In this second episode of Season 2 of The Fosgail Mindset, Myka Kennedy Stephens builds on Attendant Leadership by turning toward its relational core. Using a story from her early years as a seminary librarian tasked with “right‑sizing” a 200,000‑volume theological library, she explores how even seemingly technical projects are deeply relational—touching staff, students, alumni, institutional leaders, the collection itself, the environment, and her own sense of vocation.​

Drawing on Margaret Wheatley’s insight that nothing exists in isolation and everything takes shape in and through relationship, Myka introduces two dimensions of relationality in Attendant Leadership: relational scope (from self to community) and relational depth (from humanity to the more‑than‑human world/cosmos). She shares how this simple two‑dimensional lens helped her notice where her attention was going—and where it wasn’t—when making hard decisions about deselection, environmental impact, and her own limits as a leader.

Listeners are invited to reflect on their own leadership contexts by asking: Where am I most strongly attending right now—self, community, humanity, or cosmos? And what might shift if I treated my next difficult decision as an opportunity to re‑locate myself within a larger web of relationships?​

Read the companion blog article: https://www.fosgail.org/blog/2026/02/09/2026-02-09_attending-to-relationships/ Join the Fosgail Community: https://community.fosgail.org/ Subscribe to Fosgail’s biweekly newsletter: https://www.fosgail.org/discover-more/newsletter/

In this Season 2 opener of The Fosgail Mindset, Myka Kennedy Stephens names how control‑focused, top‑down leadership is eroding trust and fragmenting community in libraries, higher education, and other mission‑driven institutions. Drawing on a recent committee meeting and wider political patterns, she connects today’s leadership dysfunction to the crisis that prompted Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership—and explains why that model’s servanthood vocabulary is now too limited to address power and context.​

Myka then introduces Attendant Leadership as a more holistic, power‑aware framework rooted in practices of service, justice, and peace, and outlines the eight‑part series that will explore its two dimensions of relationality and five expressions: healer, sage, emissary, companion, and steward. Listeners are invited to reflect on where autocratic patterns show up in their own contexts and to join an ongoing conversation about what a more attendant way of leading might look like.

Read the companion blog article: https://www.fosgail.org/blog/2026/01/22/2026-01-22_disrupting_autocracy/ Join the Fosgail Community: https://community.fosgail.org Subscribe to Fosgail’s biweekly newsletter: https://www.fosgail.org/discover-more/newsletter/

In this special extended episode, host Myka Kennedy Stephens sits down with Jessica Zairo to explore how embracing the value of sharing can positively impact communities. Drawing heavily on Jessica's experiences with open-source software support and development, particularly with the Koha integrated library system, this conversation highlights the power of collaboration, reciprocal giving, and community building in the library world.

Jessica Zairo serves as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at ByWater Solutions, where she builds relationships with libraries and open-source communities. Her career spans various roles in library and information services, including: - Member services coordinator at Tampa Bay Library Consortium (128 member libraries) - Information manager at Everlove and Associates (legal reference and research services) - Creator and host of the popular "Monday Minutes" educational video series

Key Takeaways 1. The power of reciprocal giving extends beyond individual transactions to build stronger communities 2. Collaborative competition ("co-opetition") can drive innovation while maintaining community values 3. Inclusive participation in open-source communities strengthens the entire ecosystem 4. Knowledge sharing through accessible documentation benefits users worldwide 5. Successful migrations require involving all stakeholders in the transition process 6. Trust building through transparency and community recognition is essential for open-source adoption

Read the companion blog post: https://www.fosgail.org/blog/2025/10/05/2025-10-05_embracing-the-value-of-sharing/

Koha-US User Group: https://koha-us.org/

Koha Community website: https://koha-community.org/

Monday Minutes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV_OXyJ1D3BgKovtgSBoFcQNb7IhixDKO

Sign up for the Fosgail Field Notes newsletter: https://www.fosgail.org/discover-more/newsletter/

Join the Fosgail Community: https://community.fosgail.org

Recorded August 19, 2025 with Descript.