Personal Boundaries

Old Men Don’t Ride Kick Scooters

September 13, 2011

Last night after dinner my ten-year-old wiped out on his kick scooter after trying to do some new tricks. He has a nasty scrape and some serious bruises to show for his efforts, but is otherwise all in one piece. After inspecting our son’s injuries, Mr. People Equation informed me “That boy actually left some [...]

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The Way We Work: Creating a More Flexible Life

September 6, 2011

Part Three of a Three-Part Series The conclusion of this series on integrating our work and personal lives focuses on the changing nature of work—when we work, how we work, and how others around us deal with it. Part One of the series was What is Work Life Integration? and Part Two was Work Team [...]

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5 Tips for Building Your Superhero Power at Work

July 26, 2011

When we were kids, all it took was donning a beach towel cape and running through the neighborhood to make us feel strong and competent. A simple garment addition and voila! We were superheroes. Then, we grew up and went to work. At your place of employment, you might be less inclined to feel the superhero [...]

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Office Politics Resources for GRAPE

March 17, 2011

Today I gave a presentation to the Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence on “Office Politics: How to Deal with Bad Actors in a Good Way”. Throughout the presentation, I made reference to books and blog articles that contained great information about navigating office politics while maintaining one’s integrity. Here’s that list of resources: [...]

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The Snowball Effect: When Small Workplace Offenses Grow Out of Control

February 7, 2011

In my blog post, Avoid Snappy Comebacks with Snarky Comments, I advised workplace professionals to resist the urge to lob snarky retorts in response to a co-worker who’d just dished up the same. Human Resources executive Jay Kuhns remarked, “Small comments can turn into big problems so quickly. Great advice, Jennifer. ” Jay’s comment brought [...]

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How to Deal with People Who Suck

January 27, 2011

People are programmed to help each other out. Social psychologists call this socialized behavior reciprocity and it’s evident in all human civilizations. In the United States, we have familiar phrases to describe this aspect of human behavior: “he gave as good as he got”, “one good turn deserves another”, and “you scratch my back, I’ll [...]

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Just Not With Their Ears

December 14, 2010

The following post is written by one of my mentors Sarah Gutek, a former Human Resources Executive. It’s a delight to have her contribute to The People Equation. Does this scenario sound somewhat familiar? You’re getting ready to go into a staff meeting when Esther from accounting reminds you to make a big point to [...]

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Boundaries of Fearlessness

March 27, 2010

In his book Linchpin Seth Godin draws a distinction between the words fearless and reckless. Fearless people, he says, are “unafraid of things one shouldn’t be afraid of.” They push through any imagined “threat” to make a presentation to a difficult customer or conduct a challenging conversation with an underperforming employee. On the other hand, [...]

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Book Review: Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham

October 5, 2009

Marcus Buckingham wants to teach women how to live a “strong” life. He says a strong life is one in which you are able to discern the activities which energize you, catch those moments and cradle them so that you feel fulfilled—personally and professionally. That’s a pretty tall order, especially when coming from a man. [...]

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