How I Found a Real Connection
I lost my cell phone this week. I was panicked at first. Surely people were texting me. There were important emails I couldn’t check, and what if somebody after texting and emailing actually tried to call. I was, for a moment in time, unreachable. Then something happened inside of me. The yearning I felt for instant communication turned into a ferocious appetite for soft swirl yogurt. Suddenly, I didn’t care about who might be calling, texting or emailing, all I [...]
What I Most Often Hear My Clients Say: When is the right time to speak up?
What I often hear in coaching sessions with clients is “I didn’t say anything.” They had the answer, they knew it was right, or they knew the decision being made was wrong, but they didn’t speak up. They decided to keep important and sometimes vital information to themselves to support the group norm, to be “liked”, or to not be seen as adversarial. What I tell my clients is simple. You have a responsibility as a corporate citizen to speak up. [...]
What Ernest Hemingway Taught Me
“Write drunk and edit sober,” was Ernest Hemingway’s advice to aspiring writers. In its literal interpretation, it doesn’t work all that well for me. However, the sentiment behind it I find to be highly effective. At the heart of the message is a reminder to loosen up. To allow ourselves to be creative without restrictions. Without form. To relinquish ourselves to the greater energies that want to release themselves from our confines. From our self-imposed sense of smallness. When we [...]
Are You a Well-Intended De-Motivator?
I have heard it all too many times. Hardworking, eager to please people, who have been demoralized by the negative feedback of a well-intended perfectionist. It’s not that the perfectionist meant it. Really. They just tend to have highly developed detail-oriented filters. They see what’s wrong, what’s missing, or what is not done the way they like it. Most will even tell you that there is no criticism intended. They are just pointing out what is most obvious to them. What [...]
The One Thing I Try to Remember
Yesterday, I was reminded of something I try to remember. Sweltering in the heat of the day, and after many hours of working, I became irritated about something quite petty and was short with somebody that was simply trying to assist my request. When we put in too many hours in an attempt to “get it all done” we are destined to hit a point of diminishing returns. We try to keep doing or giving, but the expenditure of energy [...]
A Helpful Way to Raise Your Profile
At times a reader shares something inspired by my blog that takes the sentiment to a whole new level. Such was the case a few weeks ago when I wrote about the resilient spirits shining through the amputee musician I met in Cambodia. The reader brought the story home when she shared that her work colleagues have been collecting ring tabs from soda cans. When they collect 1000 tabs they send the metal through the Lion’s Club to Cambodia where [...]