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How many calendars do you have? Of course there’s the one on your computer, the one that keeps track of all the meetings and tasks you need to plan for in a day or a week or longer. If you’re like me, you also have a paper calendar where you keep notes and odds and ends…

In 2020 as the world shut down for the COVID pandemic, I started walking around the neighborhood for physical and mental health. By August, I was walking about three miles a day. That progress was interrupted when I rolled my foot off an uneven part of the sidewalk and broke my ankle. By the time…

University administrators don’t usually take sabbaticals. I’ve heard of a few who negotiate some kind of break. Usually they are very senior people with long histories at their campuses. For faculty, the idea is to provide time to focus on research and writing. Since administrators aren’t expected to be doing research and writing, then there’s…

Last week I shared some thoughts on the topic of knowing when to leave a position. Today, I’m going to share thoughts about an equally difficult aspect of leaving, how to leave. Depending on the specific circumstances, leaving with grace can be surprisingly challenging. Even in the best circumstances, excitement about the new opportunity shared too…

“How do you know when it’s time to leave a job?” isn’t the most frequent question I’ve been asked over the years, but it does show up frequently. Sometimes the person asking is trying to figure out what to do next in their career. Sometimes, their employment situation has changed and they are wondering whether it…

One of my favorite workshops to teach is the one on Creative Leadership. In that workshop, and in others, I try to set up experiences to help participants expand their ideas of what creativity is and explore their own creativity. I have found through personal experience and listening to others that for most of us…

Last week I told you about my birthday cakes and fireworks, but over time, my birthday parties have changed. Now my favorite thing for a birthday party is to go to the bookstore and wander the bookshelves and see what I can find. So Friday, we went on a Bookstore Crawl. It’s not as mellifluous as…

My red-headed uncle kept telling his red-headed sister, my mom, that she would have a red-headed child on the Fourth of July. He was close. I was born at 5:30 a.m. on the fifth of July meaning this is my birthday week. Because I was almost born on the 4th of July, most of my birthday parties…

As you might remember, I have a goal to move thirty minutes every day. Occasionally, I do laps around the house for half an hour, but my preference is to walk outside around the neighborhood. At this time of year, that means I have to get up early enough to beat the sun. I don’t…

There’s a part of me that thinks being an investigative reporter would have been a wonderful career. I’m probably dogged enough. I like sorting out puzzles and learning about new things. However, I didn’t have the nerve to ask the tough questions until later in my career, so I wouldn’t have made it very far in…