


Help! I Dread Work and I’m the Boss!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinNearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln The leadership style that starts in childhood is at the heart of why 55% of people are...
It’s ALL About Customer Service… Or Is It?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“You’d corner me in your conformity but even in dormancy I’m sleeping with enormity, stretching the belly of the earth and everything I was born to be.” ― Curtis Tyrone Jones, a veteran, coach, motivational...
Mental Health: Creating Safe Spaces
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“We have brains in order to get along with each other, to be with other people, to connect with other people. That’s really what we are fundamentally all about. And so, much of trauma is about a rupture of the safety of the people...
Unresolved Psychological Contracts
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate.” ― Miguel Ruiz, Author, The Four Agreements A...
Your Greatest Barrier Is Your Pain Tolerance
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“…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...
Can Love Be Here Too?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” —Brené Brown As I work with clients on their personal and professional development or help friends and family who are working...
Is There Any Gas Left In The Tank!?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by...
Seize Opportunities Within the Great Resignation
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Episode 11 – Living the Life You Want
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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.

Why Ditch Annual Performance Appraisals
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
When Everything Falls to Pieces
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free Without a stable foundation, all your hard work and dreams will crumble. Do you have the foundation...
Episode 8 – If Not Punishment, Then What?
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Episode 6 – When Everything Falls To Pieces
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Power Distance Index – Managing Relationships with Authority
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
The Absence of Punishment in Our Schools
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhile this article is about schools, the information on trauma-informed and why use of punishment and rewards are counter-productive, is relevant not only in schools but in all organizations and to everyone within them. As is our...
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.

