• Work

    What’s Your Reset Button?

    A few weeks ago I was walking the aisles of our customer service contact center where I work in customer service development. It’s a daily practice I have that helps me check in with people and keep a pulse on how things are going. “How are you doing?” or “What’s on your mind?” I’ll often ask our frontline team members who are in-between calls or live chats. Quick yet meaningful conversations ensue. Sometimes ideas for new training modules get sparked as I hear pain points and areas of frustration that inhibit performance. Sometimes I hear about difficult personal or family challenges they’re navigating. Other times the conversation is lite. Banter…

  • Faith

    The Faith to Doubt

    I still remember the panic welling up from somewhere deep inside me. I had lingered in the classroom after all the other students had left in hopes of getting some answers from my professor. No, “answers” is the wrong word. What I wanted was something more like assurance or even certainty. I wanted to be told that all the questions reverberating in my mind about the early chapters of the Bible and the comparative Ancient Near Eastern stories we had been studying were nothing to worry about. I had been raised to believe that the Bible was God’s inspired Word, after all. These other stories were fictional myths. My professor,…

  • Life,  Work

    Reinventing Yourself

    When I was an 18-year-old college freshman back in the fall of 1996 I remember the admissions counselors telling our incoming class something that seemed extraordinary. You’ll likely change careers at least five times in your life, regardless of your major, they said. Not jobs. Which I think any reasonable person anticipates changing at least a few times. But careers. Like one day you’re a teacher in the humanities, say, and then suddenly you work as a corporate executive at a Fortune 500 company. Not exactly an obvious career pathway. And here I had thought the whole point of me going to college was so I could get the requisite…

  • Work

    Discovering and Doing More Great Work

    So I’m reading Michael Bungay Stanier’s 2010 book Do More Great Work. I know. I know. I’m behind the times. But this is totally indicative of the circuitous journey that’s been my personal and professional life. (More on that in other posts). I also tend to do things backasswards. For example, I came to this book after reading Stanier’s 2016 book The Coaching Habit a couple of weeks ago. I liked the latter so much I decided to check out the former. Both are excellent. Do More Great Work is essentially a self-coaching tool. A combination of business book and workbook, Stanier has delivered an informative and engaging resource for anyone desiring to do more…