I watched my friend resist the urge to buckle her toddler into her stroller. She could have done it well and much quicker than her little one, but she took a deep breath and said, “Ok, you buckle yourself in just like I showed you.” The precious little girl smiled up at her and said, “Okay mommy!” with pure joy.   The same was true with my five-year-old who has wanted so badly to put her hair up in a ponytail holder by herself.  I walked out to the car the other day and she beamed with pride. While waiting
Our third child came into the world just perfect, then he stopped breathing and turned blue when he tried to nurse. After two scary attempts at feeding, the pediatrician on call came in and told us he thought he had a tracheoesophageal fistula. In laymen’s terms, I came to understand this as a hole between the esophagus and the trachea causing fluid to pass between these two “tubes” when it isn’t supposed to.  This would require surgery to correct, thus requiring a transfer to the NICU.  Scary to say the least, but after getting our new blessing to the
The last three books about workplace effectiveness I’ve read have all discussed it. Two of our clients are having lots of trouble with it. It is what research shows us leads to team success more than any other factor. It is the concept of psychological safety. According to Amy Edmondson, a lead researcher on the topic, “Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.” And according to research conducted by Google: Following the success of Google’s Project Oxygen research where the People Analytics team studied what makes a great
I’ve found myself talking about skill and will a lot lately. Whether it be in one-on-one leadership coaching sessions or in group training, the conversation is often directed towards customizing a leadership approach based on the needs of the person being “led”. Much of our basic leadership training modules focus on customization based on personality, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. A person’s level of skill in doing a job or task and a person’s will to do the job or task (which includes aspects of personality) are critical to success. So what is skill and what
Tuesdays from 4:00- 5:00 pm. In the car. While our middle child is in gymnastics, I have found that this hour of concentrated time in a concentrated space leads to some productive homework time with my oldest. While his newborn brother snoozes in his car seat, we tackle third-grade homework. And there is a lot of it. Take our list for Tuesday of this past week: -A math worksheet due Wednesday -At least 10 minutes of multiplication facts practice that has to be signed off on each day by a parent for a grade -Practice for a vocabulary test on