It’s Time to Critically Think About Critical Thinking!
“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. A second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. A first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” A.A. Milne, Playwright and Author (most notably: Winnie the...
How to Shift AWARENESS to Changed BEHAVIOR
Imagine you have toxic, disengaged (quiet quitting) behaviors in your workplace. Everything you read and measure shows this negatively impacts your growth, profitability, and reputation. The facts confirm that the effective people in your organization are personally...
Do I Care Enough to Risk Losing You?
“Many of us live in denial of who we truly are because we fear losing someone or something-and there are times that if we don’t rock the boat, too often the one we lose is ourselves…It feels good to be accepted, loved, and approved of by others, but often...
Steps to Understand and Implement a Responsibility-Based Culture
“An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch Rarely do executive and senior leaders have the opportunity to network with their peers and receive and discuss information...
Complicity
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr. Someone cautioned me recently that I would offend people because I brought up toxic masculinity and that I should...
A Fool with a Tool is Still a Fool
“A fool with a tool is still a fool.” Grady Booch, American Software Engineer In any situation involving significant transformation, the most important change process is the one within, one’s mindset. In my 12-month culture transformation process people often...
Your Greatest Barrier Is Your Pain Tolerance
“…Sometimes I suspect that what had really happened was that we became more resigned, more cynical, raised our pain thresholds as we lowered our expectations. All in all, we settled for less.” Emma Donoghue, Playwright It’s no accident we often hear, “no pain,...
Seize Opportunities Within the Great Resignation
“The true test of character is to live win-win even when promoted to positions where win-lose is possible.” ― Orrin Woodward If you search google, you’ll find The Great Resignation is defined as an informal name for the widespread trend of a significant number...
Stop Protecting Your Reputation
“The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” ― Napoleon Hill ...
Is Your Free Will Actually Free?
“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” ~ C.S. Lewis Many people are aware of choices they make. What they don’t realize is that unconscious beliefs have also formed when they...
Are Your People High Performing?
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” Michael Jordan “You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.” Homer Rice As a business leader, you...
Mentoring to Develop Your People
“Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn’t go to hell if you take a day off” Jeffrey Pfeffer In our culture transformation model, a key concept is ongoing monthly mentoring to...
Do You Have a Powerful, Positive and Helpful Ego?
“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and, in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.” John Lennon The notion of ego is often used to describe the harmful expressions of ego. We all...
S.L.A.M. Say Less; Ask More
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Edith Wharton, a novelist Many people confuse leading people with managing people and caring for or loving people with worry or concern for them. When we worry about another...
Are My People Responsible Even When No One’s Watching?
“Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” S. Lewis For years, I have been spitting in the soup of leaders using control models whether in homes, schools, community organizations or businesses. Engaging in control models is choosing...
Why Ditch Annual Performance Appraisals
“You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both of those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.” Homer Rice, a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator Today one of my instructors...
Episode 5 – The Power of Mentoring
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Power Distance Index – Managing Relationships with Authority
“Some societies and religions have a tendency to expand the moral circle and to consider all humans as belonging to a single moral community.” Geert Hofstede, Social Psychologist I was re-reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers and he hit upon a theme I see a lot...
Episode 4 – How Can I Motivate Them?
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In my work with clients, I often hear people say, “how can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re unmotivated.” The truth is people are always motivated. They’re just not always motivated to do what YOU want them to do.
In this episode, Judy and her guest, Tara Gregor, founder and CEO of Breakwell, a resource hub for holistic wellness discuss a very different and highly effective approach to motivation. Old models and external motivation tactics simply don’t work anymore. So, if those don’t work, what does? Tune in to this podcast to learn a new approach.
Task Ownership
“The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.” Alfred Adler, Psychologist Task ownership Task ownership is when a person is accountable to recognize and adopt...
Episode 3 – The New Culture Model
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In this episode, Judy and her guest, Lynn Dornfeld, dig a little deeper into the new culture model from several different angles. What are the components to follow? What are the success criteria? What is a culture framework and why do you need one?
Episode 2 – Are You a Puppet Or Powerful?
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The Key to Employee Engagement
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~Viktor Frankl In order to understand employee engagement, you must first understand what...
A Time To Rise Up!
“She was fire and life. She was awe and starlight.” ― Nadine Brandes, Author, Fawkes “O my Courageous Sister! You have to become the beacon of hope for all women around you and then for the whole society.” ― Abhijit Naskar, Author The Bengal Tigress: A Treatise on...
