Why We Need More Baby Talk Today

April 12th, 2011

babiesHave you seen the darling video of the twins standing in front of the refrigerator talking 2-year old gibberish? Nobody understands a word they’re saying (we’re sure they do), but we sit there and listen to the entire conversation and laugh hysterically ourselves. Or, the video of the baby who cackles uncontrollably as his father tears up the rejection letter?

Why do videos like these get millions of views? What does this say about us today? It feels good to watch babies laughing. It makes us laugh. It touches our heart. It speaks to something that is missing in many of our lives today.

We live in our heads WAY too much and have become isolated from others. We are on our computers, iPhones, and other digital devices 24/7. We’ve replaced talking to each other with texting. What we really long for is a human connection, not an electronic substitute. We want to be lighter and easier in our lives, but many of us have forgotten how. Read more »

Four Leadership Lessons I Learned from a Colonoscopy

April 8th, 2011

doctor holding clipboardYou may find it hard to make the connection between any medical procedure and leadership, let alone a colonoscopy! I know I would have never put the two together until my recent experience.

I heard most of my life how awful a colonoscopy could be.  The prep is difficult, the drink you have to take is horrendous, and…it’s a colonoscopy! Guess what? I found it wasn’t so bad after all.  Was it the most fun experience I’ve ever had? No. Was the drink I had to drink delicious? Of course not…but it wasn’t that bad either.

The day before you can only have fluids to ‘clear your system’.  I actually enjoyed drinking the fluids and enjoyed the broth I ate.  I felt energized rather than depleted by the process.

When I arrived for the procedure – the process was seamless. I was seen within 15 minutes of arrival and greeted by the staff who were organized, pleasant and competent. The drugs were as wonderful as I had heard and I awakened in a totally alert state with no grogginess at all.

My husband played taxi cab driver for me and stayed with me all day to ‘be sure I was ok’, A friend called in the afternoon to check on me to see how it went.

As I went through this experience I found some parallel’s to effective leadership today.  Call me weird, but here are the four leadership lessons I learned from a colonoscopy: Read more »