Some days are all uphill. There are times when I start at the bottom of a big hill and, no matter how hard and long I work, I do not get very far. They are low gear days. It feels like the weight of the world rests on my shoulders, that building momentum is beyond […]
We think of leadership as happening dramatically. We face a crisis, and a leader steps forward to guide us to success. Our myths and our movies show the least expected candidate emerging to save the day and become the leader we need. At a critical moment, the leader realizes they can become the leader they have
Leadership is Shaped Over Time Read More »
We love life and health. We work very hard to be physically healthy, to build strong physical lives. We want to live as long, and as well, as we can. When we are injured or sick, it is urgent that we get care. It is an emergency. We are anxious about our financial lives. We
Why Do We Hide from Spiritual Life? Read More »
Why is our work so important to us? We are fixated on work. The challenges and anxieties we face at work disrupt the rest of our lives. Work affects our relationships, how we sleep, the way we see ourselves. When we are introduced to someone for the first time, work is often one of the first things
There is nothing quite like that first leadership taste in the morning. It is a wake up call that gets us going and is good to the last drop. Leadership stimulates our senses even before we taste it. We can smell the aroma of leadership in the air. There are leadership sights and sounds that get us going even
Leadership is Stimulating Read More »
My church has a thing about fire. It is not the church in which I grew up, which was more focused on fire and brimstone. I belong to a liturgical church now. We light at least two candles every time we get together. We have special days we celebrate with a lot of candles, like Christmas
I have an unhealthy relationship to work. For as long as I can remember, my connection to work had been all or nothing. There is nothing quite like the feeling of working really well on something I think is important, accomplishing a goal. It is like a drug, or alcohol, or sex, or food, or
Recovering Workaholic Read More »
I have been interested in leadership for longer than I can remember. What sparked that? People told me that I had leadership potential, that I could grow up to be a leader. I had opportunities to lead people. I read about leaders. None of those were where leadership began for me. My leadership was
How Does Leadership Begin? Read More »
Most of us do not enjoy feeling pain. We do our best to hide from it, and to hide it from everyone else. Pain is something to be relieved, something to be endured, something to be suffered in silence. Never let them see you hurt. We are afraid of pain. The searing heartache of being rejected
Where is Your Pain? Read More »
I was brought up to take personal responsibility for my work. Over and over I heard, “If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.” I knew that I was the most committed, most persistent, most responsible person I could find. I was the person who would keep on working until the work
Working on Our Own Read More »
