportive leadership climates increase motivation and reduce perceived resistance (Vullinghs et al., 2022). This shows up when leaders see people as humans and not simply as the doers or implementers of the work.  

Leadership texts like Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams from Isolated to All, remind us that belonging and psychological safety are not soft add-ons. They are foundational drivers of collaborative work. Grace is what makes belonging possible in seasons of strain. 

Growth Is the Outcome of Honest Reflection 

The Energy-Commitment Model describes change-fatigue as a psychological erosion of meaning, not simply a depletion of energy (EDUCAUSE Review, 2025). I have seen this firsthand. When clarity was missing, momentum slowed. When teams reconnected to purpose, even small wins felt like progress again. 

Growth this year didn’t come from doing more; it came from aligning more deeply. 

For Making Champions of Change, that meant a clearer direction: 

• Less emphasis on isolated content 
• More emphasis on connection 
• A commitment to shared learning 
• A belief that knowledge grows through conversation 

For me as a leader, growth meant recognizing when to pause, when to ask for reconnection, and when to lead with both courage and care. 

Closing Reflection 

This year taught me that: 

• Grit is centeredness, not toughness. 

• Grace is a leadership strength, not something to be given only in passing or as a consolation prize. 

• Growth emerges when purpose, people, and practice align. Returning to purpose doesn’t eliminate complexity; it only gives it a place to land. 

As leaders, every conversation becomes an opportunity to reconnect—to meaning, to one another, and to the shared work ahead. 

Thank you for being part of this journey. Thank you for continuing the conversation. We are better together. 

References 

EDUCAUSE Review. (2025). Identifying change fatigue in teams: Insights from the Energy-Commitment Model. 

Vullinghs, J., De Jong, J., & Schaufeli, W. (2022). The influence of change-related organizational and job resources on change engagement. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 22(3), 45–62. 

Oreg, S., Vakola, M., & Armenakis, A. (2022). Reactions toward organizational change: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), 1–24. 

Kapping, M. (2021). Change fatigue, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University). 

Jenkins, R., & Jenks, S. (2022). Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams from Isolated to All. McGraw-Hill. 

Hackman, J. R. (2002). Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Harvard Business School Press.