Personal Effectiveness

TEDx Grand Rapids – Making Meaning of Connections

May 16, 2012

It’s six days out from last week’s TEDx Grand Rapids event and I’m still processing. TED events are well-known for their brief, powerful speaker presentations proffering Big Ideas (see my list of quotes from the 2012 TEDx Grand Rapids speakers).  Frankly, A TEDx event can be daunting—such BIG ideas, presented by people with amazing stories [...]

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TEDx Grand Rapids – Food for Thought

May 15, 2012

I attended my second TEDx Grand Rapids event last Thursday.  The theme this year was “What Now?” and it came alive in such unexpected ways. From innovations in technology and materials, to finding peace in an act of terrorism, each speaker was able to knit “what now?” into his or her presentation. It’s a very [...]

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Killing Flies with Honey- How to Turn a Frustrating Colleague into an Asset

May 1, 2012

 A guest post by Chris Wallace It’s a tough lesson to grasp when you’re 8-years-old, but sometime during the road to adulthood I finally understood my grandmother’s favorite maxim — “You kill more flies with honey than with vinegar.” This wise saying couldn’t be more true than in an office environment. Even if you’re a generally rosy [...]

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10 Signs That It’s Time to Move On

April 24, 2012

This past weekend, my daughter and I spent some time in her room sorting through books she no longer reads. We had three piles: Keep, Donate and Memories. The “Memories” books would be put into storage—they no longer were age-appropriate, but they held sentimental value. As we sorted books, our conversation went like this: Me: [...]

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How Saying No Elevates Your Integrity

April 3, 2012

When you are asked to do something, does your “yes” really, truly mean “yes”, no matter what? If it means anything other than “Yes!” then you’re not living in integrity. To author Chris McGoff, the definition of integrity is a simple one: “I say what I am going to do, and I do what I [...]

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Are You Buying into These Career Myths?

March 29, 2012

Most of my ruminations on women and career tend to land over at the Women of HR site. This week, the site is wrapping up a great Women of HR Career Series. My post on the Four Myths of Self-Employment was featured last week. Following the myths theme, here’s a little “bonus track” to go [...]

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Sometimes You Just Gotta Suck It Up and Carry the Goat

March 13, 2012

We live in a Midwestern suburban area surrounded by pockets of farmland. When my son was in kindergarten, I chaperoned a field trip to The Critter Barn, an educational working farm with livestock.  I grew up in a farming community. My family didn’t farm, but many of my friends did, so I’ve seen the inside [...]

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2 Books to Help You Make a Change In Your Life

February 29, 2012

Today is February 29th, 2012. Many people are talking today about making the most of the “extra” time that Leap Day offers. If you’re truly going to do that, though, it’s going to take intentional effort to walk a new path, and beyond that, an adjustment of your habits. Just in time for the “bonus” [...]

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Celebrating 50 Years of Friendship

February 17, 2012

Today is my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. We won’t be there to celebrate with them because they are many miles away at their winter home, so the big family celebration will wait until they’re back home this summer. But they won’t be lonely. They are having dinner tonight with good friends, whom they’ve known for [...]

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Project Management Lessons from a Valentine’s Party

February 16, 2012

This week marked the 13th holiday party that I have coordinated or helped run at my kids’ elementary school. I’ve done ‘em all—Halloween, Thanksgiving Feasts, Winter Holidays, Valentines.  It was indeed “lucky number 13” because I realized something on my drive home from school on Valentine’s Day this year: planning and running a classroom party [...]

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