“How may I serve you?” If we were playing trivia, you might be tasked with connecting this phrase with a particular restaurant. Do you know which one uses this question to focus on excellent customer service, along with “My pleasure”? Many organizations use taglines, mantras, and Catchphrases (See Lesson of the Slime Mold) to unite …
Category: Leadership and Culture
Cloud of Fear
Have you ever experienced a season in your life when you were being smothered by a Cloud of Fear but couldn’t necessarily give name to the experience? You perhaps had an awareness that something was askew, just a bit out of balance, but you wouldn’t choose the word fear as a descriptor. But as the …
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Are students cheating? This inquiry is only one of many conundrums being discussed between two educators on morning walks. Sometimes the conversation steers itself to deeper issues: How do we handle our own aging selves much less the dynamics of aging parents? But at the beginning of an academic year, as we listen to presentations …
The Great Rewiring
Take a morning walk with me along the out-and-back paved trail near my home and, on a typical day, you will witness a demonstration of what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt names The Great Rewiring. You are aware of this phenomenon, as you see it playing out every day, when you encounter the different generations represented …
Asking Over Assuming
Recently, I was the beneficiary of several intriguing insights while engaging in a Walk and Talk with Makayla, one of which relates to how we both delight when an author uses a phrase that captures a concept we’ve been mulling over, especially when we have been struggling to articulate it in a specific way. Even …
Unrealistic Expectations
Imagine scanning social media one morning and coming across the headline Jones Steps Down as Sports Information Director. Not necessarily an attention-grabber for most readers, but this press release was being shared by respected colleagues in the field of what is currently known as athletic communications, mostly in efforts to draw attention to the Unrealistic …
Stay Interviews
In my opinion, one of the most intriguing questions that can be asked in the process of Appreciative Inquiry is “What does a great day look like for you?” When it’s posed to coaches applying for a position in the athletic department, it can serve as a gauge for how relational their leadership style is …
Devaluing the Past
For the 10 years I was blessed to be a Creative Memories Consultant, one of the worthwhile benefits of this endeavor was to hear people’s stories. It is inevitable that sifting through photographs for placement on a scrapbook page, I would be regaled with the narrative behind the photo, or the person, or the experience. …
Buried Pipes
Perhaps today’s concern arises out of the fact that as days go by, I am finding myself more and more often as one of the older people in the room. Yes, I am fully aware that I am not in my twenties anymore but spending the majority of the day immersed with Emerging Generations, there …
Wrestling Coach
Academic people intimidate me. Yes, I comprehend the irony of that statement but it’s also accurate. To prove this statement even further, I will confess a true event: I once returned the book provided for a faculty dialogue group because I didn’t understand it! Fortunately, this has only happened once and the opportunity to converse …
Flourishing @ Life 