Episode 1- Spitting in the Soup
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This topic is designed to challenge basic norms we’ve held sacrosanct for centuries. These are the four control models described in this episode as widely promoted means to cultivate good citizenship in homes, schools, churches, and workplaces; really everywhere. This episode helps listeners to recognize these as the impediments they are and that they need to be dismantled and replaced with new models.
Spitting In The Soup
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People are always motivated. It’s not anyone’s job to motivate others. People can control themselves. They can do what’s right and don’t need approval or shaming to do so. They don’t need to be enabled. The problem is we don’t have faith in people nor do we know how to effectively teach them to pick up responsibility for things that are theirs to own. When we learn to do so, others can become accountable, caring and fully engaged, making a positive difference in your business.
The Path (Back) to Being Authentic
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their...
Honesty is the Best Policy – or is it?
“Failure of an employee to speak up in a crucial moment cannot be seen. This is true whether that employee is on the front lines of customer service or sitting next to you in the executive board room. And because not offering an idea is an invisible act, it’s...
Managing Frustrations in a Frustrating World
“Face challenges, fear, and frustration by seeking out knowledge and opportunities for growth.” ~ Fanny Mairena Today’s leaders must be powerful without entering into the fray caused by frustration. They must refrain from the all-to-often ugly,...
Upgrading Our Human Systems
“The time is now. Because in this time of change, the world needs every one of us to stand in our power, reach our highest potential, share our gifts and be the best that we can be. Humanity can no longer accept antiquated definitions, labels and metaphors about how...
Mentoring: Your Competitive Advantage
“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” Steven Spielberg When we work in organizational culture change, our clients initially focus on the new concepts and tools in our...
Breaking the Addiction to Approval
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” Friedrich Nietzsche Someone recently asked...
Teal Organizations
The Teal paradigm refers to the next stage in the evolution of human consciousness.[1] When applied to organizations, this paradigm views the organization as an independent force with its own purpose, and not merely as a vehicle for achieving management’s...
Kinds Of People You Need
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” Harry Truman No matter what your role, you have an important mission and vision to fulfill at both work and home. You also...
Meeting Our Needs and Those Of Others
Our Basic Social Needs: Belonging and Significance Beyond basic survival, we all want to experience a healthy sense of belonging and significance through our four core social needs: to feel powerful, lovable, connected and contributing. These four...
The Courage To Be Disliked
“When we least expect it, life sets up a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back....
5 Top Challenges In Today’s Workplace
“Culture lives in the collective hearts and habits of people and their shared perception of how things are to be done. The #1 advantage for the ‘organization of tomorrow’ is investing in a Human System that creates a NEW KIND OF TEAM in which people are motivated...
Advantages of Cross-Functional Teamwork
One of the biggest challenges leaders face, according to Deloitte, is organizational design. Specifically, redesigning their structures through teams. The line and block hierarchy found on a company org chart isn’t how work actually gets accomplished. Let’s face it,...
If Not Punishment, Then What?
Toxic Shame is a neurotic, irrational feeling of worthlessness, humiliation, self-loathing and paralyzing feeling that has been inflicted onto an individual through repeated, traumatic experiences often, but not always, rooted in childhood. When shame becomes...
How Can I Motivate Them?
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams In my work with clients, I often hear, “How can I motivate this person to do what they’re supposed to? They’re lazy. They’re...
Intention Equals Results
“The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.” Winston Churchill Intention is a function of our minds and is a causal activity. In other words, whether we use our minds consciously or...
Authentic Power
Do you trust people to want and choose to be caring, and accountable without coercion? Do you make it your mission to develop their initiative or to control them instead? Consider today’s research quoted in an article entitled The Rise of American Authoritarianism...
Be THE Decisive Element
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or...
Commit to Personal Responsibility
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one...
Disengagement is Betrayal
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you...
Accountability IS Happiness!
“While it doesn’t sound too exciting, I believe happiness is being 100% accountable for your life.” Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love I couldn’t agree more. Being accountable is taking 100% responsibility for your relationships, your motivation,...
Like PB and J, Freedom WITH Responsibility
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents What would our world be like, (including our homes, schools and places of business) if...
Become the Best Version of YOU!
“The actual processes of individuation—the conscious coming-to-terms with one’s own inner center (psychic nucleus) or Self—generally begins with a wounding of the personality and the suffering that accompanies it. This initial shock amounts to a sort of a...
Inadequacy: I Can’t, So Leave Me Alone!
“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Henry Ford Ever know a person who feels like the human version of Eeyore? They assume “I can’t” and refuse to try. Their behavior communicates, “Just leave me alone”. They look and act pathetic. They...
