Traveling with Gen Z on two trips to Calgary this summer opened my eyes to an entirely new vocabulary. Spending quality time with emerging adults outside of the classroom and academic setting, one receives exposure to colloquial terms that you never knew existed. Feeling out of the loop and not following the conversation, my curiosity …
Category: Generational Theory
Why Do I Have to Change?
“Entitled” is a descriptor associated in a negative manner with the Millennial Generation and in a recent faculty workshop, the term was offered to illustrate Gen Z as well, but Ryan Jenkins offers another perspective on this concept when posed with the question from leaders, “Why do I have to change?” Jenkins replies, “…it signals …
Five Floors of Relationships
Building relational capital is how Tommy Spaulding explains creating relational equity in his book entitled It’s Not Just Who You Know. With a wealth of information that I am sure to reference repeatedly in my own research, Spaulding exposes the reader to “relationship economics…how to define relationships that matter, how we can create relationships that …
Follow Where You’ve Been
Not confident enough of when this event specifically occurred to provide an exact age, I want to discuss my first experience mowing the lawn since it was memorable enough to share a lesson from that day. No, I didn’t cut down all of my mom’s irises (that was a neighbor, not me); and no, I …
Bubble or a Greenhouse
Coming across a shared social media post by Marisa Boonstra, I was struck by the similarities between her perceptions on parenting and my thoughts on instructing emerging adults. It probably drew my eye even more because she used some of the key terms, such as cultivate and flourish, that have resonated again and again in …
The One Question You Never Want to Hear from Students — Growing Leaders
Parents tell me that their kids are asking them far fewer questions than they used to ask their parents when they were growing up. There’s nothing scientific about this observation, but I tend to believe them. Why? Because kids today have a portable device. They can Google. They can YouTube. I loved the questions my…The One …
Continue reading The One Question You Never Want to Hear from Students — Growing Leaders
Just Be Curious
http://www.pbs.org You are now challenged to NOT smile when you view the picture of Curious George! His portrait adorns the wall of my office to the delight of one of the Sinclair children, but George is gazing through his binoculars dreaming about what adventures lie ahead as a reminder to all my students, and myself, …
Renee Wiebe Hultgren
If you were to consider some wise advice to offer younger Renee about life, either personal or professional, what would it be? If I could share something with my younger self, I think the two most important things I would share would be to take chances and be confident. The first, taking chances…is what I …
Return on Relationships
As we explore the significance of creating relational equity, I will offer various perspectives on the relationships we establish in our lives both personally and professionally and the importance of the varying depths of those relationships. Although it may not always be a simple task, or even necessary, to categorize each relationship we encounter in …
The Strength of Weak Ties
Repeatedly mentioned in the research of Gen Z, mentoring, and lifespan development, the theme of what Meg Jay calls weak ties and Tommy Spaulding refers to as lower-floor relationships is fascinating. These concepts contrast to the ideas presented in the Who’s in Your Posse post but speak to the need for all of us to …
Flourishing @ Life 