Let me share a brief personal story with a broadly applicable life lesson. Our youngest daughter is adopted. She joined her forever family at the age of 6.

The world has evolved into a real-world Wanka Factory (think of Willie Wonka and his chocolate factory with the room made of edible goodies where Gene Wilder encouraged us to live in a world of pure imagination).

Have you ever considered why do you participate in travel sports…really? I spend time with a Mindset coach and executive coach talking about the travel sports landscape and how to improve the chances of the experience being positive for your family and young athlete.

Last week I shared how the not being a jerk principle is about healthy conflict not about avoiding being a jerk. I have been reading bestselling author and Wharton professor of organization psychology Adam Grant’s book Think Again and just got to a chapter where he draws the same conclusion. So you don’t have to take my word for it.

This guiding principle is less about avoiding being a jerk and more about creating a culture of candor and inclusivity recognizing that as we explore candor and diversity of thought sometimes you will be a jerk and the best thing to do when that happens is apologize.

If you have a job, you are in the problem-solving business. You might be on the front end of that (customer service or sales), operating in the background (marketing, product development), work in the trenches (IT, manufacturing), or find your work adjacent to those who are (HR, Learning). Still, the reason your job exists is that a need was identified, and your company felt it could meet that need. You were then hired to support solving that need either directly or indirectly.

I want to celebrate my wife. It was one year ago that COVID really started to change the way we lived in America. It is also about that time my wife, a small business owner (although as a non-profit, she reminds me the board owns it), had to begin to lead her customers (pre-school families), her staff (teachers and admins), and strategic partners through the new normal.

When I am reading to learn or for self-improvement purposes, I love the art of the highlighter. I agree with statements like if I am not highlighting every few pages, then a book is not worth the time. So I buy highlighters in bulk (mostly cause I misplace them).

I am at an indoor water park with my family. I walk to the bathroom. I notice sitting at a table along my path is a child likely aged five. The child is sitting on his mother’s lap. The young child is drinking a dark brown (black) carbonated liquid through the straw of a McDonald’s cup.

When setting goals, you first need to figure out why you don’t have them already. Conquer what scares you about setting goals. So you can achieve your goals more often.

I had the great opportunity to join Cara North and Joe Suarez to talk about best practices for leading creative teams. It’s 37 mins of conversation on topics including: the basics for leading all teams, the evolution of the creative professional, getting through episodes of Imposter Syndrome, autonomy at work.

Manana (Spanish mon ya na) Iguana by Ann Whitford Paul was one of my favorite books to read to my kids. I enjoyed the ability to use some Spanish vocabulary and an accent even though most of the book was in English, it made them laugh as I fumbled over the Spanish words. But more than sharing the laughs together, I loved the lesson to be learned.

Challenges that drives us to the brink, can also become opportunities to do what we never thought possible. This happens when you switch your focus from what is being done to you, to what can you do with the challenge. My 2020 reading list helped me change this mindset.

I would probably have gotten fired for the looseness in which I took my implied responsibility as a manager to count hours and monitor individual work processes. Some would have seen it as criminal that I didn’t ensure 40+ hours every week for each of my employees. Some would have called it wasteful that office spaces and cubicles sat barren. Accused me of neglect because I didn’t know the whereabouts of everyone placed under my supervision from 8-5 every Monday through Friday. They would have spoken of my weakness around the water cooler because I would not bat an eye when interacting with my team member while they were at the grocery in the middle of the day. Surely, they would have questioned why I was not more demanding of my people.

Great leaders help companies grow. Bad leaders stunt growth or worse.

When it comes to advancing your career relationships trump results. Why because in a promotion discussion everyone is qualified for the promotion. How can you increase your chances for success.

Be the best version of your authentic self will lead to better outcomes no matter who you try to replicate even if it is the Greatest of All Time (GOAT)

20 years of experience can teach you a lot if you pay attention. Here are 10 things I wish I knew before my career was 20 years young.