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 [...]
It has been a challenge in today’s world to remain open to others opinions and to try to understand their perspective. When I hit a wall in being able to “seek first to understand, THEN to be understood,” I read this poem by Rumi and it gives me a different perspective on others views and [...]
Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.- Marshall McLuhan There is the old saying “Don’t assume, it makes an ass out of u and me.” I don’t know the origin of it, but I can tell you I have experienced that feeling of being an ass so many times I stopped counting. Just recently, I was reminded again of the problem with my making assumptions. Here [...]
Listen carefully to yourself for the next 24 hours. Pay attention to how many times during this period you say out loud “I don’t know”. You might be surprised. I know I was when I tried this. Where do you want to eat? What movie do you want to see? What do you want? What’s next for you [...]
“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’’. - Alfred Brendel A friend of mine recently reminded me of the importance of active listening. Often in the business of daily activities, I neglect to proactively listen to those who I am in conversation with. I can drift off into thinking of the brilliant response [...]
Last year I made the decision to take a sabbatical. For many years I thought sabbaticals were only for academics to be able to have a school year free from teaching to allow them to devote time to rest, research, travel, and write. This sounded like an ideal life to me and it was one of the reasons I wanted to become a [...]
I value words. I think they are important and because of this I am always looking up the meaning of them in the dictionary or looking for the right word to use in the thesaurus and here’s what I found about the word value: noun: value; plural noun: values 1. the regard that something is [...]
Several years ago, I did some postgraduate work in the neuroscience of leadership. While on this journey, I became more and more in awe of our brain and its workings. This mere three-pound organ has over 100 billion nerve cells that each makes thousands of connections. And as more brain research becomes possible as technology [...]
An Autobiography in Five Chapters Chapter 1 I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost . . . I am hopeless. It isn't my fault. But it takes forever to find a way out. Chapter 2 I walk down the street. There is a [...]
Several years ago I was one of 11 invited to contribute to the book Scrappy Women in Business: Living Proof that Bending the Rules isn’t Breaking the Law. The purpose of the book was to tell the stories about how we got to where we were in our careers. It was a great reflection on [...]