It is that time of year; American Idol audition time. It’s hard to watch the heartbreaking stories of people who put everything, their hopes, their dream on the audition and don’t make it. I find myself in tears for some stranger as they walk back to the embrace of family and friends. Yes, I hear…
Movies and TV have led us astray with respect to drowning. People who are actually drowning are not thrashing and crying for help. In reality, drowning is unnoticed by observers. The person cannot stay at the surface of the water long enough to cry for help. The head bobs on the surface of the water,…
It’s was moment of stillness and silence. You said something in a meeting and your audience had blank stares as if a hypnotist had brought them to a trance. Come on, hurry up, the audience is waiting. In a split second, they’ve gone from trance to judgmental silence and hostile postures. Well? What do you…
Have you ever seen three people suddenly grab a table and look as if they are about to jump under it? That was me and two friends last Monday in Starbucks. Last Monday was weird; just weird. There were fifty earthquakes in the city where I live. Not in the state, not in country, not…
Movies and TV have led us astray with respect to drowning. People who are actually drowning are not thrashing and crying for help. In reality, drowning is unnoticed by observers. The person cannot stay at the surface of the water long enough to cry for help. The head bobs on the surface of the water,…
Look at the photo. I am inverted. I am focused, you can see the strain. If I lose balance, I not only fall out of the pose, I will also fall off the kitchen counter. Do not try to help. I have an awareness of my body and balance in space. My stability in this…
Gee, I don’t have time for this. A coworker invited me to do a Hack A Hair Dryer Challenge. One of those challenges to redesign a hair dryer to do something other than dry hair as a part of an effort to get women interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – STEM. Please, I…
I hate being wrong and if I’m wrong, I want you to know the reason, like I didn’t do anything maliciously and I’m not stupid. Mistakes happen. I flew from San Francisco to Daytona Beach and paid an additional $89 for premium seating extra legroom, bulkhead. The last time I flew this airline, I was…
My hot topic of the week, I look like an engineer. It’s the media reaction to a recruitment ad for OneLogin featuring a female engineer that resulted in comments that the photo of a woman engineer, who is an actual engineer did not “look like an engineer.” A social media response ensured with #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Yes,…
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” is an oft used expression. My blog and companion Instagram are just over a year old. The blog has 80 followers and typically gets 25 -30 views per weekly post. My Instagram account has 532 followers and in the last month it trends towards 80-100 views per daily…
A few weeks ago, I had this discussion with a friend. I said “…and stop saying we’re both saying the same thing.” The response was, “I’m just trying to show common ground.” I shot back, “No when you say that, it’s you trying to prove your point putting my statement into your frame of reference.…
The trained eye can spot the fake Rolex or Louis Vuitton knockoff. The same is true in business; the phony insincere suck up is easy to spot, so knock it off. What can you do not be labeled as the fake, the phony, the poser? This part is like cleaning out your closet of fashion…
“When was the last time you heard a busy signal when you made a phone call?” I am on a short vacation, but, I wanted to give you something to think about. Please discuss.
There are books and discussion all about how to succeed in the workplace. Flexibility and doing extraordinary things can be amazing for a career. This is a different approach. Before you can become the most awesome employee ever, you need to make sure you don’t unexpectedly find yourself in the precarious situation of being dismissed,…
“The plumber is delayed again. I am tired of switching out these towels everyday to get all the water off the floor around the toilet.” “Turn the water off.” “What?” “There is a handle behind the commode to turn the water off.” “There is?” “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” “I didn’t think of…
I present to you the adult temper tantrum. Angry Person on the phone: “I spent 20 hours doing this revalidation and then I couldn’t submit because I was revoked.” Pause… “The note said I would I was due to expire on April 30 and I could not submit on the 30th.” Pause… “ This is the dumbest…
“Weren’t you afraid to do this photo?” “No. I safety pinned my shirt to my pants to avoid accidental exposure.” “That’s not what I meant – you are in the middle of a sidewalk doing a wide arm headstand. I don’t even know where to start, you could have fallen, your bare hands are on…
Lurking in the shadows of the sustainable energy efficient lightening of corporate offices are vampires. I am not kidding. This is not a Halloween fluff piece. This is the alarming truth about an epidemic in the workplace. The savvy office worker knows it is essential to show value, be it sales, numbers, creativity, etc. Then,…
“…what leads you to believe you are are so important to this organization you can do anything you want. Sure, we all say you are the one to watch. That’s because you are the personification of incompetence and a real time version of what not to do.” TV, more specifically the half hour comedy, has…
Reality TV illustrates a powerful sense of self and confidence. I watch American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance in amazement and puzzlement. Contestants who felt they had exceptional ability are yet stunned when turned away from the show. Did these people have no one to tell them of the disparity between their…
Abandon the concept of a resume. Yup throw it out. When I graduated from the University of Tennessee, I had one of those carefully constructed mechanical engineering resumes I used for all my interviews including Proctor & Gamble (adult diaper manufacturing), Newport News Shipbuilding (HVAC on ships) and IBM (banking). Three very different companies. Three…
Ain’t nobody got time for that! The average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to 5 minutes in the last decade. There are more mobile devices than people on the planet. Communication has become a competition. We have a lot of things vying for our shortened attention span. You need to make a point…
There are those who balance their bank accounts and those who don’t. As someone who does, I had a recent encounter with someone who doesn’t. I could provide no rational as to why this was a necessary activity since in my decades of doing this, the bank has never been wrong. It was a rather…
Look at the photo. I am inverted. I am focused, you can see the strain. If I lose balance, I not only fall out of the pose, I will also fall off the kitchen counter. Do not try to help. I have an awareness of my body and balance in space. My stability in this…
Movies and TV have led us astray with respect to drowning. People who are actually drowning are not thrashing and crying for help. In reality, drowning is unnoticed by observers. The person cannot stay at the surface of the water long enough to cry for help. The head bobs on the surface of the water,…
You’re out. The role of the referee is to make a call on plays and to throw those out of the game who aren’t playing fair. That’s power. Imagine for a moment if we had business referees. Strike one. You just repeated an idea that was said 5 minutes ago by someone else and are…
Quick quiz: Are you typically a direct or sideways communicator? OK, I suppose this requires a little bit of a definition. I am trying to break the habit of communicating by suggestion. It’s the style where I tell people something and expect them to take what I think is the next logical step. I want…
I learned about Humpty Dumpty as a child. Humpty Dumpty was apparently an egg, who fell off the wall into a state of extreme disrepair, and neither the King’s men nor the King’s horses could put Humpty back together again. Several things about this confused me, for instance, how an egg got on top of…
We were nearing the end of a five-hour photo session. Niall, the photographer, asked if I wanted any other photos. I looked at Bo and said, “Go monkey,” and then covered my mouth. Without saying a word, he covered his eyes. Leslie, in total confusion said, “Huh? What are you two doing?” “The monkeys1. Cover…
