Complacency doesn’t move you forward – it just holds you back

Complacency doesn’t move you forward – it just holds you back

Life & Living
“The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.” - Benjamin E. Mays Recently, a dear co-worker from a past life was laid off from her job. She is immensely talented, engaging, inspiring, creative, and now another sad statistic from this unprecedented global pandemic. She was employed by the organization for over a decade, and in that time had seen many people come and go while she remained committed and hopeful that the longer she remained with the company the more opportunities would be provided. But as with many organizations who are plagued by the absence…
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The topic of leadership often reveals many shortcomings

The topic of leadership often reveals many shortcomings

Information & Education, Life & Living
Over the years, I’ve written a handful of posts on the topic of leadership – six to be exact. It’s a subject I feel very strongly about as it’s often misapplied and abused in governments, businesses and even our own homes. Perhaps what always surprises me about leaders is how capable and credible they all believe themselves to be. While a degree of confidence is certainly necessary for any leader, far too many confuse confidence with egotism, and that dear readers is where the problem begins on the topic of leadership. Today I saw a social media post from a former (and respected) colleague. Her office had recently reopened and a sound and appreciated safety plan had been instituted by her company’s leadership team. Wearing a face mask was a…
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Acknowledge me to affirm that my contributions matter

Acknowledge me to affirm that my contributions matter

Generosity & Kindness, Love & Relationships
“It amazes me that we are all on Twitter and Facebook. By ‘we’ I mean adults. We're adults, right? But emotionally we're a culture of seven-year-olds. Have you ever had that moment when are you updating your status and you realize that every status update is just a variation on a single request: Would someone please acknowledge me?” ― Marc Maron, Attempting Normal I once had a co-worker who would often question whether or not she was invisible. Now before you call in for a straitjacket, she was speaking metaphorically as she struggled with the feelings (both professionally and personally) which Maron highlighted above – would someone please acknowledge me? While the two of us would often joke about her feelings of being invisible, I knew there was some truth to her…
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There are no goodbyes in life – just a warm hello again

There are no goodbyes in life – just a warm hello again

Love & Relationships
“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” - Mahatma Gandhi The other day, my wife and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. At times it seems we’ve only just begun our journey together, yet almost two decades later we’ve already experienced so many things; created so many memories. When we were preparing for our wedding back in 2001, neither one of us gave much thought to a videographer. Each of us are fairly shy and humble individuals and the idea of watching ourselves on television wasn’t very appealing to either one of us. Not to mention, we’d already reached the top threshold of our budget. My brother in law at the time, who fancied himself fairly adept at working a camcorder,…
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Feelings are valid and compassionate leaders understand that

Feelings are valid and compassionate leaders understand that

Generosity & Kindness
“Your feelings are valid. You have every right to feel whatever emotion you want. You aren’t being dramatic. You aren’t over exaggerating. You’re feeling. And that’s okay.” - Unknown During the Covid19 pandemic, leaders from businesses and governments have been called to respond to unprecedented circumstances in which there is no predetermined guidebook to follow. What I predict will eventually emerge from all of this chaos is a clearer picture of who our “true leaders” are, weeding out those who simply claim to be leaders in title alone. It’s important to understand there’s a big difference. One of my favorite quotes on leadership comes from Amit Ray in his book Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management. “Compassionate leaders honor the complexity of human relationships, nurture authenticity and create common…
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