Growth

Author Q & A with Bill Treasurer

December 14, 2016

Next month, one of my favorite leadership authors, Bill Treasurer, releases a new book, A Leadership Kick in the Ass: How to Learn from Rough Landings, Blunders, and Missteps .  Read my book review here. As part of the book launch, I was lucky enough conduct an email interview with Bill. Here are excerpts from […]

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Leaders Who Get a Swift Kick in the Butt Are Better for It

December 12, 2016

Leadership, as a topic, can be perplexing. As a leader, you are expected to be bold and calculated, passionate and reasonable, rational and emotional, driven and patient  . . .and yes, confident and humble. Faced with all of these often conflicting factors it’s enough to make you scratch your head and wonder, Where on earth […]

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Finding Your Sunshine At Work

October 3, 2016

Every summer, I plant a small veggie garden in my Michigan backyard. Even though the location is too shady for some of the sun-loving plants, it’s the only place that works in our yard, so we (and by “we”, I mean both the plants and I) make do. This summer I experimented with the placement […]

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6 Things I Learned from (Almost) Strangers That Will Help Make My Life Better

May 31, 2016

When I attend a business conference, I expect to learn things from the presenters. That’s a given.  There’s another great source of information that many conference participants overlook: one’s fellow attendees. Many people know that networking is an important part of the conference experience, but fewer realize that the true gold of an interaction during […]

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Leadership Means Learning to Let Go

December 21, 2015

My eldest child starts driver’s training today. A couple of years ago my good friend Mike Henry, (who has already lived through this phase) told me, “If you think the teen years are hard now, wait until he starts driving.” Well, Mike, that day is here! It’s terrifying. The responsibility is huge. There’s potential for […]

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Don’t Let Those “Best of” Lists Create Employer Envy

April 2, 2015

Have you ever worked for a company that was listed as “best of?” You know, “Best of XYZ Industry” or “Top 100 Companies to Work for” and so on. No? Well then you might have wondered: just how cool is it to work at one of those companies? Yet another “best of” list came out […]

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Tips for Wrapping Up the Year

December 29, 2014

Are you working this week? If you have an office job, most likely it’s going to be fairly quiet in the office because many of your colleagues are on vacation. That makes it a perfect time to finish those things you never seem to get around to doing—like filing your expense reports or cleaning off […]

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Zen of Jen: Who are You Really Talking To?

October 9, 2014

Ever read any self-help books? If so, you’re most likely familiar with the term “self-talk” which, as its name suggests, is the act of talking to oneself. There’s negative self-talk (“I’m such an idiot – why did I do that?”) and positive self-talk (“I am excellent at giving professional presentations”). Personally, I’ve done my share […]

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15 Essays About Parenting and Leadership

July 18, 2014

Back before I had kids, I thought I was a really good leader. Maybe I was, but now that I’m 13 years into this parenting thing, there are definitely some additional realizations that have come into my field of vision. Karin Hurt, founder of the blog Let’s Grow Leaders, has also seen the parallels between parenting and great […]

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Inspiration is for Amateurs: 4 Ways to Work through Your Mental Blocks

May 12, 2014

I happened upon this quote, ironically, while I was seeking some “inspiration” for my writing. There I was, sitting at my laptop, surrounded by volumes of notes and online research, with the cold, paralyzing fingers of writer’s block starting to twine themselves around my synapses. Nothing was coming to me. Where the heck was my […]

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