Part 1: From The Pandemic Lockdown, Day 159 How long have you been in lockdown, or working from home, or having to balance kids and job and worry about the return to school, or feeling separated from loved ones? Too long, right? I thought I was doing OK. Then two weeks ago (day 143, but … Read more
WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Since mid-March, every conversation touches on the pandemic, at least for a second. But the topic’s been consistently held as a temporary situation. Then last week happened. Plans for return to work in July shifted to year-end 2020. Conferences in 1Q21 started getting the “let’s go virtual!” treatment. Three months is temporary. A full year is, … Read more
Five Prescriptions for Happiness: Short notice, but if you’re up for a lunchtime (well, Cleveland lunch time) Happiness shot-in-the arm, I’m speaking in the Cleveland Society for HR Management series next Tuesday 26 May at 12 US ET, sharing some practical tips for nurturing resilience in Turbulent Times. Register here Happiness Practices: If you can’t make … Read more
It’s been a wet winter here, so our yard is a reeking mud marsh dotted with swampy pools deep enough that we’ve attracted nomadic geese. We are in COVID-19 lockdown (Day 7). Our internet is spotty and overloaded, and my nine-year-old iMac chose today to fully embrace dementia. Our sump pump is blocked. A skunk … Read more
There’s a moment in the movie Frozen 2 when Queen Elsa, haunted by a mysterious voice, decides to shift from ignoring it (out of fear) to pursuing it (out of curiosity). The song, Into the Unknown (watch it here), follows her transition from “I won’t” to admitting, “there’s a part of me that wants to go, … Read more
Pandemic and all, this is still annual Act Happy Week. Watch for five 60-second exercises, starting today. Because even if panic is the emotion of the day, you get to choose. The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body … Read more
This month’s post was inspired by a blog from one of my favorite mentors in the consulting world, Alan Weiss. This short excerpt sets the stage and my thoughts follow: An asteroid three times the size of the Empire State Building shot by the Earth last week, “only” three million miles away and traveling … Read more
What Does It Mean To Be Present? Remember, Leadership is not about a title; anyone can be a Leader who creates a positive experience for others. I typically end my essays with a tip like above, but today let’s start with a reminder that leaders are people who make a difference for others, usually through … Read more
A friend recently told a story to a conference crowd: A traveler climbing a hill saw another man ahead of him running and running. Then he saw the man stop. Then he began running fast again. And again, he stopped. Over and over he repeated this cycle. Eventually the traveler caught up to the … Read more
Additional points of wisdom from Prague. Your job is NOT to be Wallpaper. Whatever you’ve been given, use it. Show up. Be you. The world needs all the help it can get! We still believe the deep expertise and planning are the keys to success, but in a VUCA* world, flexibility and diverse thinking … Read more