Be Your Most Imaginal Self!
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” Proverb Consider the following ellipses from the books “Butterfly,” by Norie Huddle, and “Waking the Global Heart,” by Anodea Judith. Caterpillars are consumers that eat non-stop. They...
Get More Selfish!
“Whether you believe it a moral imperative or enlightened self-interest, securing the conditions that will lead to a healthy, prosperous future for everyone is a goal I believe we all share.” Bill Gates We are often appalled by selfish people. They grasp...
Your Powerful Agreements
“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive –to be alive and express what we really are. Just being our self is the biggest fear of humans.” Don Miguel Ruiz “There is no neutral. We are either part of the...
Put YOUR Stake in the Ground
“Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” Rocky Balboa Anything worth doing is worth doing completely. Yet, often we hold back commitment waiting for reassurance and commitment from others first. Doing this is understandable but not helpful. A...
Be Unconsciously Competent
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us”. Joseph Campbell, Author Often, we are afraid to make even positive changes because we have...
I Can’t be a Good Boss & a Friend too
“To power up the whole system involves learning to bring the heart and mind into a creative joint venture. Heart intelligence supplies balanced strength and allows more of one’s individual spirit — the passionate actualization of one’s core values...
The Power of Mentoring
“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” ― Plato “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be...
Does The World Need More of This?
“There is no neutral. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution.” Marianne Williamson A Crucial Question As we head into every new year, a really great question to consider as we think, speak and act at work and home is, “Does the...
The Courage To Change & Grow
“An unexamined life is not worth living” Plato Here it is another New Year’s Day! It’s a time to reflect, re-set, and re-create. We consider our health, wealth, relationships, spirituality, and our purpose and visions. Many get determined to set new...
When We Fear Consequences
“Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge, can raise men to the Divine.”Ludwig vonBeethoven One of the things I notice about many people (including myself) is that we often become paralyzed in our will because we fear...
Cover Story: Me Too: Unwrapping Abuse Systems
“An insight the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough to bring down a mountain-sized illusion that may be holding our lives together. Truth strikes without mercy. We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational power within our revelations.”...
5 Articles That Reveal The Real Value of Employee Engagement
“The challenge is to see engagement not as a one-off activity, but as a holistic view of the employee experience… That means everything from the first moment the person applies for a job all the way through to managing work schedules, getting performance reviews, and...
7 Unexpected Employee Performance Management Trends To Watch For In 2018
Performance Management is how we’re working together as teams and managing people. We can let the term slip into the meaningless buzzwords bucket, or we can rally around it and commit to building authentic work relationships and nurturing employee development and...
Perceptual Blindness
“Change blindness in the world of facts and knowledge is a problem. Sometimes we are exposed to new facts and simply filter them out. But more often we have to go out of our way in order to learn something new. Our blindness is not a failure to see the new fact; it’s...
Why Are We So Stuck?
“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow This is a challenging time to be American. On the one hand people are talking about recurrent themes such as inequality,...
Choose You
“Most men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation and die with their song still inside them.” Henry David Thoreau It’s difficult for many people, especially women, to choose themselves in their own lives and then they lead lives of quiet desperation. I have found...
Who Says You’re Not Like The Dalai Lama!?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate… Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Nelson Mandela How is it that we often forget our true glorious nature and cling to the weakest view of our self instead? It is as if we have these...
Life Is Calling YOU!
“You are braver than you think, more talented than you realize.” R. Bennett I watched a documentary on the pyramids recently and learned something that made me hopeful while confirming what I have already felt intuitively. Despite appearances, we are moving out of a...
Teal is the Trend. What Color is Your Organization?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist “Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet.” Henry...
“I’m Sorry You Feel That Way” – “I Never Intended That…”
“If you own the story you get to write the ending.” Brene Brown “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” George Bernard Shaw Why It’s Never Helpful to Say, “I’m Sorry You Feel That Way…” or “I Never...
Activate All Super Powers
“I AM a sacred cocoon, a place to dismantle what no longer serves, and allow new, bright, and free possibilities to emerge. I am safe, supported and healed into the best version of myself and available to provide the same for others.”Judy Ryan, CEO Why activate?...
Get Your People To Bring Their A-Game
“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
– Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Recalibrating Your Business – A Focus on Shifting Company Culture Pays Off
Many companies claim to focus on creating a supportive and effective culture. But just what does that look like in the real world? KolbeCo Marketing Resources offers one example. When he finally arrived home, Scott Kolbe made a direct line to the fridge to grab a...
