8 Steps to Go Out on Your Own as an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is a workforce development strategy we all need to focus on and consider more.  Either at the individual or community level, entrepreneurship is a viable way to create wealth, develop professional satisfaction and, at the end of the day, help more people. I find that more and more people are considering going out on their own for their next career strategy.  In fact, many people are referring now to the “Free Agent Nation” or the “1099 economy” with over one-fifth of the population working on a 1099 instead of W-2.   In addition, more and more companies and educational entities

You Gotta Gitcha Some Help to Lead and Run Well

Week 9 Week 8 Mileage: 43 miles Long Run Distance:  20 miles I distinctly remember a friend crying after I told her I was leaving the job and company we both worked for and moving back home.  I was in my mid-twenties, and an opportunity for my husband had landed us back in our hometown.   I’ll be honest, I was hesitant about moving back home then, thinking we probably needed to explore a little bit more of the world before returning to our roots. But my friend’s tears told me otherwise.  She wasn’t crying because she was sad to see

3 Performance Management Lessons from Kindergarten

Our son started kindergarten last month. We are fortunate that he has a wonderful teacher at an outstanding school. However, his behavior in kindergarten started out a little rocky. The teacher took a few weeks to teach them about what behavior was expected in class before she started notifying us as parents about their behavior at the end of each day using the color-coded system you see in this picture. After two days of yellow and then a day of orange came home, you better believe the Ward household was not a happy place.  Consequences happened, but we’ve begun to see his behavior improve.

Leader, do you need a change of environment?

Long Run Distance:  18 People who are and strive to be leaders tend to take ownership of the situation, the actions, and the results that are derived from effort.   We will take the blame, because we also want to take the credit.   Rarely do you see a strong leader citing the environment as the problem, and if they do, you feel like they are playing the blame game.  Buck up and own it you want to say! But running in this heat has led me to question if sometimes we do as leaders need to pay more attention to our environment. 

Leaders, Pace Yourselves with 3 Tips from an Elite Runner to Do So

Week 7 Mileage: 35 miles Long Run Distance:  16 Our training crew took part in the Hartselle Half Marathon to cover our 13-mile long run last week. It’s a quaint race through back roads of farmland. With a field of only 260 runners, cooler temps (finally!), and a volunteer crew that epitomizes southern hospitality, it was a great way to kick off a weekend. I went into a race, much to my husband’s aggravation (he likes a game plan even more than I do), without a particular time goal or strategy. I just wanted to enjoy the run and see where it took me based