Tag Archives: Change

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365 Opportunities for YOU to LEAD in 2015

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As I reviewed my blog posts from 2014, I thought about the people and the situations that inspired each one.

And I realized that although I’ve often said that people don’t need a title to lead, I’ve said that imagining people at all levels of an organization that have a lot to contribute. (Like the often overlooked janitorial staff or frontline employees.)

This year my eyes were opened as I realized how much we talk about leadership in the workplace and how often we ignore the need for leadership in our daily lives.

Several times throughout the year, I met people with vision, talent and time that aren’t engaged in life, and aren’t as fulfilled as they could be.  (Often emitting a mix of frustration and surrender.)

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Ask 1 Question and Increase Your Connections

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One of my expat friends recently moved back to the U.S. to an area she has never lived in before.

 When we spoke recently she shared how hard it is to develop friendships with people in the area.

When she is out walking and greets her neighbors, they look at her like she is from another planet.

When she meets people at her children’s schools and they learn that she was recently living overseas the conversation ends quickly.

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DEEP Understanding Drives Change

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I cannot do all of the good the world needs but I can do all the good that I can do

Several years ago I sat in a room full of volunteers that were being trained to go into schools and work with children that were at risk of dropping out. One of our exercises was a simulation that was designed to help us better understand the day-to-day realities for their families.

  • We were divided up into small groups.
  • Each one of us was given a role to play.
  • Then we were given a real life problem that needed to be solved.
  • And a name of a place we needed to go to for help.

In the simulation I was the small child of a single mother that had no car.

  • “My mother” needed food and a job and childcare.

The simulation was timed to help us understand everything that she needed to accomplish in one day – just to bring home food. (Let alone finding a job or daycare.)

Each time we got off the simulated bus, we walked into a facility and stood in a long line. To eventually be re-directed to another place for services that was across town with different operating hours and another long line.

My job was to simulate how a child begins to act as a few hours becomes a day without food, without a nap, without play.

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When your greatest struggle collides with your greatest gift…

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Do you know any person or organization that is in the midst of their most significant struggle – ever?

Would it help you get through the struggle if you knew that it was necessary to unleash your greatest strength?

There is a pattern throughout history that fills me with so much hope that it almost makes me wish for a big struggle…

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Chaos or Vision: YOU Choose!

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As expats we live in a secure compound with high walls, inside those walls we have grass, trees, flowers, beauty and order.

Without a Vision

Many local families live in their own high walled “compounds” with their extended families.  And although I have never been behind those walls I have heard of their gardens.

Outside of all of our walls is the city we all share.  Most of the city is full of trash, partially developed buildings, blowing sand, broken sidewalks – if there are sidewalks at all; narrow streets and tiny parking lots that don’t accommodate all of the cars, and random unmatched street lights that don’t begin to illuminate the dark.

A few weeks ago I met with some local women and they encouraged me to check out a city that is 101 kilometers (62.75 miles) away.

This past weekend, my husband and I rode there on our Harley with several other couples.

Before we left one of the women commented about how much she likes the city we were driving to.  When I asked why she said, “it is just like the movies at night, it is all lit up…”

So as we drove into this neighboring city my eyes were wide open…

As I looked specifically for light sources I noticed several things: