An uplifting article appeared recently in The Washington Post. An elderly resident of an assisted living facility had been religiously watching exercise classes held on the roof of a gym across the street from her. When the gym found out, they painted her a mural.
This story made me think about who’s paying attention. What are you doing in your daily routine that someone might be watching? And, if someone is watching, what are they seeing?
The other day Chief Executive magazine featured a synopsis of an interview with Dana Cavalea, a top performance coach for athletes (including Derek Jeter) and CEOs.
He commented that the habits that have the biggest impact on athletes and CEOs alike are consistency, discipline, and conviction.
I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t quite feel like Memorial Day weekend is upon us. As the unofficial start to summer, in the past Memorial Day weekends were marked by heavy traffic leaving town on Thursday afternoon extending a three-day weekend into four days of glorious time off.
This year significantly fewer people will be leaving for the weekend. Some parts of the country have increased activities due to reopening guidelines, but many of the larger cities are still limited by sheltering guidelines.
We’ve been coping with the COVID-19 pandemic since January and as time has passed everybody has been dealing with it in different ways.
If you or a family member has suffered from the virus, your perspective is heightened by that experience. Health is first and foremost and most people are doing their part to stay home and be safe.
Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan living in Ireland, penned a touching poem about coronavirus. He shared “Lockdown” in a Facebook post on Friday, March 13. Since then, it has gone viral.
Lockdown
by Brother Richard
It’s already the end of January, and if you’re like many people, you’ve been striving to hit and maintain a better stride. Achieving professionals are always trying to go up a notch, and January is the month when it’s most noticeable.
To keep your momentum going, scope out the year and see what you can do to gradually keep your momentum going each month. The key is “gradual”, so think marathon, not sprint.
Sometimes we learn the hard way. You put all your energy into a project, go all the way to the end, only to discover that it’s not going to happen.
You’re disappointed in the outcome, but ready to get back in the saddle and try again.
There is a broad range on the spectrum of supervision. At one extreme is the hands-off manager, a person who makes an assignment no matter how vague.
At the other extreme is the micro-manager, someone who needs to control every aspect of an assignment.
Where do you fall on this spectrum?
When you’re stuck, emotions often take over your otherwise rational approach to problem-solving. You may think that a particular task or initiative may be the obstacle, when in reality an underlying emotional hindrance is the real culprit.
Your ability to reframe the emotional issue will help you break through to a solution. The key is identifying the what is really getting in the way. Here are a few of the more common emotional obstacles:
As a leader, you may find yourself giving feedback as frequently as every day. Letting members of your team know about areas of their work that they could improve on is integral to your role.
How often, however, do you find yourself receiving feedback? The likely answer to that is very rarely outside of any performance review that you may receive. When you are in a leadership position, people might find it uncomfortable or out of place for them to give you feedback.