It’s an old joke from Borscht Belt comedians. A man comes to the rabbi and asks, “Rabbi, is it true that a man and a woman dancing together is forbidden?” The rabbi responds rather vehemently, “Yes, of course. It is forbidden for a man and a woman to dance together.” The man goes on to…
Today, I spoke with a client who had attended my Performance Management workshop last week. The seminar asks participants to describe the attributes, behaviours, and characteristics of a “team at its best” and then proceeds to derive the ways in which that team can be created using new approaches to acknowledgement, dealing with problems, reviewing…
I’m involved in an interesting project in my practice that involves analyzing interviews with an organization’s leadership team. The purpose is to inform the thinking for a possible market repositioning exercise for one of the client’s main brands. There are several consultant groups involved (along with the obligatory, complicated political wrangling), as well as many…
When I work with a client in my coaching practice, my primary tool is Deep Listening. You might think this is self-evident: if you’re a coach or working in any other therapeutic profession where meaningful conversation is the foundation of the practice, the ability to listen deeply is pretty much all you have. Similarly, a…
Marina had to be in Vancouver last week for work, so we decided to make a family trip of it, and have the long weekend on the west coast. As luck would have it, there were two family events happening over the weekend, so we were able to participate with the extended family who live…
This being the week after Mother’s Day, almost everyone is coming down from the sometimes-obligatory, sometimes-authentic, sometimes-happy, sometimes-weepy commemoration and honouring of mothers. For many, it can be a day of very mixed feelings depending on one’s relationship with the various mothers in one’s life, and certainly a day of remembrance for those whose mothers…
I’m off for a quick trip to Montreal to do a one-day facilitation on Individual Contributor Leadership. The idea of the session is, what can individuals in an organization learn from leadership principles that will enhance their ability to productively contribute to their organization’s success? I’m working with people who do not have a legitimated…
I’m beginning a small research project on wellness. It seems that you can’t get very far into the wellness literature without someone challenging motivation, and motivation in this domain of knowledge inevitably (it seems) confronts you with two key ideas: Hedonic and Eudaimonic motives for the things we do. The idea of hedonic motives…
“Whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world.” ~Sanhedrin, 37a The shocking tragedy that happened this week in Toronto shattered a fundamental trust that many of us had in this city. Yes, we know that mass killings happen in urban areas. We also knew that, up until this week, that…
So how do you like Spring 2018 so far? It seems that this year, April “showers” bring snowplowers (except for the main streets, the side streets, and the sidewalks of the neighbourhoods where I’ve been). Yes, the dismal weather has been pretty disheartening. Here we were making great progress towards warmer weather, with visions of…