This episode is coming straight from Lynsey Mulder’s Iowa backyard, where summer has officially arrived, everything is growing, everything is blooming, and apparently everything has collectively decided to test her leadership skills on the way.

In this solo episode of Lead with Spark, Lynsey turns four very real backyard situations, carpenter bees boring into the deck, barn swallows relentlessly rebuilding their nests, rabbits making themselves at home in her strawberry patch, and deer calmly strolling through the yard near her newly planted trees, into four of the most practical leadership lessons she has shared on this podcast.

Together they form what Lynsey is calling The Backyard Leadership Filter: a framework of four questions every leader can ask about the situations, people, patterns, and priorities in their life and work. Each question points to a different kind of leadership response: redirect, redesign, set a boundary, or protect early.

This is the episode for the woman leader who is absorbing too much, tolerating too much, cleaning up the same thing over and over, or trying to grow something new and wondering why it keeps getting damaged before it has a chance to take root.

Together We Will Talk About

• Why good intention does not erase real impact, and how to have the conversation anyway
• The difference between handling a problem and leading through it
• How the things you keep cleaning up might be telling you something about your system instead of your situation
• Why the small, cute, non-dramatic energy leaks in your leadership are often the most costly ones
• How over-functioning can masquerade as helpfulness until it becomes burnout
• Why prevention is stewardship and what it looks like to protect what is still growing
• The dangerous side of tolerance and how what you tolerate teaches people what is acceptable
• The Backyard Leadership Filter: four practical questions to assess any situation in your life or leadership
• Why you do not have to choose between being kind and being clear

One Line to Take Away with You

“You are not being difficult. You are being clear. And clarity is a gift.”

The Backyard Leadership Filter

Four questions to help you assess any situation in your work or life:

• Is this valuable but misplaced? (The carpenter bee situation: redirect or reinforce the structure)
• Is the same problem being repeated? (The barn swallow situation: stop cleaning up and redesign the system)
• Is this small but quietly costly? (The rabbit situation: set a clear, calm boundary)
• Is this something new that needs protection? (The deer situation: protect it early before the pressure hits)

Connect with Lynsey

Before you walk into your next role or your next interview, take the free Crack Your Code BANK assessment. It takes about ninety seconds, and understanding your own communication and decision-making blueprint is one of the fastest ways to start trusting your own read again. The link is in the show notes.

And if this episode landed somewhere real for you, send it to one woman in your life who you know is in the middle of a rebuild. She may not have had words for what she has been going through. This episode might give her some.

• Free Crack Your Code BANK assessment
• Website: LynseyMulder.com
• Facebook: @LynseySMulder
• LinkedIn: @Lynsey-Mulder
• Instagram: @LynseyMulder