May 11, 2025
The wise quote featured on the header, comes from Roy T. Bennett, from The Light in the Heart. The advice here is clear – let’s use our past emotional experiences as a resource to learn and grow. But, let’s not dwell there. This opportunity exists with all of our emotional experiences, but some feelings can get so stuck, that we […]
February 5, 2025
For years we have read about the ways organizations can enhance employee engagement. Great talent is supposedly in short supply. Many organizations are looking to attract and retain the best people, especially in anticipation of economic challenges that are the new normal. We scrutinize what constitutes great leadership. Phrases like “Culture eats strategy for lunch” (or is it breakfast?) are […]
June 27, 2024
Continuing the conversation started in Part 1 of this article – several key questions keep surfacing. One is the often unspoken tension between EI (Emotional Intelligence) and what is typically thought of as “therapy.” For anyone who has been involved in a therapeutic process, it’s immediately clear that learning and applying EI principles is very different from being “in therapy.” […]
March 26, 2024
This article was inspired by the work of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, Work: How to Find Joy and Meaning Each Hour of the Day. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen master, poet, peace and human rights activist was exiled from his homeland of Vietnam in 1966. His work, based on […]
January 1, 2024
When was the last time you experienced joy? To answer the question it helps to remember what joy feels like in your body. Like all other emotions, joy has its own unique biological signature. We memorize emotions in our bodies. With those emotions we experience less often, we may have to work a little harder to recall how they felt. […]
November 14, 2023
Every person grows up carrying a narrative about who they are. Most of that story is formed early in childhood with new chapters added to include adolescence and experiences as adults. The childhood stories are mostly formed by our parents and significant care-givers’ narratives about who they think we are. Mom says, “Tom’s a dreamer and very creative.” Dad says, […]
September 19, 2023
“Anger can be a wonderful wake up call to help you to understand what you need and what you value.” Thich Nhat Hahn For seven years I regularly facilitated seminars on conflict resolution throughout the US. Most of the group participants wanted answers to problems they saw as the source of their conflict. Usually this had to do with fixing […]
April 11, 2023
In truth, we all start, somewhere, within a family system. The experience is universal and lifelong. We all bring it – we all have it. It is a matter of degree – and awareness. In every interaction we have at work, we bring our internal and interpersonal dynamics to the table. Family, culture, generation and other demographic imprints with us. […]
April 10, 2023
The concept of “acceptance” is misunderstood. In cultures where progress and improvement are a constant quest, accepting what is seems passive. Those of us who grew up in fix-it, more-is-better cultures still bristle at the idea of “letting go.” For a long time I justified “arguing with reality” because I told myself I was a passionate, strong-willed person who was driven to […]