February 6, 2024

Events Don’t Have to Control You: Using the E+R=O Formula

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn   Beware of quick fix formulas! But, there are tools that can help us to manage our reactions to external events that can shift our emotional and behavioral responses. The E + R = O (EVENT + RESPONSE = OUTCOME) formula, which we picked up on […]
October 20, 2022

Living with Permanent Uncertainty

More and more people are talking about living in “uncertain” times.  It’s now called, “the new normal.” The anxiety over our predicament of uncertainty appears to be a new discovery. Our long-held assumptions about the future are being quickly rearranged.  Collectively, our cultures are shifting so fast that we expect to live in an era of uncertainty. Along with the […]
October 11, 2021

The 3 R’s of Leadership ~ Reflection, Relationships & Resiliency

I’ve often written about the slow death of command and control leadership – envisioning the demise of that mindset as the prevailing force in organizational life. It is slow going – isn’t it?  At least it feels that way to me – even as an “observer” in my role as a consultant. The power issue hangs over us.  Although there […]
August 1, 2021

Beyond Anger Management – You and Your Anger

“The beliefs we have about anger and the interpretation we give to the experience are as important to its understanding as anything intrinsic to the emotion itself.” Carol Tavris   Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion Anger has been called the “misunderstood emotion.”  Why is that? Seems like we know everything there is to know about anger, don’t we?  While there still is […]
February 21, 2021

What is an Intentional Workplace?

  What is an Intentional Workplace?  We may have to use our imagination more than our experience in trying to answer this question. The dictionary defines intentional as:  done with intention or on purpose. Not many people have had the experience of working in environments that operate intentionally or “consciously.”  You know – the kind of organization, team or workplace […]
February 19, 2021

Collaboration: The Emotions You Need to Do It

Succesful collaboration is built on a high level of emotional literacy. Without the capacity to generate and sustain certain feelings, our ability to collaborate with others is not possible. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workplace, our emotional repertoire has become habituated. Emotional habits are then fueled by our thinking process which is often fixed into patterns. […]
February 5, 2021

Why Neuroscience Should Change the Way We Work~ Pt.2

Since Part 1 of this article was published it has consistently remained in the blog’s top  10.  I’m grateful for the response and I’ve been inspired to write more about the fascinating, emergent world of neuroscience. While I am a very informal student of the science, what I’ve learned has reshaped the way I approach my work.  As I wrote […]
August 11, 2020

Leadership and Emotional Contagion

“Employees are not emotional islands. Rather, they continuously spread their own moods and receive and are influenced by others’ moods. When they work in groups, they literally can catch each others’ emotions like viruses, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion. ” Wharton @ Work, University of Pennsylvania There has been an important finding in neuroscience that should impact on how […]
April 26, 2020

The Self-Aware Leader

  My Google search for leadership turned up 499,000,000 results. It’s a well-covered topic with every nook and cranny explored.  What more is there to say? There is general agreement that leadership models are changing dramatically. But to be sure, the old command and control leadership paradigm is still at work. There’s more talk than ever about We cultures, but […]