It seems everyone is talking about expectations lately. In the June issue of Oprah’s magazine, Brene Brown counsels us to “reality-check our expectations because they can lead to low self-esteem.” Cheryl Sandberg tells women to lean in to the leadership table and “dismantle the internal barriers holding us back today.” A number of executive coaches […]
As a consultant, I coach leaders and technical experts who need to change their behavior in order to advance on their career path or keep from failing in a stretch assignment. The client and his or her boss often identify one of the following behaviors to improve or develop: Making decisions in ambiguous or […]
More than a decade ago, I was part of a team that taught the 3 Principles to hundreds of people at a large defense and security company. We called it State of Mind (SOM) training because it made sense to people that at any given time, their SOM was either helping them or getting in […]
In the late 1990s when I began teaching the 3 Principles in business, it was leading edge to talk to leaders about the effect their state of mind had on their ability to solve problems and make decisions. Most participants had multiple insights and valued the training, but as I reflect on what they saw (and how I […]
Although we can’t control what we think about life’s ups and downs, we do have some say over where we invest our mental energy, where we focus our attention, the level of attachment we have to our thinking in the moment. When we see the nature of thought rather than the content of thought, it […]
Happy New Year! Let’s make 2013 the year we make peace… with ourselves. I know it’s tempting to see the clean slate of the new year as an opportunity to re-start all those self-improvement initiatives, but what if we resolved to give it a rest for a while. We fool ourselves into thinking that happiness […]
Many Americans say Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. Why? It’s an oasis of good feeling in what can be the frantic weeks of the holiday season. People give themselves permission to relax for a few hours with family and friends, share a meal, and be grateful for the bounty in their lives. If it feels […]
Recently, I’ve had to practice what I preach in my training and coaching – on myself! After 14 years in a job I loved with a company whose patriotic mission was a source of inspiration and pride, I was laid off due to a centralization of HR services. It took two years to complete the […]