Leading with gratitude….

“I lead with gratitude,” said Roland “Boot” Boutwell, an effervescent spirit who last Monday evening led a thought-provoking program on the Winter Solstice for The Friends of the Fells.   The group is a not-for-profit association that supports a 2,500 acre nature reserve that was established in 1894 about 8 miles north of Boston.   I’d venture to call him a naturalist.  Although I’d really be selling him short with such a description. Continue reading…

Her Place at the Table and Thanksgiving Treats

I’ve had Deborah Kolb on the brain since last spring.  I registered to attend a day long event last June that she was hosting at Simmons College.  It fell during one of the those  weeks when I got three days notice for an end-of-year event from my children’s school.  It still amazes me that such short notice exists.  The summary is that I missed the Kolb event… and missed her book on my summer book tour.  Not sure I can cite the school alone for being disorganized!

Kolb is a noted lecturer and educator on the topic of negotiating – particularly women & negotiation.   This week – I jumped on a pre-Thanksgiving TABLE twist and finally read her 2004 missive,  “Her Place at the Table.”  Continue reading…

Transitions & Negative People…..

“She is living her dream,” said my daughter in summary of a friend we visited over Columbus Day Weekend 2010.   If I had tried I couldn’t have figured out how to get that message across so simply and completely to my children.  Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #8: Necessary Dreams

A dear friend from business school stopped by to see me one day at the office.  I knew something was up because she was in town from Colorado and REALLY wanted to get together.  It was one of those weeks where I had kid’s events, work commitments, or other stuff every night.   So, the only time we could pull off was lunch in my not-so-lovely office cafeteria.

Looking back – I am so happy that she stopped by.  At lunch she shared with me an experience that had deeply affected her.  Just days before she had attended a HBS event, a healthcare symposium, during which students and alumni get together to discuss emerging trends and career issues.   At the event’s luncheon she sat  with two soon-to-be graduating students who happened to be incredibly gifted ladies.  Prior to attending HBS one had been an industrial engineer, the other a NASA scientist.   Despite these credentials their conversation with my friend was astonishing. Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #7: Steering by Starlight

I asked my eight year old for the name of the diagram that has two overlapping circles.  She was hanging on some climbing structure in flip-flops and a bathing suit.  I should have been alarmed.   Instead I was trying to think  of an interesting angle to use to tell you about this week’s book while my two children enjoyed a few moments of their own.

She quickly chirped “Venn diagram” while still scaling the loosely joined swinging steps.  My read this week was really a Venn-test.  Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #5: It’s Up to the Women!

Last night I happened to catch the tail end of “Invictus,” a 2009 movie starring Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, a real-life member of South Africa’s rugby team who’s summoned by Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) to rally support in the country and unite the racial divide.  At one point Mandela is speaking about inspiration with Matt Damon’s character and says (and I’m paraphrasing), “how do you get people to be better than they think they can be?”  In the movie Mandela was seeking to inspire folks to simply forgive after decades of horrid, tortuous behavior that divided South Africa.  Decades earlier a first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, penned “It’s Up To The Women,” daring to inspire the ladies of our country at a particularly horrid time for our nation; the Great Depression.  Both leaders relied on inspiration to get folks to accomplish more than they thought possible.  My summary is the same for transition; we simply need a bit of inspiration. Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #2: Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes

Have you ever had an obscure fact stick with you for a long time?  Here is one that has followed me…  In my late twenties I read Golda Meir’s autobiography, My Life.   Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel from 1969-1974, was a school teacher until the age of 43 (or thereabouts).  There it is.  Isn’t that incredible?  At the time she was only the 3rd woman on the planet to serve as a Prime Minister.  Her mid-life transition has always stuck with me.  Now, I am even more fascinated by it after reading Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. Continue reading…

Women’s Transitions? a process……

Celebrating Women’s Transitions!?  What are “women’s transitions” anyway?  Before getting into today’s post…please look for our RSS Feed link on our site.   I keep tweaking…all feedback is welcome!

I have to tell you a story before getting underway — it guides how I approach today’s challenge.  It starts with  a guy, whose name I’ll change to Stewart.  Stewart is an executive at Iron Mountain, an S&P 500 corporation.   For the past four years I had the great pleasure of serving as Iron Mountain’s head of Human Resources and Administration.  Stewart was a super, über “corporate guy.”   I was usually entertained by his calculated moves.  He was a corporate chess player “extraordinaire” –   Ever met anyone like this?

Anyway Stewart got me one day.  I didn’t even see it coming.  He agreed with me in a private very-critical “pre-meeting” on a topic.  Then he set me up in front of the CEO in a more public meeting by changing his position 180 degrees.  I should have seen it coming — I was just too exhausted to see it that day.

In spite of this craziness Stewart used a positioning on occasion which I thought was masterful.  It went simply…”let’s start with where we agree.”

So, on transitions, let’s start with where we agree: Continue reading…