Leadership

When I work with leaders, we always get into a coaching conversation about who they want to be as a leader and who they are becoming. One of my clients was quick to respond with this list, which he has above his desk and has his staff hold him accountable to. These are the 25 principles of adult behavior by John Perry Barlow, who was an American poet and essayist, a cattle rancher, and a cyberlibertarian political activist.

1. Be patient. No matter what.
2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, n…

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~Plato

I think we as a society currently lack basic human kindness toward each other. It seems we were a lot kinder to each other a mere two years ago. This saddens me. I understand the current world happenings are contributing to our inability to show kindness and I think our full, busy and stressful lives are a big contributor to our lack of kindness. We just don’t have time for it anymore and due to social distancing, we don’t have …

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." ~ Barack Obama

When I first heard this, I realized the first task of leadership is to get inspired ourselves. Unless we have that hunger that must be fed and a compelling purpose to move forward, how in the world do we inspire others? It is impossible to lead if we don't feel inspired. Okay, not impossible, because I can certainly name a few lea…

I work with a lot of people around creating a feedback culture in their organizations, which, of course, includes how to give great feedback. I’m a believer that when you learn what to do, you also need to learn what not to do.

Here are my Top 10 ways to fail at giving great feedback, in no order of importance:

1. Don’t ask the individual for permission to give feedback Just give it to them. You know what is best for them.
2. Provide feedback in front of other people especially when delivering di…

"If you can change your mind, you can change your life. What you believe creates the actual fact. The greatest revolution of my generation is to discover that individuals, by changing their inner attitudes of mind, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

The above quote was written by William James who wrote "The Will to Believe" in 1897. No, that's not a typographical error, he actually wrote this in 1897.

The concepts of the laws of attraction and living with intention have been ar…

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
~ Mark Twain

I once told someone this was my favorite quote. Finding it again brought up the many reasons I love it. All during my life, I have encountered people who were nay-sayers and tried to belittle my ambitions. There was a time when I truly believed those who told me: "You can't do that!"; "That's too big for you to do."; "Who d…

"If you are not taking care of your sustainability, then you are 'full of it.'"
~ Laura Whitworth

The issue of sustainability and self care has come up many, many times recently.

"Sustainability" is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as: "To keep in existence; to maintain. To supply with necessities or nourishment. To keep from falling or sinking. To support the spirits or resolution of."

The topic of sustainability always comes up in my work with individuals. How do we keep the …

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
~John F. Kennedy

The above quote and title of this post is from a speech that John F. Kennedy, our 35th President never delivered.

"He was scheduled to deliver a speech in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He never spoke these words. He was assassinated on his way to the event and died before he spoke these words."

When I saw this speech, I grabbed a fresh cup of coffee and sat down to read it. It was the message I wanted to deliver to…

“Mindfulness isn't difficult. We just need to remember to do it.” - Sharon Salzberg

These times are stressful for a lot of us. As I was writing this I began to list the many ways stress shows up, but  that in itself felt stressful, so I decided not to head in that direction.

Instead I thought I’d give you one simple technique I learned from WW I’ve been using with success. It relates to mindfulness, which in my mind keeps bringing me to the importance of staying present, being in the momen…

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson

The worldwide ‘pause’ that Covid-19 has forced upon us has allowed me to have a lot of reflective time. I kept saying, “I am so amazed at how little I’ve accomplished with so much more time.” And then, I realized I have been very busy reflecting and taking a look at ‘What’s Next' as a lot of you might have been, too.

I picked up my book, Gutsy Women Win and read the following excerpt. I…