Resilient Wednesday Weekly Memo

What an amazing country we live in. Just last week our nation’s ability to address the worst of us and the best of us came to the forefront. We were tested and passed with flying colors of red, white and blue. The horrific shootings in Charleston were punctuated not with violence and protests, but with […]

A recent article by Christine Porath in the New York Times discussed civility in the workplace. That’s right…being nice to one another. Her article pointed out that the bad behaviors we share with each other and from managers contribute to everything from increased health problems to decreased workplace productivity to loss of customers (think about

In a recent team development meeting I was facilitating, one of the staff members told me that he was expecting some negative comments from his boss that he did not feel he deserved. He asked me how I thought he should handle it? I asked him what he liked about his boss and he told

The Rockefeller Foundation provided grants for 100 cities around the world to address resilience in their community. My home town, Pittsburgh was recently named one of those cities. For the Foundation their grants are intended to help these communities understand and develop resilience plans that develop both prevention and response strategies for potential natural and

We may hear “no” many times. It may be in response to a request for a salary increase or in a negotiation on a contract critical to your business. Our teenage children will certainly say no and sometimes in the face of a health crisis, the doctor’s response may suggest that there is nothing that

Engaged individuals, whether at work or play use discretionary energy to achieve success. They try harder. Research done by the Gallup organization shows that only about 30% of all employees are engaged in their work and even more surprising only 35% of their managers are fully into their jobs. A metric to improve engagement is

I had a golf match this past week and going into the 18th hole we were all tied. I missed my putt for par that would have given me a win and instead of taking my time to line up my little 3 footer, I proceeded to putt away and missed, and with it my

What great things have you already gotten done this week and how are you acknowledging your victories? Most of us fall back on our modesty and humility and don’t want to be seen as being braggadocios and tooting your own horn. Building confidence in our ability to get things done and persevere through the tough

I had the pleasure the other day to talk with a newly retired Air Force Colonel who had spent 25 years in the military and had flown missions all around the world. He was most excited, however, about his transition to civilian life and his new job with a large family owned company where he

We’ve just come back from Tucson, AZ where we spent a fantastic week with family celebrating the wedding of my niece Caity and her new husband Andrew. I’ve been to the Sonoran Desert many times and if there is one place that represents the importance of resilience, it must be that unforgiving desert. I’ve always