Leadership

A few years ago, I was invited to do a charity trip to Nepal with five other women and trek to basecamp on Annapurna.  Eight days trekking up to an elevation of 13,550 feet and five days back down.

Those of you who know me know I was born and raised in the city of Chicago where it is pretty flat there and in the surrounding area for mile after mile. Also, if you know me, I have never been a big hiker. Yes, I enjoy getting out in nature and walking leisurely on trails and stopping along the way …

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person. --Alan Alda

I always took great pride in my ability to accomplish a lot. I was one of the fastest “Check it off, it’s done” people I knew. Can you identify? 

Several years ago, during a leadership program I attended, I pulled aside the leader and told her, “I am getting impatient with all these people. They seem to take forever to come to a decision and want to just talk on and on and on.”

She looked at me and smiled. “Pat, I know tha…

“Want something you’ve never had? Do something you’ve never done.” - Unknown

Comfort Zones are the habits we have—neither good nor bad—that we need to be aware of, because they may be preventing us from playing at our best. Comfort Zones may be keeping us in the same old place, as they are just that—they are comfortable. And who wants to leave a place that is comfortable for what is unknown and more than likely uncomfortable?

A Comfort Zone can be a behavior or an action of some sort. For …

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." ~Charles DuBos

Transition is the process of letting go of the way things used to be and then taking hold of the way they subsequently become. Sounds easy, but in reality, it is really hard letting go of the comfort of sameness.

We resist transition not because we can't accept the change, but because we can't accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and…

This is my 200th blog. Most of my blogs have covered the topic of authentic leadership from the inside out. This blog is different. The times are different. I have been searching how I can examine my own biases and educate myself on racism. I found this excerpt from Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out by Ruth King.  She has granted me permission to reprint here.

“My child, I’d like to tell you, from my lips, the truth about our racial history — about whiteness and about bei…

This blog was originally published in March of 2019. I thought it would be a good reminder for all of us about the importance of really seeing each other.

How many times have we asked someone “How are you?” hoping that we don’t get more than a one-word response such as “Fine” or “Good”? How often do we just continue to walk on and not stop to acknowledge the person answering—or perhaps asking—the question, just so we’ll be able to continue with whatever we were doing with minimal disruption.  

"A man who says he has never been scared is either lying or else he's never been any place or done anything." - Louis L'Amour 

Think of a time in your life when you were just about to take a big leap forward by doing something you had never done before. What did that feel like? Perhaps you felt anxious. Perhaps your heart was racing, palms sweating. Perhaps your breathing was shallow and you were nervous and shaking. Perhaps you wished you were any other place than where you were at that moment…

"The way you tell your story to yourself matters." -- Amy Cuddy

Anxiety. Certain situations always bring up a feeling of anxiety. For me, these include stepping in front of a room for a presentation, beginning work with a new client, and driving in an unfamiliar place, although GPS has helped to alleviate this anxiety a great deal.

It is a stressful time. We are anxious as we continue to face this unprecedented and unknown situation. We are also attempting to plan for an unknown future. In…

And The People Stayed Home
by Kitty O’Meara

And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested,
and exercised, and made art, and played games,
and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant,
dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal.

And when the d…

“What we call the beginning is often the end and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” - T.S. Eliot

The Chinese character for ‘crisis’ consists of two parts: one signifies danger and the other opportunity. This is the nature of change; we respond to both aspects, danger and opportunity. There is opportunity in danger and danger in opportunity. 

The path through transitions, whether it is our choice or it occurs due to outside forces such as our current Pan…