Patched to correct a lazy eye underneath a pair of glasses held together in the corner with tape. Bad perm. Worse hairstyle. Freckled face. Overly energetic. Overly talkative. Awkward. Barked at by boys when I walked down the junior high hallway - insinuating I was a dog. This explains me when I was young. Or
It was March. The lockdown in Minnesota began. Each day I felt the sting of another client cancelling a training. My calendar was quickly changing from a beautiful sea of green indicating confirmed client engagements to a stark white grid. Panic. Sadness. Hope. Confusion. Peace. Anger. Pessimistic. Optimistic. My emotions ran the gamut. I expect
Closed doors. Rumors. Disappearance. Whispers in corners. Widespread panic. What was happening!?! It was 2001 and the company I worked for was laying off employees. People were given boxes for their belongings, then they were ushered out. Poof! They were gone. The worst magic act ever. This memory came to mind when I read leadership
My Mom had just died. I was devastated. Heartbroken. Hurting. Getting out of bed and dragging myself to work took every ounce of strength I could find. My students needed me, and I knew I needed them. That first day I returned to work, I got just what I needed. On the door of my
My Grandson is 2 ½ years old and his job, as with every 2 ½-year-old, is to learn and master skills. Each week when I visit him, I see he has learned something new. Words with a lot of syllables in the same sentence. Catch a ball (sort of). Read (memorize) a book. Run AND
“My wife, Mary Jean, owned a soft ice cream store, which operated from April 15 through Labor Day. Both of our children, Kate and Andy, worked there during the summer months. After they had worked there a few weeks, Mary Jean made this comment to each of them: ‘You’ll often be working by yourself. I
It wasn’t perfect. Well … IT WAS REALLY GOOD, but the timing wasn’t perfect. Before I posted the blog I wrote for today, I couldn’t escape the quiet feeling that I needed to hold off for just one week. Just one little week. You see, deep in my consultant’s soul, I felt the need to
“Rumor has it you got advisor of the year. Congratulations.” This was a sterile email I received from my boss in 2008. I still wonder why my boss didn’t walk the 50 feet from her office, to my office, to personally congratulate me on this statewide award. Well, I actually know why. I worked in
A girl was taken to a garden by her grandmother and was told to pull out a tiny plant that was growing from the ground. The girl easily plucked the plant from the ground. The grandmother then told the girl to pull out a larger plant close by. With effort, the girl plucked this plant
Completely drained and in tears, I realized I had been doing a terrible job setting boundaries. My time was no longer my own because every time someone needed me I said, “Yes”. It wasn’t that people intentionally violated my boundaries, it was that I was teaching them do it, allowing them to do it. I
