Leadership Yoga Workshop
Audio Version Today, I’ll share the story of the origin and purpose of the original Leadership Yoga workshop and a bit of information about yoga itself. Today’s meditation is a poem for challenging times. I had been teaching undergraduate courses in leadership for several years when I enrolled in a yoga teacher training program. As…
Read MoreExhaling
Audio Version Photo by vincenzo di giorgi on Unsplash Yesterday I mentioned that science has something to teach us about breathing. We’ll explore that idea a bit further. When someone is stressed or anxious, we often suggest they take a deep breath. We instinctively know that this will help them calm down. And we watch…
Read MoreLeadership Yoga
Audio Version Yoga begins with our breath. When I was new to yoga the attention paid to breathing didn’t make sense to me, but it does now. Even when I am not taking time to take classes or practice yoga formally, I use the lessons I have learned about breathing all the time. Just one…
Read MoreSuggestions 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 More