What was the last high-stakes conversation you initiated? How prepared did you feel going into it? Perhaps this was delivering performance evaluations to team members, or maybe it was applying for a new job, or something entirely different. Such conversations can be as daunting as playing a musical instrument in front of an audience, deliveringContinue reading ““Zinnias Make Great Listeners” – Who are Your Zinnias?”
Category Archives: Blind Spots
Reclaiming Rest: Are You a Victim of the Industrial Revolution?
In 1910, President William Howard Taft proposed that every American worker should receive two to three months of vacation time each year “in order to continue [their] work next year with the energy and effectiveness that it ought to have.” Sounds wonderful, right? Of course, captains of industry – and U.S. legislators – disagreed, andContinue reading “Reclaiming Rest: Are You a Victim of the Industrial Revolution?”
What do Racist Attacks on Black Fantasy Actors Have to Do with Your Work?
A few months ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram faced an outporing of racist attacks following her portrayal of the villainous Inquisitor Reva Sevander – the first Black female villain in the Star Wars franchise. Ingram wasn’t surprised by the abuse – and Lucasfilm even helped to prepare her for them. Attacks on people ofContinue reading “What do Racist Attacks on Black Fantasy Actors Have to Do with Your Work?”
Serena Williams, Power Dynamics, and “Black Exceptionalism”
Were you one of the millions of viewers to watch Serena Williams play (what is expected to be) her final match of tennis at the US Open last week? Just a few weeks earlier, Williams announced her farewell to tennis after a truly extraordinary career. She was careful with the words she used: “I haveContinue reading “Serena Williams, Power Dynamics, and “Black Exceptionalism””
If Microaggressions Were Mosquito Bites
It’s the time of year when mosquitos are out in force where I live in New England. And mosquitos love me. Much more than I love them. At any one point during late Summer I can have dozens of mosquito bites on my body. And while I’ve been telling people for years that it’s becauseContinue reading “If Microaggressions Were Mosquito Bites”
Quicksand and Food Fights
When I was a child, quicksand seemed like a major problem that everyone needed to worry about. From the 1960s to the 1980s, characters throughout popular culture – in movies, tv shows, books, video games, and comic books – were almost certain to encounter quicksand at some point, with peril sure to follow. Over theContinue reading “Quicksand and Food Fights”
The “Endless Present” and the War for Our Attention
Who would have thought that so much would happen on July 12, 2022? Between the astounding deep space images NASA is releasing from the James Webb Space Telescope, the seventh public hearing from the January 6th Committee into last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, the funeral of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, protestsContinue reading “The “Endless Present” and the War for Our Attention”
Busyness – The Toxic Badge of Honor
When someone asks how you are, does your mind instantly bring to mind the word “busy”? If so, you’re not alone. Busyness is a constant feeling in so many of our lives. Indeed, it’s a vortex that we seem to get sucked down into more with every passing season. For a small number of us,Continue reading “Busyness – The Toxic Badge of Honor”
Happy Pride Month! – and the Iceberg of Invisible Identities
In the United States and in many other parts of the world, this week marks the beginning of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The first Pride March was held on June 28, 1970, to mark the one-year anniversary of the six-day Stonewall Uprising of 1969, a turning point in queer history. As such, it’s important to rememberContinue reading “Happy Pride Month! – and the Iceberg of Invisible Identities”
The ‘Thought-Stoppers’ That End Conversation
How do you transition out of a conversation about an unresolved issue? Some of us do it more gracefully than others, but chances are you have a few stock phrases you use to signal that you’re ready for the conversation to end. Sometimes these phrases take the form of folk wisdom: “It is what itContinue reading “The ‘Thought-Stoppers’ That End Conversation”
Building Bridges Leadership 