I’ve been writing these essays for nine months now and, over that time, my audience has slowly and steadily built.  I emphasize slowly.  It is not without pangs of jealousy and waves of self-doubt that I have extended my sincere congratulations to Millennial friends who, after a few blogs posts were picked up by the Huffington Post, parlayed that into a million+ followers and from there signed a book deal.  I am happy for them.  I am. People who love me and wish me well have suggested kindly and in a truly helpful manner that I should include a list in my essays, a way to turn my thoughts into easy action for my readers.  Just as kindly I have thanked…

I’ve been writing for the past few months about the need for leaders and aspiring leaders to look inward and develop a self-understanding of our own strengths, weakness and the psychological places where we are stuck.  Until we do so I don’t believe we can utilize the full potential of our own agency in our organizations or in the world.  For me this is a core value.  I have power, I make decisions and those decisions have consequences. This appreciation and the concomitant humility that accompanies it came from a life-shaping experience that happened when I was in the sixth grade. The Christmas holidays were approaching. (And in my town we did call it the Christmas holidays). I was a good…

I have just returned home from my first trip to Greece, during which I was mesmerized by tours of the ancient sites on the Acropolis and in Olympia, finding it fascinating to imagine life there 2500 years ago. It was history made real for me. That’s why we travel, right? It’s about learning something new, having our minds widened and our experiences grow. One of the things I learned on this trip was the etymology of the word “enthusiasm.” It comes from ancient Greek and derives from en (“in”) + theos (“god”) and means possessed by the spirit of the gods. This meaning evolved into the relatively negative connotation of over the top religious fervor until the 1700’s. Of course now…