Life
I’m the same kid I always was
My parents found my kindergarten report card, and it proves I am still pretty much a five year old at heart. What a treasure to have this to reflect on.
Communication
Three communication hacks
These three communication hacks help defuse tension, clarify intention, and give relationships extension.
Life
Like a knife in the back!
In the 1990s I was product manager of an innovative electronic publishing solution, way ahead of its time. It’s part of what makes me a great coach.
Leadership
Great leaders embrace healthy tension
Great leaders don’t fear tension or conflict. They understand the difference between healthy tension and destructive conflict, and they harness its energy in positive ways. Healthy tension exists in that place where you’re pushing the envelope while keeping control. It can exist when one or more positive things may conflict Read more
Leadership
Fix your leadership, not your employees
There’s apparently been a spike in employees taking mental health leave. I can believe it. Work culture has gotten more and more toxic and dehumanizing over the past decade. I’ve experienced it myself, and I’ve heard plenty of anecdotal evidence from the hundreds of clients I’ve coached over the past Read more
Life
Book launch! Launch party!
It’s book launch week! Tuesday, July 15th is the official publication date of Take Your Time Before Time Takes You (How to Make the Most of Every Day). It’s my eighth book as author or editor, not counting the multiple anthologies and periodicals that have published my stories, articles, and Read more
Decisions
Knowing when it’s time to stop
Knowing when it’s time to stop can be hard. When are you throwing good effort into something that should have ended already? Examples: I’ve written before about action planning and quit criteria, but today I’m thinking about the feeling of being done. Not about achieving goals or meeting deliverables. Not Read more
Uncategorized
You Are Here
An interesting life is a character-based story, not a plot-based story. You’re the main character, so act like it. Yesterday I was coaching a new writing client, a young writer who had gotten feedback that her idea for a new book was boring because it wasn’t “unique and different” enough. Read more
Uncategorized
Are you an expert or not?
Someone else’s greater capability does not invalidate your own. Just because someone else is better at a thing, or knows more about a thing, or has an advanced degree in a thing, doesn’t mean you suck at that thing. Yet that’s how many of us feel all the time. An Read more
Resilience
Three exercises for personal resilience
Personal resilience is, I believe, one of the three top skills every person will need over the next decade. (My other top two are adaptability and the ability to discern truth.) Personal resilience, generally speaking, is the ability to persevere through adversity or to bounce back after a setback. Last Read more