It was the most frightening thing I’ve done in my life. I am terrified of height and here I was climbing without any gear up a 500 feet vertical cliff, as I followed others along our route to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I had specifically told our guide I was scared...

As I often love to repeat, Einstein reminded us imagination is more powerful than knowledge. So, for just a moment, disconnect from your logical left brain and think about one aspect of your life you might be interested in changing. Then ask yourself the following...

We all know that asking the right questions and identifying root causes are key in problem solving. And a technique I’ve found useful over the years, primarily because it gets the emotion out of the dialogue, is using the “Five Why’s Deep” formula....

Have you ever wondered if you accidentally stumbled into the wrong conversation? Let’s say a family member or good friend shares something emotional with you. Immediately, because you care for this person, you suggest what should be done to rectify the situation and...

Near the beginning of my keynote speeches, I used to tell a story of two wolves vying for attention. It’s been told in many different ways but the gist is, a father was talking to his son and said, “Inside me are two wolves, one is good and one is evil. And they’re...

I’m pretty sure I have a green thumb, because almost everything that comes into my yard thrives, multiplies and is wildly prolific. Things flourish! To flourish, according to Webster’s definition, is to grow luxuriantly, to achieve success, and to be in a...

It was the simplest of exercises. You take a piece of paper and fold it a few times and voila, you get a paper hat. I practiced multiple times before introducing it in one of my classes, where I just couldn’t make it work. Eventually I figured out...

Years ago, I was visiting my son and his girl friend in San Diego. As I was preparing to return to New York City, they took me to one of my favorite spots by the ocean. I held my arms out, turned my face up to the sun and said something to the effect of how much I...

I was thinking about holding grudges the other day when I watched one of my puppies put the entire head of my cat in his mouth. They were both playing but I yelled, fearful his over-zealous personality might end in disaster. The cat wasn’t very happy about it either....

Here I am stepping into some pretty big shoes/clogs at a tourist site in the Netherlands. And this picture seemed to fit what I’m talking about here, stepping into the shoes--and perspective--of someone else. I recall once asking everyone in a class I was teaching to...

My daughter, grandson and I just returned from a trip to Europe, and while there we stayed in a wonderful hotel in Brussels. What I found (and find) interesting, is how hotels asked us what we were unhappy about, what could they have improved upon. Well immediately...

I just finished speaking to an amazing group of people at Pabco Products, in Rancho Cordova, CA, and in this two-day class there was a lot of discussion centered around subconscious discrimination based on perception. Do tattoos mean savvy and creative or...

Years ago, my closest friend, Patricia, ended up with stage four cancer and I knew I needed to go see her. We had become close friends when we both lived in Manhattan, and now I was more than a thousand miles away and so busy with work, that even though I called her...

Consider the source, was something I grew up hearing. I can’t exactly remember the context now, but those words came barreling back to me recently when I was teaching a class for the University of Florida’s workforce development. I had 45 women in a class on...

Did you see the original Matrix movie, which came out in March 1999? It was about being unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, which wasn’t reality at all, just an illusion. I remember when I first saw it thinking, well yes, that’s kind of what we are all...

I just finished teaching a two-day leadership class for women this week, and the topic of weather came up. Weather, in the sense that we carry our weather around with us, it’s a manufactured emotion that either buoys us up or keeps us in a state of...

Actress Hillary Swank was interviewed recently, and when asked if she had ever had doubts about her career taking off, she commented there was never an “if,” only a “when.” I’ve heard similar comments from others in different walks of life; regardless...

I feel certain anyone reading this already knows, and could probably teach a master’s class on what I’m writing about, but every once in a while it’s worth mentioning the obvious: How we treat people has an enormous impact on whether they buy from us, recommend us to...

What’s the secret some people possess and others don’t? A catastrophe happens and some seem to weather the disaster and keep on going. And at the same time others have the identical thing happen and fall totally to pieces. It seems one answer is how we define the...

Have you noticed if people lack confidence, they’re apt to start a conversation with a qualifier: “I’m not sure this is the right time to bring this up...” Or, “I don’t know if this is what you meant...” What does it say loudly and clearly? That the person talking has...