“What about the Evil People?”
Sometimes, when we talk about empathy, we hear: “empathizing is fine and dandy with good-hearted people, but what about the people who are really evil? What should we do with them?” Important question. To answer it, I want to share a story – parable really – from...
What Does Empathy Cost?
Dear CEO of a Large Organization, We know you worry about cost. It’s your job and something you instill in everyone throughout your organization. It’s good and right that you do, because you can’t be financially sustainable otherwise. So, when we talk about...
Dear CEO – Here’s the New Way to Work (aka how to get your mojo back)
Dear CEO of a Large Organization, You were raised to believe that cash is king, top-grading is leadership development, and workaholism is something to be exploited. Your business school competed you against your peers, which was vital practice for the years to come...
Let’s Complete the Revolution
We hear you. We do not mean to devalue the work of early feminists. It's like oxygen on an airplane. Early feminists had to put the mask on themselves first. No choice. I'd be suffocating now, if they didn't. I can no more not work than not breathe. What we are...
My Son is Sick Today
My husband headed out of town this morning. I have important meetings and work to do. I have no backup childcare in place. You've been here, right? I bet your cortisol shot up just reading the title. What to do? Plan A: work through it. He's probably old enough (9)...
Let’s Admit It: We Left the Baby Behind
“Successful parenting is a principal key to the mental health of the next generation…In most societies throughout the world these facts have been and still are taken for granted and the societies organized accordingly. Paradoxically, it has taken the world’s richest...
Are You Worth It?
Should CEOs who lead high performing organizations be disproportionately compensated for their experience, the value they deliver, the many people whose lives they steward, and the burden of going to sleep every night knowing the buck stops with them? Absolutely....
Make Like a Duck and Lead
Mother ducks are better leaders than many Fortune 500 CEOs. Chicks will risk life and limb following her across the busy streets of Boston. Would you do that for you boss? How about AFTER he/she steps out of the corner office? Do your leaders have a place in your...
Harvard Business School and Gender Equity
It is good that HBS acknowledges it has a problem developing women – students and faculty alike. It is also good that they take this issue seriously, as well as their stewardship responsibility. HBS is a springboard to the C-suite and Board Rooms which control so much...
Choose Abundance Over Fear, Mutuality Over Independence – At Home and Work
Fear-based motivation is powerful. It focuses our brains and readies us for battle. It hones us in on priorities for self-preservation. It’s all around us and is exhausting. This is why Judith Warner’s feature article, “Ready to Rejoin the Rat Race?”, in the New York...
College is not about Hooking up or the M.R.S. Degree
It's hard to read the news this weekend. Today's NY Times story about the rise of a hookup culture in college http://nyti.ms/1aBZakL makes me sad for them and mad at us. Several accomplished and talented young interviewees detail daily lives that are "too busy for...
Work/Family Balance is So Yesterday
It's Saturday morning - a good time to review and connect in cyberspace on issues that matter. The problem is that some of these debates further entrench us, rather than propel us to better solutions. Work/family balance is one of those, and I'm increasingly...
