*Photo by Kev Bation on Unsplash

I was at a conference a few years back and was getting ready to give a presentation. 

I was in the bathroom, calming my nerves and making sure I didn't have left-over lunch in my teeth. 

Photo by Khadeeja Yasser on Unsplash

Today is Valentine's Day, and you'll probably see a lot of social media posts about love and connection. Ah, roses and rainbows!!!

But today, I want to talk about conflict, pain and suffering....

When I was in my first year of college I had a paper to write. I’ll never forget it. 

I had waited until just one day before it was due to get started. 

Back in high school the papers didn’t feel challenging, so I figured I...

 Which of the 4 graphs above best represents your team trajectory? 

• Is it A? Holding steady- not improving but not declining 
• Is it B? Sometimes up, sometimes down… but rather unpredictable 
• Is it C? Let’s be...

Seems like there's never a "good time" to go on vacation, right? 

The end of the year is full of holidays, and the summer is full of tourists. 

The spring might be your "busy season" and the fall can have unpredictable...

(The photo above was taken from a video clip... A screenshot of the end of a race. Please forgive the poor quality! My son is the one in blue.)

It was a windy Saturday at the league track meet. The bleachers were buzzing with parental pride...

The other day was a tough one. I was grumpy, overwhelmed, and generally negative.

• When exercising, I was down about the fact that I couldn’t run farther or faster.
• When I finished a project, I got instantly stressed out about the NEXT...

I was a poor performer. 

Yep, it’s true. 

I cringe at how difficult I must have been to manage when I was a “young professional.” (I use the word professional loosely.)

The gruesome...

It's Monday.

I'm relaxed and at ease– excited for the week ahead and ready to roll!

It's not always like this.

Most Mondays I feel overwhelmed and a little sick to my stomach about how I am going to accomplish all that needs to be done....

For years, my clients have asked me to teach courses to their leaders about how to give feedback. 

They want to know how to deliver the bad news, and how to talk about disappointing performance, and how to address the most personal of topics...