Just Because I Can (tell too many stories)
It was 2006 and I was sitting in the back of a large conference room at a military installation on the West Coast when I was 99% certain that I would have smack my head against the wall just to keep awake. It seems our Program Manager, an active duty Navy Captain, had decided to tell yet another story during our weekly “all hands” meeting. The problem? While he may have been a good...
The Introverted Manager’s Dilemma
Last year I was coaching a mid-level manager named “Ted” who admitted he was having trouble “making small talk” with his team. Some of them even said he was “unapproachable” in an anonymous employee survey. So, when I asked him about it Ted came clean, “I come in Monday mornings and head directly for my office. I’m not comfortable asking people how their weekends went, or talking about the big...
Disrespecting My Roots
About ten years ago, while I was on the road leading corporate diversity and inclusion training with my team of professional actors, I made a disrespectful comment in public about actors being all about emotions and not have much business sense. One member of my team, Andy Fox – one of the finest actors I’ve ever had the privilege to work with – had the courage to take me to task about...