Do You REALLY “Get” Them?
If you are going to lead – truly lead a team – there is one thing your people must believe and say about you; “my leader gets me”. This phrase is shorthand for: You know what motivates them to show up each day. You seek to understand and affirm their feelings and perspectives. You take […]
Is Your Ego Getting the Best of You?
I think about ego as the idealized or overinflated story each of us tells about who we are – a story that is like a shield. It provides protection, but also blocks our view and it is very difficult to put down. Do you have an ego story? It might be the story about how […]
Anxiety and Our Three Brains
I received a number of appreciative emails about my recent blog (on the ways we can calm unproductive anxiety about the future) and was inspired to share a tool that might prove useful when you find yourself in a downward spiral of unproductive worry. The tool was developed by Due Quach (pronounced Zway Kwok), social […]
ON MY MIND: Good Design Has No Victims. Same Goes for Good Leadership.
I recently spent the afternoon at Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art. One of the exhibitions featured a 10-foot high poster created by Rick Griffith of @MATTERdesign entitled: “An Introductory Ethic for Designers.” As I looked up at the massive manifesto and reviewed its 17 principles, it struck me that the word “leader” could easily replace […]
FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Think Again by Adam Grant
The old saying, “seeing is believing” doesn’t really describe how we operate as humans. If you’ve spent any time with me in a workshop, you’ve probably heard me tell a favorite story that challenges this conventional wisdom. There’s this elderly couple. The wife Ethel becomes concerned that her beloved husband Joe is losing his hearing. […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: Unresolve! Divest Yourself of What No Longer Serves
I am not a big fan of new year resolutions. Yes, I am a very goal-driven person, but the idea of adding more commitments to an already full list of promises I’ve made to myself and others stresses me out. If you follow my blog you know that I am a fan of a book […]
ON MY MIND: Coming Back Together (Part 2)
After describing the dynamics of polarization in a previous blog, this second installment will highlight Parker Palmer’s essay entitled, “Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy.” It contains important insights on how we come back together in our families, work places, communities and our country. I’m taking some liberties with these five habits to […]
IN MY EARBUDS: If you don’t decide what matters, someone else will do it for you
A while back I wrote a review of a wonderful book entitled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. The book is about consciously choosing where to invest one’s time and energy in order to feel fulfilled and make a true contribution. My summary of the author’s premise is this: Most of us […]
ON MY MIND: Good Work is Not the Same as Hard Work
Ease (noun): The absence of difficulty or effort; simplicity. One day, in later life, I found myself on the acupuncture table exhausted from a thrown out back. As I lay there, I worried about all of the productive work time I was losing. Imetai, my acupuncturist must have sensed my escalating heart rate. He knew […]
ON MY MIND: Six Shifts for High-Stakes Conversations Shift 6, From Being Right to Being Kind
“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” -Abraham Joshua Heschel In this series I’m sharing the Six Shifts leaders can make in order to be more successful in having a high-stakes conversation. Shift 6 involves shifting from being right to being kind. Here’s what I […]