Seated at the table next to me at a fast food restaurant, I couldn't help hearing the lack of conversation between a young woman and a younger ...

When young children misbehave, parents, teachers, and caregivers frequently insist on a time-out. Think how much better your workplace would be if ...

I once worked for a boss who was never wrong, never made a mistake or a bad decision. All you had to do was ask him. To his staff he was Teflon-man. ...

The man in front of me in the breakfast order line at the food court, in one of the busiest airports in the country, wanted a "full" cup of coffee. ...

During The Great Recession, thanks to frequent-flyer points and a vacation club exchange, we spent a week in Hawaii for the cost of a rental car and ...

In the late 17th-century, Lord Chesterfield, an English writer and politician, wrote to his son, "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing ...

Against. Against. Against. It seems that's the political model of late. What one party is for, the other is against. Even before an idea makes it to ...

In the early days of a start-up company I once worked for, a plump turkey was a small thank you token given to employees around the holidays. The ...

A common pastime at work, it seems, is pointing out flaws, missteps, and problems -- especially the boss's, a coworker's down the hall, or that ...

"Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running." Those words from ...

Instead of an early start, with time to read the news, check key messages, and write uninterruptedly for a pending project, I spent it down a rabbit ...

A three hour delayed connecting flight in Minneapolis created headaches for me and other business travelers seeking to still reach their destinations ...

I once had a boss who informed me there was no such thing as company politics. At the time, I decided that depended on whether you were the person ...

Once upon a time, a prince and princess lived in stressful palace, surrounded by a stressful village, inside a stressful land. They knew it was ...

It was a dimly lit restaurant. Still she was dressed in pink, and while I admit it's hard to tell the gender of babies, clothing color is a ...

I still have the email. It's been years since a highly placed corporate boss, who had the reputation and approach that things were never quite good ...

"He who cannot dance will say: the drum is bad." Too many people I've encountered use a philosophy akin to this African proverb to navigate ...

It was his perception that caused the outburst. "Why aren't there any managers in these sessions? Why aren't they required to attend, too?" ...

There's a line in the movie Gracie that I love. Gracie is a teenager in the 70s who is competing for a spot on the boy's high school varsity ...

The subject line of the email read: "We met at ..." and the name of a conference where I'd recently spoken. Thinking it was from someone who attended ...

One of my work favorites is crossing items off my to-do list. At the end of the day, it feels great to know you've made progress, resolved a problem, ...

Unfamiliar with the city and location where I was to speak, I added the address to the GPS before leaving home. Arriving in the conference city hours ...

Based on dozens of articles that arrived in my inbox in a single week, one might think that the majority of people work in difficult work-cultures ...

They're only words. Some believe the school-yard taunt: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." They're wrong. Words can ...

"I don't know," a young acquaintance mused. "I'm thinking about grad school, but it's more work than I thought to prepare for the GREs. Then, if I do ...

Maybe you read on Facebook that Dollar General Stores were celebrating their anniversary by giving out $150 shopping coupons to those who liked and ...

After the completion of Walt Disney World, the story goes that someone went up to Mike Vance, Creative Director for Walt Disney Studios and said, ...

Twelve minutes before I was to speak to a large group in a hotel ballroom, I was struggling with A/V equipment. With hundreds of presentations under ...

When faced with catching a fly ball, Lucy missed again. "The past got in my eyes," she told Charlie Brown, "I thought I had it, but suddenly I ...

Reading in the airport while waiting for a flight, a housekeeper was tidying around me when approached by another facilities employee. After a few ...

Once there was a young woman who didn't like her job. Everyday when she came home from work, she told her husband how terrible her day had been, how ...

On our first morning of vacation, we were pleased to find open tables when we arrived for breakfast at a popular and highly recommended cafe. With ...

Myths. Beliefs. Conventional wisdom. Even our own eyes get in our way. Consider what happened to Galileo. In 1589, he gathered the world's most ...

I hesitated before I answered the question. It was just a slight hesitation, but the question took me by surprise. Someone asked me how could they ...

A recent study found that nearly half of us will make New Year's resolutions in 2015, but only eight percent of us will reach the goals or keep the ...

I like teaching workshops. On one hand, I'm humbled by the knowledge, insights, and challenges of those attending. I'm invigorated by the persistence ...