Thinking Out Loud

Association for Consulting Expertise

On Friday, December 19th, I’ll be attending the monthly meeting of the Association for Consulting expertise, where I am a member.  It’s a terrific organization of seasoned consultants who value collaboration.  Sharing information, bringing in the best qualified people, and creating value are the hallmarks of ACE.

I’ll be conducting a Roundtable program (click here) after the meeting to acquaint members with the a communication tool I use regularly when teaching and coaching leaders. It’s a very versatile tool, helpful when planning communication strategies and diagnosing communication breakdowns.

To learn more about this communication tool, visit a Fast Company article I wrote in May (click here) or the Maine Banker (click here).

Relationship Building In The Workplace

The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce is an organization with a lot of vitality, creativity and vision. Now they are offering Tech Tuesdays throughout the winter months to bring folks together for new learning experiences.  I’ll be leading a few of the programs.  The first will be on December 5th: Building and Maintaining Business Relationships. Businesses tend to focus on the relationship with their customer/clients, and not devote enough resources to employee relationships.  Of course, they are both important. To find out more about the workshop, click here.

Maine Bankers Association Emerging Leaders Conference

On Thursday, November 20th, I’ll be at the Samoset Resort presenting a workshop at the Maine Bankers Association Emerging Leaders Conference.  The focus is on Building & Maintaining Client/Customer Relationships, using the communication tool that my son, Noah, and I developed, which was highlighted in an article in Fast Company (click here), May 23rd of this year.  It’s a very versatile tool and can be applied in numerous ways in the workplace.  In addition, it can be applied in your personal life, especially with regard to parenting.

Are You Happy?

I remember reading about self-actualization back in the 1960s when I was first aware that I needed to understand more about people and life—meaning me and how I was in the world!  Abraham Maslow, among others, wrote about self-actualization and the hierarchy of human needs. He outlined an adult developmental process, what was important at each stage, and what we are striving for in our self-development.

We all struggle to understand what our lives are about and what we should be striving for as we question our own happiness. Frequently, there is a new article in the popular media describing a new study about happiness: who is happy, when are they happiest, to what degree, and why? Much serious research is done on this topic, which gets linked to other concepts like resilience. The Positive Psychology movement is studying people who are doing well, whereas most psychological research is and has been focused on those not doing so well.  Read More