Walking the Talk
“It is difficult to inspire others to accomplish what you haven’t been willing to try.” Confucius “It is my responsibility to do what inspires me, in order to inspire others to do what inspires them.” Tsepiso Makhubedu The holidays are a time we gather...
Don’t Hold Up Progress
“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.” Michael Korda “Accountability separates the wishers in life...
Do You Have Faith In People’s Goodness?
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, and a heart that forgives the worst.” Martin Luther King, Jr You may be surprised to discover your answer might too often be...
Teach them to Fish
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maimonides The Dilemma Many systems and strategies of the past are no longer effective. Schools were originally designed to cultivate conforming, compliant factory...
Work/Life Balance
What helps anyone, anytime, with almost anything? Figure out what you want and learn how to ask for it! From the movie, “How Do You Know?” Watch and learn how you would do this more often. Click on the image below Judy Ryan provides clarity around the...
It Feels Real: Am I Being Punished?
“Children are great observers but poor interpreters.” Rudolf Dreikurs, parent educator, author and psychologist Why this feeling?When we were children, one of the ways we could create the illusion life was not careening out of control when scary or sad things...
Help People Conceive, Believe, & Achieve
The difference between an idea and a commitment is the difference between knowing about a new tool and using it in your everyday life as a new habit and way of operating. The greatest challenge many of my clients encounter as they improve their workplace culture is to...
Are You Personally Responsible?
You may wonder: what criterion determines if a person is personally responsible? Personal responsibility IS synonymous with authentic freedom, empowerment, creativity, accountability, and alignment. It always brings about positive results. Without personal...
Power Over? Power Under? Power Within!
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Nelson Mandela I was born and raised in Ferguson, MO and recent events there have provided an opportunity to write on beliefs...
What do you Intend to Cause?
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein When I work with businesses, organizations, families, and individuals, people are usually confused by this question: What do you intend to cause? It’s as if the idea...
Could Your Head Be Buried In The Sand?
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” Isaac Newton You’ve seen it happen to others and you may have already experienced it yourself: shocking setbacks in running your business. They’re shocking because one day...
What You Protect, You Make Weak – Empowering vs. Enabling
Rule of Empowerment: “Don’t do for others anything they can do for themselves. Don’t say anything they already know.” Rudolf Dreikurs In order for people to live to highest potential, each has four core needs; to feel empowered, lovable, connected and...
You’re Not The Boss of Me!
“Trying to win a power struggle is like trying to win a nuclear war. You may achieve your goal, but not without catastrophic casualties on both sides.” Jamie Raser, Author of Raising Children You Can Live With A man I know refuses to wear his safety belt...
Part 2 of 5 – Human Systems – What Gets Measured Improves
“I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.” Bill Gates What Gets Measured Improves Motivated, successful, and contributing. That’s what you need your staff to be to achieve your goals and provide...
Part 4 of 5 – Implementation
“What you want is within your reach. You can flip a switch and your life can become what you want it to be.” Sam Carpenter, Author, Work the System Cultivating Leaders Problems exist in the gap between what you desire to be happening and what is actually...
Part 5 of 5 – Maintenance
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”- Abraham Lincoln My Competitive Advantage Each month, I have provided information on five processes needed to ensure your greatest competitive advantage: organizational...
Get Along. Get Inspired. Get Results.
“Before one can hit a grand-slam home run, it first requires singles, doubles or triples.” Unknown Every business owner sets up their organization with high hopes and a dream of making a difference, yet all the great ideas and intentions to provide quality...
Extraordinary People & Results
“It is not the ultimate achievement that makes you extraordinary; it is what you become on the way to that achievement that people celebrate. Saidi Mdala, Author of Know What Matters Are you experiencing poor relationships? Seeing under-performance and disengagement...
Redirecting Negative Behavior
“A misbehaving person is a discouraged person.” ~ Dr. Rudulf Dreikurs Are you challenged by poor behavior? Could it be discouragement despite appearances? What thoughts do you think, words do you say to and about them, and what do you do when others: Annoy and...
Holding Others Accountable
“The committed heart finds a way. The uncommitted heart finds an excuse.” Unknown Your daughter or son agrees to complete a chore and you arrive home only to find it incomplete once again. You ask one of your employees to contribute an important section of your team...
Your Blueprint for Constructing Success
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David...
Being Trustworthy Isn’t Building Trust
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Stephen R. Covey I teach and consult on the importance of the following eight values that build trust: honesty,...
From Compliance to Commitment
“You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” -Bob Nelson Compliance People used to think of the workplace in terms of the activities and behaviors that employees needed to perform well....
