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 ...

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 ...

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein: “A problem cannot be solved at the level of consciousness in which it occurs.” I often take a problem I’m currently facing and challenge myself to approach it from a completely new angle. To create fresh solutions, we have to ...

Here’s a fun post that was originally sent to me from Jan Foster, who at the time was a sales manager at XPLANE and had been a client. The excerpt below reveals the philosophy of Charles Schultz, creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip. You don’t have to actually answer the ...

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the contrast between the profile of success for leaders and managers from 25 years ago versus today and how dramatically different it is. For example, most of the successful leaders I knew back then were quite concerned about positioning themselves in their companies. ...

This week, I learned about a situation that one of my friends is experiencing which I can only define as scary.  I’ll call it “management by electronic device.” My friend’s boss sent a series of e-mails, reprimanding him and his peers for not meeting a deadline and giving them strict ...

Today is the Monday on which we officially celebrate Memorial Day, but the actual holiday is May 30. This year, then, we have not just a day but a week in which to ponder the significance of the holiday and what it means to many Americans. I grew up in ...

This post is about the psychology behind winning and the lessons we can learn from realizing that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Once upon a time, a horse named “Big Brown” ran the Belmont Stakes. This horse had already won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. He ...

Last evening after dinner, as I was removing the dishes from the dinner table, I noticed my husband, David, staring into space. I asked him if he was all right. “Yup,” he replied. “Just spacing out for a minute.” His response reminded me of a Boston Globe article I had ...

This post comes from the I-Ching, or “Book of Changes,” which is an ancient (over 5,000 years old) Chinese text of philosophy and divination. It is organized in hexagrams; here is hexagram 49-KO. “No revolution in outer things is possible without prior revolution in one’s inner way of being. Whatever ...

Let’s examine more about fear. Now I know that as soon as you see that word, it automatically brings about the alertness that always accompanies fear.  That’s a good reaction since, in it’s proper place,  fear activates our adrenal glands. Their fight or flight response helps protect us in times ...

Good morning, team, Last week, I read an article in the June 2008 Harvard Business Review: “Design Thinking” by Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, an innovation and design firm in Palo Alto, Calif.  Here’s how it starts: “Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire ...