Suggestions and Reminders for Challenging Times
As someone who has Learner and Input as two of her top five Strengths, I’ve spent a lot of time online over the past few days and the one thing I know for sure is that my friends and colleagues on campuses across the country are doing amazing work. You’re thinking about students, and staff,…
Read MoreGabriella’s Song
“Among the winding canals and streets of Venice, something wonderful is happening! There’s a sweet song on everyone’s lips – a song that began with a little girl named Gabriella. It’s a song that makes the baker laugh, brings the widow to tears, and causes the gondolier to swoon. And it’s just the tune that inspires…
Read MoreCrisis Management*
Laryngitis isn’t something I have experienced often, but there have been two memorable occasions. One when I flew from Lubbock to Boston to participate in the NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education interview program. (For those who are NASPA members, this was long before it became TPE.) I whispered and croaked my way through eight…
Read MorePeople Who Care
When I was working at SMU, Jim Caswell the Vice President for Student Affairs, gave me a great gift. It was called staff development, but it was truly a gift because it still ranks as one of the best professional learning experiences I’ve ever had. The program was the NASPA Stevens Institute, a week-long program…
Read MoreGiving and Connecting
“We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to a happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to the community.” Paul Bloom, Yale Professor of Psychology…
Read MoreThe Attitude for Connection
*The quotes are all from the same article cited below. My thoughts about the application to the work of leadership are interspersed. Connection In dance, connection is the physical way in which two partners interact to create the shared experience of partner dancing. Think Johnny Castle in “Dirty Dancing” admonishing Baby about her ‘spaghetti arms.’…
Read MoreThe poetry of change
I first found this poem in a book called, Leading From Within – Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead. As the editors say it in their opening note, “Our invitation to these leaders was simple: take a moment away from the sharp-elbowed context in which you do your work, step outside the cycle of pressure…
Read MoreIt’s all in your mind-set
‘There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” Jiddu Kishnamurti This quote seems to epitomize the idea of the growth mindset…
Read MoreChange and Growth
As I write this, I’m getting ready to tell the world “I wrote a book!” It’s one thing to have an idea and something entirely different to write the book. And it’s definitely a third thing to decide to self-publish – something I know nothing about. Of course, there is no shortage of resources available…
Read MoreResolutions, Goals, and Wishes – Oh My!
It’s the first full week in January – how are you doing on your resolutions? When I used to do resolutions, I was lucky if I remembered I had made them two weeks out. Accomplishing them was never likely. They were more in the neighborhood of wishes, things I’d like to do, things that were…
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