SPECIAL FEATURE: July Leadership Development Carnival

We are thrilled to be hosting the July Leadership Development Carnival. We participate monthly and find it is always filled with great insight for leaders to read and share. Communication Psychological Safety: Pro Tips for Leaders As a leader, how intentional are you about creating psychological safety for your team? Check out these tips from the experts to help you build rapport and increase communication with your team. — Jennifer Miller (@JenniferVMiller) The Power of & Conflict itself is born from a perspective that we must make either-or decisions; that we can’t have more than one option; that two different

How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting

I’ve been experimenting with the Ink and Volt One On One Pad to help me organize my thoughts.  I organize around these 4 four pillars:  I use our Insightly software to refresh my memory on what everyone has going on with the first two (the software calls these “Projects” and “Opportunities”) before the meeting. I record these things on the Ink and Volt pad.  I also take a look at each person’s task list in Insightly before the meeting.  Doing this always makes me keenly aware of how on top of it everyone on our team is.  They are always

The Mental Health “Connection”

Recently, I traveled to North Carolina for our annual family vacation. On Sunday, we attended First Baptist Church of Bryson City. The guest Pastor brought the house down on that rainy day with a message on love and acceptance. He described the ways in which we used to value connection with one another through meal time and went on to emphasize how important social connection is for our mental health. If you feel connected and cared for, he argued, then love has the ability to heal.  That’s wonderful to hear about in Church, but how does that translate to the

Mom, I’m Bored

“Mom, I’m bored,”  said one kid from the backseat after we told them NO MORE DEVICES on a road trip to kick off the summer.  You see, devices for them create the stimulation that makes them, well, crazy.  So after allowing them on the first leg of the trip without any constraints, we put a cease and desist order out on all devices and prayed we wouldn’t all kill each other over the course of the next hundreds of miles.  Our trip began with a desire for our kids to see all 50 states before our oldest leaves for college

6 Tips to Help You Unplug for Your Vacation

With 4th of July being the unspoken week of summer vacations, it’s time to consider- does anyone every really truly go on vacation now days? By a true vacation I mean no work is done. None. No emails, no voicemails, no finishing up a project, starting a project or even thinking (and therefore procrastinating) on a project. In a world of constant connectedness, I’d venture to guess most people don’t actually unplug completely from their work. According this article, more than half of Americans plan to work while on vacation. But if you are headed on vacation or on vacation