Words of Wisdom

The Natural Emergence of Mindfullness

What does it mean to practice mindfulness? Here’s a recent definition: ‘The practice of focusing your full attention on the present moment, including your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings, without judgment.’ Upon further investigation, we see that mindfulness is not a product of the mind. It is the awareness ...

Four Capabilities of Leadership Model

This post comes from some thoughts on leadership that I read about in an MIT alumni magazine. In the article, people debate whether great leaders are born or made, and good evidence supports both sides of the argument. Accordingly, some educational institutions have created programs and curriculum to build their ...

Make Time To Do What You Love

I’ve been reading a lot of poetry recently and it reminds me how important it is to pursue interests other than work. When I was young, I wrote poetry. I’m not sure why; somehow poetry spoke to me very early on, and I started making up rhymes in my head ...

How We Earn Trust

This post is about learning to trust. When I first pondered this idea, I thought it was about trusting other people. But upon reflection, I realized that it was first about trusting myself and then trusting others. That is, we build trust by behaving in ways that show others we ...

Appreciating Competitive People

This post is about appreciating competitive people. Competitive comes from the Latin word “competere,” which means to meet, coincide, be fitting, and to seek or ask for. Our English definition is as follows: to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; engage in a contest; vie: ...

Attitude Is Everything

The title of this post is ‘attitude is everything’. I continue to be amazed at how our attitude has everything to do with how we feel about ourselves and our lives. Here are some examples of a friend and a client whose lives have changed dramatically and how the ...

The Joys of Volunteering

Once awhile in your career, you have a rare opportunity to work on an assignment that is life enhancing. When I was asked last month by the board of director’s at St. Mary’s Home for Boys in Beaverton, Oregon to help them find a new executive director, I knew it ...

Observing Your Stress Levels and Some Tips For Better Balance

Recently, I’ve been working with a team at one of my clients who are going through a particularly stressful time. Most of their stress is a result of uncertainty about the company’s direction and confusion about who’s in charge. This is a deadly combination for people trying to understand what ...

8 Attributes of Supportive Communication

The post is about the 8 attributes of supportive communication. Please see below. They speak for themselves. 8 Attributes of Supportive Communication � Problem oriented, not person oriented – focus on how problems and issues can be changed rather than on people and their characteristics (”How can we solve ...

Resetting Your Goals For These Opportune Times

This post is about the doing a re-set in regards to your goals. The months of January and September are placeholder months for me. These are the months when I stop to review how the previous year has gone or what I need to get done in the final quarter ...

Are You Still On Target With Your Mission?

This post is about having a mission and trying to work towards accomplishing it. I clearly remember a quote from a fellow named Shai Agassi who was on a mission to create all electric cars. Someone asked him if he was worried about competitors. Agassi looked at him like he ...

The Consequences of Cronyism

I’ve long wanted to write about a problem that I have most recently seen far too much of: cronyism. First, a definition from Wikipedia: “Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle ...

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