Try Something New?

Try Something New?

For years, my family joked that I only liked to eat macaroni and cheese or pizza. For years, it wasn’t far from the truth. Some things I wouldn’t eat: turnip greens, seafood. (I still don’t.) As I grew toward adulthood, I expanded my food choices...
Are We the Same, Or Are We Different?

Are We the Same, Or Are We Different?

Sometimes, our similarities and differences are easy to see; our outward qualities of age, race, and gender are visible and obvious. When we see those outward qualities, we may be tempted to label and name before we look deeper to find common ground beyond our surface...
A Myth About Developing Others

A Myth About Developing Others

Investing time and energy in helping others’ develop can seem like a huge undertaking, and it is. Many years ago, I worked as a tutor at local YMCA. One afternoon, one of my students began sharing her story with me. Due to a crisis in her family, she needed a...
Share What You Know

Share What You Know

A week ago, my family moved from our home in Chicago, where the view from our windows looked like this, to southeast Michigan, where the view from our back deck looks like this. After one week in our new home, I am happy to report that we’ve unpacked most of the...
How To Develop Others

How To Develop Others

Developing others’ capacity involves providing exposure, opportunity, and challenge. In order to grow, people need exposure; they need to be exposed to new ideas, new relationships, new environments, new technology, new ways of doing things. A leader’s...
Set Aside Time to Develop Others

Set Aside Time to Develop Others

I could see Kaldi’s from my office window. The coffee shop offered breakfast bagels, panini sandwiches and salads at lunch time, and a cozy corner for my mentoring appointments with Cindy. As often as we could, we met for lunch, stolen hours in the midst of busy...