Several years ago, Tom Hanks starred in a movie called Cast Away. If you recall the movie, Hanks’ character is marooned on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. He attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane’s cargo. His wife, played by Helen Hunt, is certain he Read More
The other day, I was teaching a workshop and after one of the activities, I asked the group to share their thoughts, comments or questions. One of the participants said the model for conversation that I had just reviewed was familiar; he had learned and used similar things many times in the past, and this Read More
Recently, I heard about an episode of Shark Tank where “the sharks” funded an entrepreneur who developed a dating app that brings people together around what they dislike. “Hater is the app that matches you based on what you hate.” This is the description about the app on the App Store. The App Store Editor’s Read More
I recently volunteered to be a part of a group dialog with other business professionals about leadership, management and accountability. As part of the process, my staff were invited to give anonymous feedback in 10 different areas. I also ranked myself in the same 10 areas. The group’s facilitator then recapped all the information into Read More
“Words are but pictures of our thoughts.” –John Dryden (English poet and playwright) Do you pay attention to your language? The specific words you use to describe yourself, your actions, your goals, your plans, etc. Over the next few blog posts, I’m going to invite you to pay attention to the words you choose to Read More
If you’ve followed my blog for a while now, you may know my husband and I are fans of old western TV shows. The other night, we watched an episode of Death Valley Days, which are said to be true stories of the old west. The episode we watched was the story of a woman Read More
Over the last few weeks, I’ve received calls from managers who want help fixing a “problem employee”. The verb “fix” means: to mend or correct something. The implication is that the employee is broken and needs repair. What I have discovered in these situations is that it is not the employee who is broken, but Read More
Occasionally, people complain about how often others fail to follow their instructions. I was having coffee with a business colleague and he was telling me how frustrated he was by the fact that some members of his team don’t report for work on time. He remarked, “No one ever had to tell me to be Read More
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of facilitating a discussion with a group of supervisors from various companies on “Time Mastery”. When I present on this topic, I share Stephen Covey’s time management matrix. I have the group identify activities that fall in each of the 4 quadrants. (If you aren’t familiar with this matrix, Read More
As an EAP, we respond when disaster strikes – the death of an employee due to a traffic accident, suicide of an employee, serious injury from an industrial accident, an employee receiving a life threatening diagnosis are just a few examples of the situations that we have been called upon to help employers. We know having Read More
