Blog
Until Brighter Days Come, Adversity Has Purpose
My first job out of nursing school (a long time ago), was working as a Registered Nurse at a hospital in Chicago, IL. I worked the night shift in perinatal nursing or high-risk obstetrics. Meaning women who were experiencing some type of complication during pregnancy. I’d come home at 8am, sleep for a few hours…
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Grateful For Learning From Adversity
2020 has certainly had challenges. But it won’t keep me from sharing with you my tradition of reflecting on Three Questions about the past year and asking you to do the same. What are you most grateful for? Please share what was the highlight of your year? Do you have any wisdom you would pass on…
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Removing Uninvited Guests at Your Thanksgiving Table
This Thanksgiving is like none other. Perhaps people are missing from your table because they don’t feel comfortable meeting in person due to the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, there may be people present at your table who have completely different views about the handling of the pandemic. Whether you are sitting around the…
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Leading with Stability and Hope During Crisis
Dealing with uncertainty creates anxiety for most people. It’s especially difficult when facing a pandemic. Most likely, you are facing tough decisions that impact your company’s bottom line, employee paychecks, and the health of your employees and customers. What your employees need most is for you to lead with a non-anxious presence. A presence of staying calm, not…
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Are You a Fixer? How to Know When Helping is Hurting
Are you a “Fixer”? By age 11, Maria was writing checks to pay the family bills, by age 14, she started her first job, and by age 19, she owned her first home. Due to the unpredictability in her upbringing from her father’s alcoholism and her mother’s mental illness, Maria said “I’ve been an overachiever,…
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The Keys to Marital and Business Success: How One Couple Successfully Works Together in a Family Business
Family-owned businesses often struggle because sometimes personal conflict spills over into the family business. The result is a work culture with unresolved family issues that impacts how the company runs, its overall productivity, and ultimately its bottom-line results. It’s been no different for married couple, Angelo and Lauren, who are third-generation family business owners and…
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Release Family Baggage: Walk a Mile in Their Shoes
This month’s story around how family upbringing affects leadership and conflict management explores how Ryan found the gifts of resilience, empathy, and improvisation and uses them to his – and others’ – advantage. He leverages his history to create productive conflict strategies. Ryan tells the story of his upbringing below and then we examine a…
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Workplace Conflict Taking Its Toll? 8 Questions to Determine if It’s Time to Move On
Are you struggling to get along with a difficult co-worker? You love your job, yet there’s one person at work who makes your workdays virtually unbearable. On one hand, the job itself is great and you’ve worked hard to attain the position you’re in and the respect you’ve earned. On the other, the physical, mental,…
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Leverage your Family Role for Career Success
We continue our series of leadership stories, exploring the impact of family dynamics on conflict management styles. Today, we hear from Lee, a team leader who leverages experience from her upbringing to benefit her team by minimizing workplace tension. Have you ever felt like you’re in the same role at work that you were in…
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During Conflict, Do you Give Away Your Power?
Jeremiah could feel the stress building. For months I’d been listening to my boss’s ranting about some production issue that hadn’t gone as planned. I felt responsible as a leader and was genuinely trying to do a good job. I wanted to defend myself and explain my attempt to solve the problem. Suddenly, I realized…
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