Do You Hear What I Hear?

I have heard on the radio several times this week that one of the most stressful things during the holidays is dealing with relatives and more importantly their nosy questions.  Such questions include: When are you getting married? Have you lost weight? When are you going to give me grandchildren?, etc. I am sure they … Read more

Patience is a Virtue Even for Leaders

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was quoted as saying “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.”  In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be patient, but the better leaders know that to succeed, you must be patient in most cases. As an example, when introducing a … Read more

How to Deal With a “Know-It-All”

Supposedly Sir Francis Bacon is credited with the quote “knowledge is power.”  A true leader definitely needs to be experienced but they should also seek out others who are more knowledgeable in certain areas than they are. Ego gets in the way, however, because some leaders won’t admit they don’t have all the answers. If … Read more

What Are Your Super Powers?

According to Dictionary.com, a hero is “a person who, in the opinion of others, has special achievements, abilities, or personal qualities and is regarded as a role model.” This does not mean, however, that all heroes are viewed as leaders. The added piece to this is that leaders need to take these abilities and motivate … Read more

Life Learning is the Key to Success

When we were children, we had lessons on a variety of different topics including math, history, science, and English.  Depending on what kind of student you were, you may have preferred some subjects over others and excelled in areas that you never thought possible. As we get older, we may think that we don’t have … Read more

Learning From Our Mistakes is Part of the Journey

We live in a world where people who make mistakes are usually frowned upon. However some of the greatest inventions were created because someone did something wrong. Considering computers can pretty much do anything for us, we tend to forget that we are not made of bits and bytes, but we have blood, bones, and … Read more

The Importance of Effective Engagement

Recently my alma mater changed the name of their Alumni Relations department to Alumni Engagement, which supposedly other universities are doing as well. I thought this was a good idea because engaging someone is very different from relating to someone. The major difference is that you may feel there are commonalities with you and someone … Read more

ABC’s of Team Building – T is for Talk

Originally, I planned on blogging about Transition as in teams in transition either due to a new boss, restructuring, or new team members joining the group.  Instead I want to focus on Talk in that there is too much talk going on.  I have witnessed especially this past year that many people are doing a … Read more

ABC’s of Team Building – P is for Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is a belief among members of a team that each person can speak his or her own mind and make creative suggestions without being fearful of being shamed or even losing his or her job.  In this type of environment, each team member feels respected, accepted, and a valued part of the group.  … Read more

ABC’s of Team Building – N is for Negativity

Who are the five people you spend the most time with?  Most people when I ask this question in my presentations say family, best friend, coworkers, and boss.  Then I tell them they are all wrong.  The person you spend the most time with is yourself.  So, if you are spending all this time with … Read more