Business or pleasure?

“Business or pleasure” the Immigration Officer at the airport asked me. “Well, I really don’t know” I responded, as I pondered what to choose when your work is your pleasure. How interesting that a view of work as non-pleasure should be so pervasive that it makes it’s way on every Immigration form of every country, […]

Are you indispensable?

Have you ever got the feeling that someone believes they are indispensable? Have you ever heard people say things like: I am the only one who can do this job Without me, this project/team/organization would fail So and so cannot live without me Everything depends on my being there “It” (event, project, job) can’t start […]

From Gratitude to Grace

Every morning I write 10 things I am grateful for in my journal. Every morning. It’s easy enough when some exciting things have happened in my life. Then the gratitude flows sometimes past my magical number 10! But at other times I get stuck. I am at number 6 and have run out of things […]

Why can’t a woman be more like a man?

The March 18 issue of that Canadian weekly, MacLean’s, exhorts women to “Man Up! Stop blaming the glass ceiling or even the kids. Female execs say its women who count themselves out”. (click HERE to read the article) – And all I can hear, ringing in my ears, is Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins […]

4 Steps to making your expectations clear

4 Steps to making your expectations clear: I recently spent 10 days in warm, sunny Jamaica. Except that on the last 2 days, a cold front moved in. And I was cold. What was the temperature? About 21°C! On arriving in Toronto to -2°C temperatures, replete with snow and ice, I realized that I didn’t […]

5 ways to make sure the right people and ideas get to you!

  Every leader has gatekeepers – people who limit and control access. This is most understandable, as the leader cannot possibly respond to every request personally. Who are these gatekeepers (or “handlers” as I now hear as the new, sexy title)? They are the assistants, deputies, receptionists, security, electronic filters on recruitment sites – may […]

Life is about knowing which button to press

Three mornings last week I noticed that I woke up way after my alarm had gone off. I figured that maybe I was just so tired that I slept through it. Could I really be that tired though? Or age was really catching up with me and my hearing going? But then I noticed that […]

How to turn “time wasted” into time well-spent

“That was a total waste of my time” I muttered to myself. I had just completed a meeting with a large multinational here in Toronto to “pitch” my Executive Coaching services. The meeting had not gone as I had intended. It got more and more painful as the minutes laboured on. I was not connecting […]

Crisis and the Olympics

Over the past 3 weeks, like millions of people the world over, I have been glued to the Olympics.  Unlike my sister, who took vacation so she could totally devote herself to the daily display of grit and glory, I had to work. Or I chose to.   I chose to work because I have […]

Manners – the foundation for great leadership?

“Good morning” “Please” “Thank you”   How often to do you say these words at work (indeed in your entire life – but that is the subject of another blog)?  And how genuine are you?    When you ask a team member “How are you today” – do you REALLY want to know? Have you ever […]

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