Communication
How is Your Attitude on Gratitude?
Many years ago, a movie featured a song that offered insights on how best to deal with worry and fatigue. While we are not sure the degree to which the song was based on scientific evidence – the message still rings true today. Here is a line from the song, sung by Bing Crosby in…
Read MoreLooping for Understanding
In today’s contentious and often polarizing dynamic, we search for effective ways to connect and understand others with whom we disagree.
Read MoreThe Importance of Connection
We experience the importance of connection daily—with our significant others, with our families, our friends, our colleagues, our communities, and with those we may encounter rarely or even only once. How do we invite others in? How do we show others we want to connect? We know that we pay attention to body language, facial…
Read MoreWords Matter – Stepping into Your Own Self-Talk
As a leader, you know the power of listening – seeking to hear, understand, and respect what another is saying, whether you agree or not. This is a must skill for today’s leaders, as well as an important life skill. Married to your listening skill is your ability to speak with clarity and respect as…
Read MoreMay – a Month for Powerful Conversations wrapped in a SCARF
Throughout my many leadership years in education, the month of May was always joyful to me. It was a time for meaningful conversations, reflections and just learning more about my staff doing the important, yet difficult work in education. Some conversations might be about the future of a staff member, others would certainly be about…
Read MoreCoaching is a Creative Process
In this month’s previous article, we looked at Saundra Dalton-Smith’s 7 Types of Rest that impact our happiness, productivity, and fulfillment. One of those she identified is the need for Creative Rest. Admittedly, age, stress, and the demands of life can diminish our creative options so the question becomes – How do we re-awaken our…
Read MoreFebruary—a Lovely Month
Hearts are everywhere! We may think first of romantic love based on what we are seeing in marketing and sales efforts that began right after the new year. This brief article is an invitation for you to think more deeply about how your heart is speaking to you—and how you are speaking to another’s heart.…
Read MoreEmotions – What Do We Do with Them?
Earlier this month I shared a personal story about emotions and how I grew up understanding them – or maybe not. For example – I can begin to cry at times when I am being coached. I don’t want to cry then, and yet here come the tears. I feel things deeply. When I was…
Read MoreGive the Present of Presence
Most likely we would not be too excited to open a gift and find nothing inside. Right? However, would you be surprised to know that in coaching, this is the perfect metaphor for coaching presence? Let me explain. In coaching, we are giving the gift of ourselves and our skills to another person. What does…
Read MoreVisualization Exercise to Prepare for Deep Presence
How do you clear all the chatter going on within your body before a coaching conversation, or really any conversation you are about to have, in order to be fully present? One approach I have found to be helpful was introduced to me by Marcia Reynolds, first in a virtual training and then in her…
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