Public and Private Leadership
On Monday, Seth Godin’s blog caught my attention. He was writing about famous conductors. What we see is an hour or two of them standing on stage “wear(ing) expensive clothes, mak(ing) dramatic gestures and receiving(ing) ovations.” We see the public version of leadership. But Godin follows that with a list of actions and behaviors that we…
Read MorePracticing Nonviolence
It’s no surprise that on Monday my social media feed was filled with quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as reminders that it’s one thing to post quotes, but it’s another to attempt to live out his teachings. Like many people, I struggle with the practical applications of practicing nonviolence. At the macrolevel,…
Read MoreAccepting Responsibility
“Yes, I was throwing eggs, but I didn’t throw THAT egg.” said the graduate student who had been joyously riding around in a car with his friend lobbing eggs at cars and passersby. “That egg” was the one that had attracted the attention of a campus police officer. The student was convinced that he didn’t deserve a…
Read MoreThe Fun of Beginning
My maternal grandmother taught me embroidery when I was ten or so and along the way, I’ve added needlepoint and knitting to my set of handicraft skills. This means that most of the time I have one or more projects in progress, whether or not I’m actively working on them. And year after year, project…
Read MoreTitle Waves
As you might imagine, I debated for a bit before I decided to wade into the topic of titles today. If you’ve been on social media the past few days or the op-ed section of many newspapers you know there has been, well, let’s call it a discussion, about the use of the title ‘doctor’…
Read MoreTwo Contradictory Ideas
As I began thinking about this week’s newsletter, I thought about a conversation I had recently with a client. Her college needed her to grow her program, but they were at capacity for classroom space. And of course, one had to wonder why this was urgent because who knew when they would be in the…
Read MorePlease, Tell Me a Story
In 2005, Jossey-Bass published a book titled Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer. Regular readers of this newsletter know I’m a fan of Parker’s work and I’ve had the opportunity to meet him personally so I’m also a fan of him as a person. This particular book…
Read MoreBeing with Others
This week I’m attending the conference of a professional association and, of course, I’m doing it from the comfort of my home. I’m extremely grateful for the colleagues, always volunteers, who made the decision in June to change the annual conference and then did all the work to make it happen. Because of them we are…
Read MorePatience and Persistence
As of Monday, I began weaning myself out of the boot and I posted that news on Facebook asking people who have had that experience to share ideas and lessons learned. I got several messages of good will and lots of good advice. There were some definite groupings – Take things slowly, listen to what…
Read MoreGreat Teams
There are many wonderful things about working for and by oneself. It can be lovely to work at your own pace and listen to your own rhythms. Of course, you have to learn to do everything by yourself, and I must admit that after many years of having great assistants, there are several office tasks…
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