“Would you rather me 1) give you a high five or 2) work on a puzzle with you?” I asked my five and nine-year-old over the holiday break. It was one set of about twenty force choice questions from the Five Love Languages for Kids quiz I was giving them in order to explore how my husband and I can continue to be mindful of how we can best customize our parenting to each child. Both easily answered, “Work on a puzzle with you.” The Love Languages quiz started in romantic relationships and describes five primary love languages: Physical Touch
I have the opportunity to coach a lot of middle managers. Quite often they are middle-aged men, and I’m working with them because there is some issue with how they lead (or actually don’t lead) others. Through some type of feedback mechanism, these men are described mildly as “aloof” or “disinterested” (always related to how they are with people, not necessarily the tasks or functions of their job) to more extreme words like “jerk” or “a**hole”. I’m brought in most of the time to try to fix their “personality”. Making them more caring and a better leader of people is
“Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.” – Robert Boyce Organizations contain a wealth of knowledge. Some organizations spread that wealth, and some hoard it. Those that share the wealth of knowledge maximize their potential success. I’m currently reading The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli and even though my brother and sister-in-law are both former partners (that’s what Starbucks calls their employees), I had no idea just how strong of an emphasis Starbucks places on knowledge at all levels of the organization. From formal training and incentives for completion, requiring partners to sample all core products twice per year,
I enjoyed the opportunity to hear Karith Foster speak recently. If you haven’t had an opportunity to check her out, she is well worth it. She combines humor and storytelling to make simple, but profound points about leading and living well. In her address, she talked about the ABCs necessary to be a leader in 2020. A. Ask for help & Ask for what you want. Asking for help may seem contrary to what leaders should do, but as I heard Brene Brown say in another keynote speech, asking for help is actually the best way to create trust. As
“A pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure” is a phrase I heard for the first time this week. I was at lunch with an attorney who specializes in employment law, and she said that phrase as we were talking about clients who don’t see the benefit of proactive, preventative measures and instead just hope everything turns out alright. I immediately wrote it down and googled when I got home, and the internet says it’s a Benjamin Franklin quote. Apparently, Franklin wrote an anonymous letter to his own newspaper in Philadelphia in 1735 about the importance of preparing