The Monthly Libation: June 2025

Colemon & Associates Monthly Libation Newsletter – June 2025

We hope this newsletter finds you able to enjoy some sunshine! We know the Pacific Northwest doesn’t always offer us the warmth we want, but we are grateful for the great weather we have been having! As a reminder, our intention for this newsletter is to offer reflections, inspiration, and resources to feed and nourish our work and practices from three primary perspectives:

1.     What We Are Feeling (Heart)

2.     What We Are Thinking (Head)

3.     What We Are Practicing (Loving and Intentional Action)

What We Are Feeling (Heart)

Like so many others we are experiencing conflicting emotions.  On one hand, we feel energized. The light and sunshine of June motivates us to practice presence. Walks in our neighborhoods or in nature, our local farmer’s markets, Juneteenth celebrations, and summer solstice all bring a wealth of opportunities for gratitude, connection, and community. Kellie is even trying some amateur birding with the Tahoma Bird Alliance!

On the other hand, we feel heavy, angry, and overwhelmed by the continued attacks on our communities, loved ones, and fellow Americans. The raids, continued loss of jobs, programming, and support for purpose driven work have us in a tailspin at any given point on any given day. We don’t feel prepared, much less equipped to stay grounded in the face of these crisis. Sometimes meetings, emails, and everyday tasks feel meaningless and insignificant. In coaching and supporting organizations, we are working to model authenticity in naming the known unknowns, honoring the very scary, very high stakes decisions and happenings at play for so many, and how destabilizing the constant uncertainty is for ourselves and our teams.

"Press On & Win" micro-collage by Kellie Colemon

It is not business as usual. And it is critical to pause and name that fact so that our teams don’t feel a pressure to perform through the grief, heartbreak, or stress. What we silence, avoid, or allow to go unchecked determines the culture we create in our organizations. We must use our power to model the courage to slow down and be human. To do so does not negate the real work that must be completed to “keep the lights on.” It does, however, demonstrate that we care about our people and their experiences as they devote their talents and energy to our collective work.

How are you checking in on your teams? How do you create the conditions to acknowledge our humanity? What does productivity and success look like when we incorporate the mental and spiritual health?

What We Are Thinking/Reading (Head)

We are working to stay abreast of the executive orders, policy shifts, and scholarships impacting our client partners. We are reviewing lists like these by the Council of Nonprofits summarizing the executive orders impacting nonprofits, and pivoting and adjusting our work and partnerships in response to these shifts.

“What does it look like for us to be keeping people safe and thriving in this system, the current system, while resourcing the power building and creativity that's needed to bridge to the next systems?” - Trish Adobea Tchume

These shifts mean we must make increasing complex and difficult decisions – without all the answers, with changing or unclear success measures, and without the guarantee of resources or partnerships.

How do we make hard decisions?

We are drawn to explore and read about decision-making models and approaches, especially when things are complicated and tense. Decisiveness is one of most valuable qualities as leader. In fact, one of the easiest ways to strengthen and gain respect is decisiveness. Why? Because we can’t follow someone who isn’t making decisions. We can’t even disagree or propose alternatives until a decision is made. Teams are at a standstill when leaders are stuck in passivity or indecisiveness.

The impact of decisions extends beyond personal implications; they can affect teams, communities, and the broader societal landscape. The ripple effects of a single decision can lead to significant changes within an organization, shaping its culture, performance, and strategic direction. As such, effective decision-making becomes a key driver of success, influencing everything from innovation to problem-solving. This piece on decisiveness from The Leadership Circle offers some rich food for thought to improve our relationship to decision making.

Identifying and using a set of primers to help us make decisions helps us prevent “paralysis analysis” and can also be a way to deepen the trust we have in ourselves as skilled and empathetic leaders. This article from Harvard Business Review offers some primers to consider. And this LinkedIn post offers some useful insights to consider what drives our relationship to decision making.

What is your relationship to decision making? What do you do when you just don’t know? Whose wisdom and support help you make hard decisions?

What We Are Practicing (Loving and Intentional Action)

We are practicing our own ways to increase trust in ourselves. We are remembering what we know: our skills, our lived and learned experiences, our gifts, and our lineages. We are relying on tools and resources that are tried and true, rather than reaching for something new. When the terrain is unpredictable and unfamiliar, the familiar can give our nervous system the steadiness it needs to ground and guide us.

It is no small undertaking to remember to turn inward, be still, and trust our intuition with so much information flooding our inboxes and news feeds. Default “work” and “leadership” stances say we need to be reaching for more, learning and reading more, hustling, grinding and acquiring more. These stances push us to perform rather than be real and present. But we say no to that! We choose instead to remember. We are remembering to remember. This episode of Becoming the People featuring Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a powerful reminder of when and how to tap into what we already know to reconnect with our convictions and courage. We contain such a wealth of wisdom in our bodies! This article offers some powerful prompts for trusting intuition. And this article argues that your gut is your ally as a leader.

Do you trust your gut? When is your gut not enough? What enables or limits your capacity to lead/decide with intuition?

We hope you enjoyed this month’s offering. Please share with those in your network who might enjoy it. Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to stay informed of our upcoming work and/or events, and to keep receiving the Monthly Libation. If you are looking for organizational development consultation, support, or coaching, you can find out more about our work on our website or email us at info@colemonassociates.org.

Stay safe. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other.

C&A Team