Solutions For Good

The Star of David came off the wall Saturday evening to be replaced with a cross for Sunday services. The beauty of growing up in Columbia, MD, among many things, was that we had interfaith centers- no churches, synagogues, mosques.  We had to share space and work amongst each other. That brought about a unique experience of sharing and inclusiveness in the community.  Using this lens to think about the holiday season in the workplace is interesting. How can we be successfully inclusive and have everyone enjoy the experience? The commitment to inclusion and respect for varying religions, all the time and in December particularly, where Christmas is a large focus for many, matters in the workplace. The decorations, parties, gift giving, is all relevant. Ultimately, it is feasible to handle this in a respectful and fun fashion, but it takes some thought and possibly effort different than the usual. Below are suggestions from a few articles and ideas that worked well i...

 “All we did is pick weeds in a field.” Heart sinking, I listened. A client called after serving as volunteers for a project that I had arranged and said this. Wait, that cannot be right! I did a site visit with the organization, one of the biggest and best run nonprofits in town-- they showed me the project and it was good -- developing an educational area in their environmental program for school kids. You all said you wanted an environmental and youth-focused project. This was volunteer day, match-made-in-heaven perfection! So, what happened??  The upshot was the volunteers were not shown their return on investment (ROI). They are there to make a social impact (investment) and need to know how the task of today relates to the mission (return).  Sadly, in my story, the volunteers didn’t get the purpose or the connection to the mission and felt like it was a waste of their time. The organization and I had missed effectively laying the g...

Circa 5th grade, at a sleepover at my house with about 5 girls, a friend snuck in my bedroom, found my journal and read it. Then she told another girl at the sleepover about it. I found out because the friend who was told, was so appalled at the invasion of privacy, that she thought I should know.  Morals form young! That is one of my first memories of journal writing --many life lessons there, no doubt.  I never stopped writing but I did start to hide my journal better and choose my friends more carefully.  😏 Life lesson aside, writing in the journal is not just for personal use.  For work, it can be used to let go of worries or jot down wild ideas, or to write a pros and cons list help make an important decision. It can serve as a way to organize thoughts and ideas that may otherwise just play ping-pong in your brain.  It can also be a way t o process serious business decisions and think through great ideas for a business or organization’s f u...

Are you feeling refreshed? New Years resolutions still in-hand?  Excellent!  Happy New Year! While you are in the mode of self-improvement and being goal-oriented, I want to share a few tips that may help you in your work with your team.  This past summer I taught a class about motivating leadership  for the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Institute for Organization Management.  From this class is a list of practical ways to build your leadership on a day-to day-basis. Below are some of my favorite, very practical tips, that you can use. Just creating the list gave me the ideas and reminders that I needed as well.  See what you think!  Practical Ways to Build Your Leadership Style and Motivate Your Team Be authentic Get feedback on your leadership Continue learning Be honest and trustworthy Be transparent and consistent Don’t take it all too seriously; have a sense of humor Be confident and courageous Your arri...