Cover Story on Culture Change
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together everyday.” Frances Hesselbein A Focus on Shifting Company Culture at KolbeCo Pays Off Many...
1. Straightforwardness: Dare I Tell it Like It Is?
The most important relationship to manage is with our self. A trustworthy person practices honesty, straightforwardness, respect, receptivity, recognition, keeping commitments, seeking excellence and disclosure, the eight values that build trust. Straightforwardness...
2. Honesty: Don’t Play Others, Don’t Play You!
“When you face a choice between being polite and being honest, err on the side of the truth. It’s better to be disliked but respected than to be liked and disrespected. In the long run, the people we trust the most are those who have the courage to be sincere.” Adam...
8. Seeking Excellence: Are You All You Can Be?
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” Aristotle Seeking excellence...
7. Follow-Through: Do I Mean What I Say?
“Intent without action will leave every word that I use to describe my intent as empty and best never said.” Craig D. Lounsbrough Imagine you ask someone to do something and they agree. You count on it, and then come to find they didn’t do it. How are you...
Are You Cultivating Excellence?
National research shows 29% of employees are engaged in excellence. They’re eager, willing, and personally responsible. The remaining 71% are mediocre or actively disengaged… Ghandi, Helen Keller, DaVinci, or simply a neighbor, friend or relative with qualities...
Reasons We Gossip & What To Do Instead
“How would your life be different if…You walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the day…You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.” Steve Maraboli, Author, Life, the Truth, and Being Free Most people...
Kinds of People I Need
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” Harry Truman An important question to consider is, “What kinds of people do I need and want to achieve my mission and...
The Dysfunctional Bunch
“Creating chaos provides excitement for some people, especially those who are uneasy with silence, those who distract themselves from their own problems by focusing outward, those who feel empty inside and need to fill themselves up with activity, and those who were...
Longing for the Good Old Days?
“The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.” Hubert Humphrey “Why can’t we go back to the good old days when people knew how to behave?!” While I was...
How to Emotionally Handle Terminations
by Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 Getting fired is obviously difficult for an employee. But firing someone is also hard for owners and managers – probably one of the hardest things they ever have to do. This is especially...
How do I Make All-Stars?
by Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 My biggest all-star employee just left the company to work for a competitor. He was efficient, virtually mistake-free and energetic. When he left, he took with him a bunch of...
What Does it Take to Build Trust?
I’ve delivered many team building workshops to corporations, schools and parent groups in which I focus on the behaviors that build trust and those that don’t. One behavior destructive to any team is gossip and part of my program is an invitation to enter a mind trust...
Connect to Your Light!
Recently, I took a self-imposed retreat to discover how to more fully operate from freedom, courage and joy. As women, unless the light of love is flowing fully in our family or in our intimate relationships, we’re not fulfilled because loving relationships are our...
Keep The End In Mind
In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider very simply is, “What do I want to come of this? What is it for?” The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning of any course of action because the goal is what will determine the...
The Biggest Loser
The show “The Biggest Loser” is very popular. In it we see men and women who are determined to make monumental changes and are willing to embrace new habits and significant personal discomfort to do so. When I recently asked one of my friends what they...
No I Won’t, You Can’t Make Me!
Power Struggles: Opportunities for Connection Yes, we all know what it is to be in a power struggle, whether it’s with a parent, child, spouse, lover, friend or co-worker. Power struggles are fraught with tension, anger and provocation. The feeling on one or both...
I Want. What Will I Do?
What do I want and what am I willing to do? These are powerful questions that make up the internal dialog of those who have embraced intrinsic motivation; the process of identifying and expressing what one most loves. These are questions of courage, exploration and...
What & Why Emotional Intelligence
We hear a lot of buzz these days about the importance of emotional intelligence (EI). What exactly is “emotional intelligence” and why do we need it? There are 4 main components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management....
Commitment
“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and...
Organized Chaos on Purpose
As a child deeply in love with nature, living on the edge of a park, and the 5th child of 6, I knew a lot about chaos, the beautiful, free, creative and exhilarating kind. Starting out free to explore, school at age 5 felt like bitter confinement and at times crushing...
Did You Hear What I Meant to Say?
Have you ever thought you had an agreement or understanding with someone only to find you didn’t? You thought you were clear and direct in a request, and ended up disappointed. Or have you responded to a request, only to find someone frustrated with you? Could it be...
Connection: From Chaos to Community
Connection is to humans what water is to fish; a key to our existence and a cornerstone for our behavior. We are social beings and from infancy we make decisions and set goals in response to our social framework. In community, we make interpretations, then decisions...