A 360-Degree View of Family Businesses
My siblings and I worked summers in my dad’s concrete, restoration and epoxy business. It was an early introduction to business. I was a distracted teen, not very productive and my siblings and I certainly didn’t offer any engineering expertise. When my dad retired, he sold the business. With an average life of 24 years, […]
My Mentorship Journey: The Makings of an Impactful Mentor
Where it started Four years into my engineering career, I went through a major change in which I crossed over from a technical R&D role to a product management role. Not only was the nature of my work going to change but I was going to manage a line of products used by the Navy. […]
Intergenerational Mentorship and Empathy
I’ve been going on coffee dates with students and alumni for more than a decade. Typically, they want advice about their careers or discuss anxiety they’re feeling about finding a job that aligns with their values. Sometimes they want feedback about their start-ups, and once in a while, they simply want to ask questions about […]
What is Your Leadership Evidence Saying?
I guess if you are reading this you are interested in leadership. You have read many books and articles on leadership and you can talk a good fight on the subject. You are in a leadership position now so – presumably, you can easily answer the question whether you are a good leader yourself. You […]
Lessons Learned as a Human Being and Small Business Owner: Equanimity and Compassion are Key
I cannot recall ever seeing equanimity, authenticity, compassion, or forgiveness listed as a required skill in a recruitment ad for any position, let alone for a top spot! Yet, if you think about many of the great leaders who amassed tremendous numbers of supporters, it is these types of abilities that drew their followers to […]
Tripartite Coaching: A Wonderful Gift
Some of the most rewarding coaching journeys I have had the pleasure to participate in are ones where the manager of the coachee is engaged in the process. In this piece I will share some of my observations of tripartite coaching: what works and does not work, what success might look like…and a wonderful anecdote […]
LEADERSHIP: IT’S NOT A GENDER THING
I want to start this piece with a very clear statement: We need to create more equity in the percentage of men, women and other genders in leadership roles. This will happen through the ongoing support of young girls and women, in building programs for those who identify as other genders, and to continue to […]
Love Letter to Humanity
When I arrived into our world you welcomed me with a blanket of white, fluffy snow. The moon was high, and the warm embrace of my mother’s arms was all I needed to feel safe. The ride home in the back of a taxi cab was comforting as I heard my father’s laughter as he […]
Change and Courage: Releasing all I was not to become who I was meant to be
As far back as I can remember, I always had a keen intellectual curiosity. While most kids spent recess playing tag and swinging on the swing set, I could usually be found in the school library with my nose buried in a book. Reading became even more important to me as my parents’ marriage began […]
Toward a New Definition of Leadership
Leadership Theories Through Time Contemporary studies of leadership started in the mid 19th century with the first theory on leadership: “The Great Man Theory” which assumes that leadership traits are innate and intrinsic to the leader. Of course, it didn’t take long for this theory to be discredited in favour of a long list of […]