3 Lessons in Effective Training from Inmates

My family and I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer to serve with Voz de Liberta (Voice of Liberty).  They are “a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to sharing the message of hope to prisoners, former prisoners, their families and victims throughout the country by providing comprehensive assistance.”  It was amazing to see the work they are doing, in particular in the APAC (faith-based) prison they run.   Through my time there, I found that the prisoners taught me a thing or two about how to do training well:  The experience in Costa Rica flipped the way

Insights from our NCDA Session about: Delivering Career Services to Diverse Populations with Inclusive Pathways

Jillian and I had a great time at NCDA in Chicago this month with our small group! We shared and learned about best practices for delivering career services to all groups. We started with a fun beachball toss to learn more about the diversity of the participants in our session. Who knew so many career professionals are introverts by nature! We shared these tips for supporting individuals and groups in their career development journey: As a group, we had discussions around having a People First mindset. It all comes down to serving others & meeting people where they are. Here

The Crossover of Adaptive Leadership and Storytelling

I recently read an article by the Huntsville Business Journal about adaptive leadership, and I immediately sent it to everyone on the HPC team. I thought, “This is what we’re always talking about!! The HBJ gets it!!” We truly believe that leadership behaviors rooted in CODE have significantly higher impact, and we’re seeing this play out in a big way with one of our clients.  Four years ago, a client asked us to explore gender equality in their organization. This included analysis of leadership demographics, a comprehensive survey to all employees, and focus group discussions. During the study, some challenges

What I learned from Student Leaders this Month

I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate workshops with three student leadership groups over the past month. Check out Student Leadership – How are You Leading Today? to read more about the programs we facilitate and recommendations for student leaders.  Today, I’m reflecting on three things I’ve learned working with these amazing students. They are grateful for the opportunity to learn from others. One leadership class took time to write personalized thank you notes after I met with them. They were all grateful for different things, but the common theme was gratitude in general. Here is one of my favorite notes:

5 Tips for Inclusive Recruiting

“Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At (company), we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You might just be the right candidate for this or other roles.” This was recently included in an actual job posting. I found it posted in an HR group on Facebook and the