Honesty is the Best Policy – or is it?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Why Transparency CAN Become a Bloodbath
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Killers aren’t always assassins. Sometimes, they don’t even have blood on their hands.” ~ Ruta Sepetys, Author I once knew a school teacher who quit her job teaching 8th graders (which she loved) to work for my...
Managing Frustrations in a Frustrating World
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Discarding the Monster Box
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“A man who picks up a cat by its tail will learn a lesson he can learn no other way.” ~ Mark Twain Your business will improve if you remember some important facts. One is that we are all more alike than different. The other is...
Is Love More Powerful Than Hate?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“You are a child of God. You’re playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.” Marianne Williamson I often...
Breaking the Addiction to Approval
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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.”...
Is Your Workplace Psychologically Safe?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“In general, only a child who feels safe dares to grow forward healthily. His safety needs must be gratified. He can’t be pushed ahead, because the ungratified safety needs will remain forever underground, always calling for...
Devil’s Advocate and Brutal Honesty
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Never play the Devil’s Advocate. Your words could be the difference between success and failure in someone else.” Ingrid Weir Too often I hear people say, “I’m going to play Devil’s advocate now” to which I quickly reply, “Please...
The Crucial Role of Honor, Dignity and Respect
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Do the best that you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Maya Angelou All one has to do is turn on the news or get on social media to see that honoring oneself and one another and treating oneself and...
Just Use Common Sense, Or Should You?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinA woman was preparing a roast and as was her common practice she cut off both ends of it and threw them away. One day her husband asked, “Why do you always cut off the ends and throw them away?” to which she replied, “That’s how my...
When You Can’t Help or Fix A Relationship
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinDon’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus. ~ Unknown Sometimes we keep going to the circus because we don’t realize that’s where we are. Someone recently asked, “what...
Meeting Our Needs and Those Of Others
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinOur 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...
The Courage To Be Disliked
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
5 Top Challenges In Today’s Workplace
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
If Not Punishment, Then What?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinToxic 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...
When Winning Turns Into Losing
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“How tricky is this ego that it would tempt us with a promise of something we already possess.” Jim Carrey My daughter, a practicing attorney, was recently offered a great job in a small boutique law firm and was enjoying the...
Emotional Presence: It’s Good Business!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The affairs of the heart are directly connected to the brain and it’s theheart’s natural intelligence that must be unfolded for the brain to operate with greater efficiency.” Magical Child, Joseph...
Embrace the Edge of the Unknown
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” Helen Keller For most business owners, living on the edge of...
Disengagement is Betrayal
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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,...
Loved AND Lovable
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Elizabeth Appell In my work, I help people take the risk to blossom. I tell business leaders, employees,...
Be Your Most Imaginal Self!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Choose Helpful AND Harmless
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It always seems impossible until it is done” Nelson Mandela I often reflect on how many people are “checked out” at work, home, and school; they are suffering and barely surviving, rather than overcoming and...
Transforming Discouragement
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Inferiority feelings rule the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of deficiency and dissatisfaction, and in uninterrupted struggles both within individuals and humanity.” Alfred Adler, Psychiatrist, 1870-1937 The...
Cruelest Three Words: “Get Over It!”
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The purpose of all relationships is to create a sacred context within which you can express the fullness of who you are.” Neale Donald Walsh In my work, the greatest setbacks and arrested development of people is...
The Need for Patience & Reassurance
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or rather, especially – when...
Does The World Need More of This?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
When We Fear Consequences
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Cover Story: Me Too: Unwrapping Abuse Systems
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Perceptual Blindness
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin “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...
The Preponderance of Neglect
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Most organizations don’t fall apart as a result of one big blow. Most relationships don’t end because of one grand argument. Most lives don’t fall to pieces due to one sad event. No, I suggest to you that sustained failure...
Why Are We So Stuck?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Choose You
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
“I’m Sorry You Feel That Way” – “I Never Intended That…”
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
What Does “I’m Right; You’re Wrong” Cost?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Remember, we see the world not as it is but as we are. Most of us see through the eyes of our fears and our limiting beliefs and our false assumptions.” Robin S. Sharma “Don’t Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask...
Bridging Differences For Diversity & Inclusion Excellence!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and...
You Make Sense & Deserve Compassion
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinEveryone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always. Unknown What if you knew every reaction (and even what you fear are over-reactions) you experience is based on legitimate reasons and deserves...
It’s a Matter of Life and Death
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinSuicides and deaths due to addictions are rising to epidemic levels, especially among many considered the most privileged, those with greatest access to opportunity and often the most successful; middle-aged white males. They are...
Do You Control or Develop Your Staff?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.” Henry Cloud Your greatest asset is a team of...
Work/Life Balance
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhat 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...
It Feels Real: Am I Being Punished?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Are You In Survival?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather that upon mere survival.” Aristotle “There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility of mind while we live here; because life itself is...
Are You Feeling Merry or Blocking Your Joy?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Joy is the most vulnerable emotion we experience. In fact, addiction research shows us that an intensely positive experience is as likely to cause relapse as an intensely painful experience.”Brene Brown, Author and...
Are You Building Capacity for Change?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch What is capacity building and how does it affect your ability to make positive...
Are you Running Your Business from Fear or Freedom?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Live your life like you use your GPS. Set a course for your destination, make sure your vehicle is in good shape, trust you’ll eventually arrive and be content with the next instruction without knowing what’s after.” Judy Ryan, CEO...
Could Your Head Be Buried In The Sand?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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....
You’re Not The Boss of Me!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Creating a Life YOU Love
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Selfishness is a virtue, unless you think it must come at the expense of others. And why would anyone think that? Oh yeah, that’s what all the people who don’t “get it” told you.” Mike Dooley ...
1. Straightforwardness: Dare I Tell it Like It Is?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThe 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...
7. Follow-Through: Do I Mean What I Say?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
How Do I Deal With That Annoying Person?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you’re busy interrupting.” Mark Twain You know that person who cracks a joke at an inopportune moment? Taps their pen on the conference room desk? Stands...
Reasons We Gossip & What To Do Instead
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Why Are You So Mean?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“People are not mean to us because they don’t like us, but because they don’t like themselves.” Jodi Aman What Did I Do To Deserve that?! You know those times when out of the blue, someone does or says something that shocks and...
Courage to be Imperfect
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” Brené Brown Why are we the most addicted, medicated, overweight, and indebted society in history? Brene Brown, researcher, author and...
The Dysfunctional Bunch
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
Who Do You Think You Are?!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinEver encounter those people you feel like asking, “Who died and made you God?” You resist supporting them, thinking and saying anything nice about or to them and even if you don’t generally gossip, they’re the ones you’re most...
Are We Compatible?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhether in business or personal relationships, a worthwhile question to ponder is what constitutes compatibility? I went to a lecture by Dr. Denbo, a local therapist, who posed this question. Most of the crowd said things like,...
Soul Mates
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinLike many of you, I’ve always wanted a soul mate – that wonderful partner who in their presence makes me feel connected and whole. The one who really gets me and who’s there for me through thick and thin, for better or worse, richer...
Longing for the Good Old Days?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedin“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...
How to Emotionally Handle Terminations
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinby 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...
Can a Team-Hater Engage Employees?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinby Julia Paulus (referencing Judy Ryan and LifeWork Systems) SBM, March 2010 I don’t like teams. Back in school, I hated classes when we had to do group projects. My group was always the one where a couple of people did nothing...
What Does it Take to Build Trust?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinI’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...
Better to Give Than Receive?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinWe often hear the phrase, “It’s better to give than receive” but is it true? The truth is, it just feels safer to give. Without equal ability to receive, a relationship is defined and limited by a certain amount of fear and...
Shift Enemies To Friends
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinHave you ever met someone you felt completely in sync with? Entrainment is a term used to express how the human body assumes a sympathetic response to stimuli much the way scientists have discovered that two heart cells put together...
Pause, Breathe and Check In
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThich Nhat Hahn, a well- known author and Buddhist monk says we are reluctant to visit the home of our self because we are loath to face the pain, sadness and fear we might encounter there. It’s true those emotions are often...
The Biggest Loser
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinThe 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...
No I Won’t, You Can’t Make Me!
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinPower 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...
Am I Selfish?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinIt’s important to ask, “What do I feel and what do I want?” When we neglect to take time to consider our choices we often commit self-betrayal, which then results in betrayal of others… A friend recently called me for advice....
Did You Hear What I Meant to Say?
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinHave 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...
Connection: From Chaos to Community
Share this...FacebookTwitterLinkedinConnection 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...