A few days ago, I had a terribly unnerving experience. While on a Target run, I noticed a young man with a camera walking around the store videotaping people. It was odd and discomforting. As I turned the corner at the end of an aisle, I was confronted by another...
I once worked for a leader who had zero empathy. For instance, he regularly brought his dog to work. I told him I was allergic to some animals and might struggle if I had to enter his office. His solution? “Well, you don’t need to come into my office.” Another time,...
Human beings matter to me. They always have. Since the fall of 1972, much of my life has been focused on helping and guiding other human beings. That was when the pastor of my church pulled me aside and encouraged me (twisted my arm?) to form a group of teenagers...
3 weeks ago, I asked these questions in my newsletter and blog post: Why are you here? What is it that gives your life meaning? What generates your sense of purpose? What voice nags at you to contribute to humanity or to the world? These are essential questions here...
One of the catalysts in the Big Quit, the recent flood of resignations hitting businesses these days, is the dream of having a job that provides more personal meaning. This is a good thing if the end result…the new job… allows an individual to contribute in...
It is what it is. Ugh…I can’t stand that phrase. Probably because it sounds too superficial to me. But as glib as it sounds, that expression does capture the shoulder-shrugging reality of the ambiguous losses we’re all facing these days. I’ve been thinking about the...
In my last post I reflected on the “losses without conclusion” I and many others are facing in these days of COVID. I was captivated by an interview I heard with social scientist, Dr. Pauline Boss, who has pioneered research on this idea of “ambiguous loss”. Her early...
OK, yeah, you’re thinking “I love you” is only three words. Those are THE best words you could ever say to someone, agreed. But there’s something almost equally powerful in this phrase - “I see in you…”. When you utter those words and follow them up with the admirable...
I would hide when I heard him coming. My office was at the foot of the stairs down in the basement of the building in which I worked. I knew my boss’s footfall. So, when I heard him descending the stairs, I would turn off the light in my office, lock the door and...
Sometimes leaders’ actions are deadly. Their words get peopled killed, they kill ideas, they kill relationships. Maybe not via premeditated murder but, for sure, through negligence. I hate writing this. I have been stewing for days since the terrorism and seditious...
