Category Archives: Leadership

Titles and desks don't make great managers or loyal employeesLeadership is not about you or your title, your money your possessions, your power, or how much pleasure you can get from life.

Leaders never have all the answers, but they seek them constantly and often find them in the places that others have overlooked.

The articles below will challenge you and inspire you to grow your thinking and your behavior first, and then help you bring your best to the people and the organizations you serve.

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7 Reasons to “FEAR NOT!”

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Today I shared a new post titled 5 Truths To Help You Do “It” Even If You Are Afraid on The Lead Change Group Blog.  While many of you are familiar with our expat story I have never shared the level of fear I felt when we were asked to make this move.

7 Reasons to Fear Not!

I wrote the story several weeks ago deeply believing that we all battle fear.  And knowing that as long as we are webbed in place we can’t contribute our greatest gifts to each other, to our workplaces, to our communities, or to our world.

Since writing it I have run into more hurdles getting this article published than any other post I’ve ever written.  Which makes me even more convinced that needs to be shared.

If you or someone you know is in the midst of a battle with fear I encourage you to read that article and to savor the quotes below. (Some of the quotes in this post are linked to previous articles about fear.)

1.  Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson

2.  The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. H. P. Lovecraft

3.  Facing your fears robs them of their power. Mark Burnet

4.  Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.  Bertrand Russell

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Have you ever been Pickled by a Half-Truth?

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My mother is a great storyteller.  As I was growing up, there was one story in particular that I loved to hear her tell, especially if she told it to someone who had never heard it before ~ because before the story ended the people listening would usually be doubled over in laughter with tears running down their faces.  (With her permission I am sharing that story with you…)

When I was two and my sister was a baby, my dad was just out of the military, and my parents were re-inventing our lives in their home state. Dad had a new job and mom wanted to start a garden and can vegetables to contribute to the family.

It was during a time when stores were selling more convenience foods, and gardening and canning were not popular, so it was difficult to find the supplies needed to can. So my great aunt offered to give several old canning jars to my mother if she would be willing to dispose of the old pickles in the jars.

My mother was thrilled and agreed.

When she got the jars home she wondered what to do with the old pickles.

  • No garbage disposal.
  • No plastic garbage bags.
  • Perhaps she should flush them?  (After all they were about the same size as other items that are typically flushed…)

So she did…

Open a jar.  Dump.  Flush.

That seemed to work

Open another jar.  Dump.  Flush.

And another.  Dump.  Flush.

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For Bosses on Boss’s Day: Have You Done Eough?

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October 16th is Boss’s Day.

When I think of Boss’s Day I think of the bosses I’ve had, the bosses I’ve seen and the boss I’ve been. I think of the skills I admired and echoed.  I think of the skills I could see that were buried under layers of self-discipline issues and integrity challenges.  I think of the good, the bad and the ugly:

  • The boss that was in his late 40’s, that would have temper tantrums like a two-year old when things did not go well.  (Stomping feet, throwing things, and completely consumed with blaming someone instead of problem solving.)
  • The boss that was kind, fun, supportive, and late for everything!
  • A different boss that realized in a training that her constant tardiness felt like a slap in the face to many of her employees and they were questioning her integrity.   (Her discovery was profound and behavior-altering!)
  • The boss that listened first to understand, then evaluated if the team had the tools,training and support to do their job before determining how to handle poor performance.  (Building trust and a strong organization!)
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Growth Doesn’t Just Happen and 5 Tips for Changing that on a Budget!

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I’m currently reading John Maxwell’s new book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.  One of those laws is:  “Growth doesn’t just happen.”

One of the points that John makes is that you have to be intentional and willing to invest in your growth. (With both your time and with your finances.)  He tells a story of wanting to take an expensive leadership development course early in his career and having to save for months in order to do so.

[Tweet “It’s hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. John Maxwell”]

His point reminded me of something a former employee said to me years after we worked together.  He said that he has never worked for anyone else that has been so invested growing themselves and others.  The beauty of the comment is that even when the budget for training dried up and blew away, the people I served still received great training.

Below are five tips for fueling your fire and theirs on a really tight budget…

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Leaders STAND for something ~ When do YOU STAND?

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Anne Frank Huis IMG_0264

Last week my husband and I vacationed in Amsterdam.  During our visit there we had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank House.  I’ve seen the movie, read books about this horrible time in history and visited Holocaust Museums, but I’d never actually read her diary.

‘En route to Amsterdam I opened her diary and read details that I’ve missed before…

Jood Star - Worn by Jews duruing WWII

  • “Jews must wear a yellow star.
  • Jews must hand in their bicycles.
  • Jews are banned from trains and are forbidden to drive.
  • Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between three and five o’clock and then only in shops which bear the placard “Jewish shop.”
  • Jews must be indoors by eight o’clock
  • and cannot even sit in their own gardens after that hour.
  • Jews are forbidden to visit theaters, cinemas, and other places of entertainment.
  • Jews may not take part in public sports. 
  • Swimming baths, tennis courts, hockey fields and other sports grounds are all prohibited to them.
  • Jews may not visit Christians.
  • Jews must go to Jewish schools, and many more restrictions of a similar kind.”

As I tried to imagine Anne’s life at age 13, I immediately thought of my 13-year-old niece and my 13-year-old neighbor.  And I felt my throat tighten, my eyes mist and my mind quickly trying to seal off those thoughts.