A NOTE FROM LINDA: I’m writing today to share with you a way to understand people that can help you, even under the most trying circumstances, maintain your perspective and choose your responses. It’s an unusual post as it’s based on a way of thinking that helped me navigate my divorce with more wisdom (or at least with less crazy!). When I was going through my divorce, I made a commitment to myself to do it ‘well.’ We had young…
If you’ve been part of our community for a while, you know that our Work, with a capital W, is helping individuals, teams, and organizations succeed through increasing the leadership of each and every person, regardless of role or title. As coaches and consultants, we work at the intersection of psychology and business and we know, from 30 years of experience, that the ability to lead requires that you: Pause and manage your reactivity so you can respond powerfully…
Today is Martin Luther King Jr, and to honor his work around civil rights, we want to share with you a present-day voice advocating for a better world. On January 7th at the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a powerful speech about the importance of speaking up. The speech she gave was moving, and the reaction of the audience was equally, if not more, moving. You see, as Oprah spoke, her words fueled their hopes and their conviction for a better…
These are challenging times for our country and our planet. Daily we’re reminded of the differences that exist in the world, and to feel safer we seek out our allies. Seeking comfort from people who are aligned with you is a very human thing to do; yet it can further polarize our families, workplaces, and worlds. Unfortunately, polarization breaks down connections and communities. It’s not bad for us to have differences; it’s bad to start to believe those differences automatically…
This political season has amplified a clear division in our country between US and THEM. The ‘US’s and the ‘THEM’s of our country are both experiencing great pain. From pain comes fear, and from fear, anger. US versus THEM. As coaches and consultants, we have quite a bit of expertise working with and understanding people, and the thing we have seen over and over is that everyone wants to be seen and heard. Everyone. People want to know that their…
You may look at the title of today’s post and think to yourself, “Of course people matter! Why would they write about that?” And, while we know that you know that people matter, it’s not often we see evidence of it in a compelling way. So when we saw this snippet of video from the Olympics, we thought to ourselves: This is what it means to say people matter. As you will see when you watch the video, a pack…
Thank you all for your wonderful stories and comments during our five-week Choosing Happiness series! They were truly touching and we love that you shared your stories with us. Many of you wrote and told us that you personally are working on choosing happiness, but have a close friend or loved one who can’t quite get there. No matter what you do or say, you can’t seem to make that person happy, and you’re frustrated. Some of you feel a…
Over the past weeks, we have been talking about Daniel Goleman’s four components of Emotional Intelligence and how to translate each into action. Last week, we answered a question that a number of people from the Monday Morning Business Coach community asked, “What if I just miss the people stuff?” This week we want to speak to another issue addressed by our readers, a tendency to lose themselves in others’ pain. If the pain of others emotionally paralyzes you, you…
A couple of weeks ago, we shared the four traits that Daniel Goleman found are essential to emotional intelligence. Each week since then, we’ve been coaching you on how to translate the ideas of emotional intelligence into actual behaviors and practices. Many people have told us that Goleman’s four traits make sense and are important but then they get stuck trying to figure out what they actually need to do to succeed. So to help you move from theory to…
Those of you who know us know that we believe that leaders exist at all levels of an organization and in all walks of life. We believe that leadership is a way of being in the world. It requires a willingness to influence the world (not stand on the sidelines and complain) and to be influenced by the world (not stand impervious to the events and lives playing out around you.) We are passionate about finding the key nuggets of…