TL;DR: Sometimes I get pulled by things that are just a little off course. My next role is not about less. It is about angle. Bringing the right and the left in closer, so that everything I focus on is more directional. A week of three terrains - the backyard, Dayton, and the drive north - and what they are teaching me about narrowing the way I serve.

"On Signals"

19 April 2026

Hiya

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I took a staycation. Yup, put in for 24 hours of leave… so Jodi and I could stay home.

We spent a couple of hours each day in the backyard. Those of you who know me… you know I am not much of a meditator.

But, I have found it's pretty "centering" and "mindful" when I do what I call "bird finding." (Most people call it birdwatching, but I have noticed we rarely watch them ... once we find them. We find one. We start looking. We find another. We start looking, again.)

It is a practice of coming back to the present.

On Tuesday morning, we pulled out our calendars and did what I call "The 90/90." Ninety minutes… thinkin' and talkin' about the next ninety days. We wrote about it in a book we published a decade ago. And, it still works.

Sometimes we look further out, but ninety is usually enough to get on the same page.

This calendar review (and preview) hit different.

A new chapter is coming this summer. (I'll share more, when it's "Facebook official!) More time in California. More time with intact groups. Fewer airplanes, more policy-level work.

Frances Hesselbein taught me what being of service looks like. She was my mentor until she passed; she still influences the way I think and work. She used to tell me, "To serve is to live." My version, "To connect is to lead." (Truthfully, I still write with her in the room.)

This next chapter of my work will ask me to narrow.

For years, I have let my peripheral vision stay wide. Right and left, as far as I could see. Abundance everywhere. Sometimes I get pulled off course by things that are just a little off. This next role is not about less. It is about the angle. Bringing the right and the left in closer, so that everything I focus on is more directional.

Jodi and I mapped what that rhythm might look like. The bird finding helped.

The calendar helped more.

Thursday, I flew to Dayton.

Friday morning, I facilitated a leader development session for command teams and award nominees, all in the same room. Friday night I was the guest speaker at their annual gala. Before I walked to the podium, the Command Chief introduced me.

She did not list what I have done. She told the audience who I am.

Then I walked up and gave my remarks.

I talked about signals. About the quiet ones we almost miss. The person who comes to mind on a Tuesday afternoon. The name you have not said out loud in a while. I told the room that the most important signal is the person sitting next to them.

I told the award winners that the award they would carry home was for what they did. The recognition was for who they are. I said it to them out loud. A few minutes earlier, in a different form, I had received the same message myself.

I did not plan that. I do not think I could have.

This morning, an email arrived from a senior leader who had been in both the rooms I spoke in. She wrote about what she was still carrying. Two lines from her message are still with me. One of them was about getting together with small groups of people - that a difference in how we see a problem is itself a reason to meet and talk.

I am still turning that one over.

And, today I drove north to Petaluma.

I wrote an update today on how we are working to pay for my mom to have part-time caregivers. This is so Felice can go to work 3 days a week (long story… for another update!). And, a few days of each month, I'm coming to help how I can. I can only do what is asked of me. I can only help as much as I know where help is needed.

I must remind myself of this every time I make this drive.

The part of me that wants to know the plan, make the plan, and be told the plan does not always get to lead while I'm here.

Here is what I am sitting with:

If a difference in how we see a problem is a reason for a meeting, what do I do when the other person is carrying too much to meet?

I do not have an answer yet. I am not sure the answer is the point. Maybe the meeting is the drive itself. The showing up. Being in the same house for a couple of nights without a plan.

Three terrains in one week.

The backyard. The ballroom. The drive.

What connects them is not the doing. It is the showing up. Presence with Jodi is one shape. Service in Dayton is another. Offering what is asked in Petaluma is a third.

My heart is in all of them.

And, the signal is the people next to you. It always has been.

JW

PS: For a quick NotebookLM video update on our Mama, here you go...