I’m Not Changing Direction. I’m Widening the Lens.

I’ve been sharing a little differently lately.

There’s a reason.

I’ve been writing more about leadership. People. Systems. Decisions.

What we miss.

What we assume.

And what happens after the meeting when people have to actually live with what was decided.

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve probably noticed.

And if you’ve been around for a really long time, you may recognize something else:

I’ve done this before.

Before “content” was content, I wrote on the internet.

Personal websites. BlackPlanet. MiGente. Xanga. MySpace. Tumblr. Twitter. Facebook when you needed a .edu email address.

And eventually Instagram — when the timeline was still chronological.

If you know, you know.

I wrote about whatever I was thinking about.

Life.

Faith.

Work.

Relationships.

Things I noticed.

Things I questioned.

And people read it.

We talked.

Community formed.

Then life got fuller.

My career got bigger.

And somewhere along the way, I stopped.

Apparently, I wasn’t done.

I have a few more things to say now.

More than twenty years inside HR, People Operations and executive leadership will do that.

I’ve spent those years inside the decisions organizations make about people.

Making them.

Advising them.

Cleaning some up.

Living with what happened next.

And the longer I’ve done this work, the less interested I’ve become in quick explanations.

Because sometimes the employee really is the problem.

Sometimes it’s the leader.

Sometimes it’s the system.

And sometimes — perhaps more often than we like to admit — several things are true at once.

That has changed how I think.

It has changed how I lead.

It has changed the questions I ask.

And increasingly, it’s shaping the work I want to do next.

I’m widening the lens.

Part of that is professional.

I’m increasingly stepping alongside organizations through fractional HR leadership, strategic advisory and focused engagements.

Sometimes an organization needs experienced HR leadership but doesn’t yet need a full-time HR executive.

Sometimes the same problem keeps showing up with different people.

Sometimes leaders know something isn’t working but can’t quite identify why.

Sometimes a significant decision is coming and someone needs to ask the questions that aren’t being asked inside the room.

That work makes sense to me.

Because one thing twenty-plus years has taught me is this:

The problem you can see isn’t always the problem you have.

And better decisions start with better diagnosis.

But widening the lens means something else, too.

I don't want to talk about work all the time.

There. I said it.

I love Jesus.

Music is my second language.

Travel is my happy place.

Sushi is absolutely girl-date food.

I believe joy is a strategy.

I will study a restaurant menu like there’s going to be a test and then order the Caesar salad anyway.

I’m a wife.

An angel mom.

A stepmom.

A worshipper.

A writer.

An executive.

An advisor.

A woman still figuring some things out.

All of those things inform how I see the world.

And I’m no longer particularly interested in pretending they belong in separate rooms.

None of us is just one thing.

So neither will this space be.

Some weeks, we’re going to put a leadership decision under the microscope.

Some days, I may want to talk about something God is teaching me.

There will be questions about people and organizations.

There will be travel.

Music.

Food.

Joy.

And occasionally something that has absolutely nothing to do with leadership.

Although knowing me, I’ll probably find a connection anyway.

So maybe this isn’t a pivot.

Maybe it’s a return.

Except the woman returning has twenty-plus more years of experience behind her.

More perspective.

More questions.

A few more scars.

A lot more gratitude.

And plenty left to learn.

I’m still learning.

Still building.

Still choosing joy.

Still trusting God.

Still becoming.

And still convinced there’s usually more to the story than what we see first.

So whether you’ve been reading my words since Xanga or somehow landed here this week:

Hi. I’m Kimberly.

I’m glad you’re here.

Now that we’ve been properly introduced—

let’s get into it.