From the category archives:

Communication

The Language of Frailty

September 20, 2009

Words fascinate me.  Walking into a book store jazzes me the way some people invest emotionally in sports or music. From my first published work at age 13 (op-ed piece in our local newspaper) to being a Spanish major in college, to conducting Communications Skills workshops for employees, language has always been more than just [...]

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Bully on the Track Field

September 18, 2009

So I’m reading Bret Simmons’ post When the Bully Boss is Female . . . There’s a slight whooshing sound in my brain and all of a sudden time sort of shifts.  It’s the 1970’s and I’m in 8th grade.  A new family has moved from Chicago to our tiny farming community in Michigan.  They [...]

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Have We Met?

September 10, 2009

Here’s a trend I’ve noticed when getting introduced to people via technology requiring the written word—email, Linked In, Twitter.  When I first introduce myself, people will often reply something to the effect of “nice to ‘meet’ you.”  The quotation marks around the word meet are significant.  The meaning I derive from those quotations marks are [...]

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The Unlikely Leader

July 18, 2009

Lessons from a Teenaged Underachiever On his Lead Change Group blog, Mike Henry Sr. ruminated on the circumstances under which it would be OK to tell a “white lie” at the office. He posed the question “If no one knows you lied, are you a truthful person?”  That question sparked a memory of a leadership lesson [...]

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My Tweets Are Real

July 9, 2009

Professionalism in the Web 2.0 Era It all started with a t-shirt.  When I posted the results of my 30 Days of Tweeting Experiment last month, I sent an email to my colleagues announcing the blog.  The email contained a photo of me wearing a navy t-shirt (courtesy of the Ellen Shop) that boasted “My [...]

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Does the People Equation Include Chimps?

July 3, 2009

I took the kids to the zoo today.  While checking out the bonobo chimpanzees, I noticed an educational sign that said: “[For chimps…] Mutual grooming helps ease the stress of daily life and increases social bonds.” Hmmmm….. For some strange reason, Twitter popped into my head.  Immediately, the Internal Censors in my head started blaring…. [...]

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When Did I Become a Dude?

July 1, 2009

I was sitting in a meeting with a VP of Technology the other day, preparing to meet with her company’s president. She watched me pull out my paper calendar and exclaimed, “Dude! You have got to get a BlackBerry!” Now, this person is in her 40’s so she’s a Gen X-er. So this wasn’t a [...]

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