I Like the Way You Part Your Hair

I Like the Way You Part Your Hair

When my son was in the second grade, I volunteered in his class. It was a classroom with eight very gifted, yet very challenging, young boys. One particular afternoon, one of the little boys in the class was particularly cranky and angry. I asked the teacher,...
Here’s the Rub

Here’s the Rub

  It was winter break, and my son Jeffrey was ten years old. I was curled up on the couch with my computer and I let him in on a little secret: I was buying his dad, Bill, a massage table for his birthday in February. It was something Bill had coveted since we...
Want to be heard?  Stop Talking.

Want to be heard? Stop Talking.

You probably don’t believe that silence is one of my favorite tools. Certainly when I taught a presentation skills class to Johns Hopkins graduate students, they did not expect me to talk about silence! But I did. And at the end of the week, their final...
Rule Rethink

Rule Rethink

Is it time to reassess your office rules? When I was in my twenties I went to visit my girlfriend Anne at her parents’ home on the Kilmarnock River. Once there, I found myself helping with their spring cleaning ritual, and a ritual it was! It included setting up...
The Bat on the Table

The Bat on the Table

Sometimes, or is it all the time, we get so wrapped up in our own little world that we fail to grasp what’s going on around us. A few years ago, I rushed home after work to pick up my son for a chiropractic appointment. “Jeffrey, get in the car!” I bellowed. Since I...
Your Mouth is Where the Money Is

Your Mouth is Where the Money Is

There was a time when the answer to the question “What do you do?” was easy to answer: “I work on an assembly line.”  “I install windows.”  “I make boots.” You did something tangible, and you got paid for it. There was a...