Lynn Vidler was the Provost at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs — the university’s chief academic officer. But their first career was as a professional ballet dancer with the California Ballet Company in San Diego, where they’d been training since age four. Lynn left it, went 3,000 miles across the country to NYU, and built an academic career in 17th century Spanish drama that eventually took them to West Point for 12 years, then South Dakota, then Colorado.

In this conversation, Lynn walks us through a path that keeps bending toward curiosity. We get into what they learned about leader development at West Point after 9/11 — that you can get results through a positive, authentic approach or a toxic one, and that whichever you choose scales up into the next generation. Lynn talks about coming out publicly as transgender and non-binary at almost 50, and what it’s like to suddenly feel the systems that govern how people are treated. And they share what’s next: a decision to resign and leave the country, and what leadership looks like when you no longer hold the title.

Show notes:

• Lynn Vidler’s leadership & performance coaching business: https://bloomingbranchgroup.com/
• Brown University ACT leadership coaching program: https://www.actleader.com/
• International Coaching Federation: https://coachingfederation.org
• University of Colorado Colorado Springs: https://www.uccs.edu