March 17, 2016

Beliefs Keep Your Emotional Baggage Packed

Ever wonder what’s in that bag? By now the term emotional baggage is familiar – but what do we think is in the bag? Surely it’s packed with old hurts, resentments and fears, but unless we go in there and pay some attention to those unwanted feelings – the bag stays full. If we’re not the type that likes or […]
March 14, 2016

Why Do We Continue to Think Self-Compassion is Self-Indulgent?

Writing in The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope wrote in (Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Suggests) “Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family? That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research called self-compassion – how kindly people view themselves.  The research suggests that giving […]
October 11, 2015

There is Nothing Soft about "Soft Skills"

Ever since I began to work in the business world, the term “soft skills” always felt off to me. The more I come to appreciate the complexity of human dynamics, the more off it feels. In my experience, there is nothing soft or easy about mastering people skills. In fact, when I look around, especially in the workplace, clear and effective […]
June 11, 2015

How Emotions Shape Decision Making

Since this piece was first published, it’s been in the top 5 of viewed articles every day. Clearly – the head vs. heart conflict is very much alive.  There is little disagreement that effective decision-making is one of the most important tasks we have in every part of life. If we were to take a survey in the average workplace […]
February 3, 2015

Leadership and Emotional Contagion

“Employees are not emotional islands. Rather, they continuously spread their own moods and receive and are influenced by others’ moods. When they work in groups, they literally can catch each others’ emotions like viruses, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion.” Wharton @ Work, University of Pennsylvania In the past decade, there has been an important finding in neuroscience that should […]
January 13, 2015

Are You Listening? The Essentials of Real Listening

“Some lucky people seem to have a magic touch when it comes to getting people to buy into their plans, goals and desires. But, in reality, reaching people isn’t magic. It’s an art…and a science.  And it’s easier than you think.”   Mark Goulston, author, Just Listen Yes, we all know that listening is important. It is considered, by broad […]
November 1, 2014

Why Worry? ~ the Emotion Series

Worry is a trap. Lately, I’ve been falling into the worry trap too often. I’ve found myself worrying about many things. I worry about ________________. I worry about the ______________. I worry when _________________. I worry about – OK, that’s enough because mental rehearsal is the engine that powers worry. Despite many years of dedicated effort to raise my level of […]
March 11, 2014

The Starting Point for Empathy is You

In a series of articles,  we’ve explored some reasons to consciously act on developing our empathic skills.  We cannot expect to extend our empathy to others in the fullest sense unless we are capable of giving it to ourselves first. The reality is that we are often as hard on ourselves as we are on others.  We’ve often joked that if we sat […]
February 25, 2014

Becoming More Empathetic – (Bringing Down Some of the Barriers)

Most scientists agree that we are born to cooperate with others.  In other words, we are born to be more “WE”  than “ME.”  Sometimes we wonder. The mounting research continues to paint a much rosier and more positive picture at least for the potential of a kinder, gentler workplace, society and planet. According to Dr. Thomas Tomasello, author of “Why […]