One of my favorite expressions is original in Yiddish – it translates roughly into English as, “With one ass, you can’t dance at two weddings.” Someone told me that a long time ago after I was describing all the things I was trying to accomplish in life. They recognized from what I said that it […]
Stress, stress mangement, stress relief, tips
When I worked in the publishing business, I shared office space with my friend Rich. Every morning, Rich would come in to the office, grab a sheet of paper from the printer, ball it up and shoot it towards a round wastebasket that we had in the office. If the ball went in, he’d say, […]
bad day, good day, power, situation
The excellent book The Chosen by Chaim Potok was turned into a pretty good movie by the same name. It is about an Orthodox father and son who are at odds and involved in an intractable conflict. I don’t want to spoil the movie or the book for you, but there’s a story that’s told […]
broken, fix, relationship, Relationships
Although the Pandemic has separated many employees from one another and from their supervisors/leaders, the need for effective and timely feedback is more important now than ever. With feedback, as with comedy, timing is everything. When you’re giving constructive feedback (including positive feedback, although I’m focusing on constructive criticism below), try to give that feedback […]
Critical feedback, Criticism, Feedback
One of my favorite jokes is about a rabbi who has never been to a boxing match before and his friend, a Catholic priest, offers to take him to one. As they walk into the auditorium, the priest explains the boxing ring, the “corners” for each fighter, and the rules. A fighter steps into the […]
goals, jokes, priest, rabbi, universe
Yogi Berra is famously quoted as having said,” When you come to a fork in the road… take it.” Some people think that’s funny because it may be referring to an actual fork, like a utensil is laying in the road. One explanation of why Berra said that, though, is less about a play on […]
actions, decision-making, Decisions
One of the most common issues that comes up in our coaching programs is time management. More specifically, people feel they don’t have enough of it. They tend to schedule things to get done but feel like the important relationships in their lives aren’t being attended to. Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly […]
organization, organized, planner, Planning, time management
I was reading a profile this past weekend about a business owner who was being recognized for rapidly growing his operation during the pandemic. The reporter asked the owner how many employees the company has. The owner made a big deal out of not knowing, throwing out ranges (a total of thousands of people within […]
Employees, everyone matters, value
I studied a martial art called Uechi-Ryu, and one of the customs in our school was, after you completed a bow, to say, “Oss.” If you wanted to indicate you had finished an exercise? “Oss.” Need a break? “Oss.” It seemed to mean all kinds of things, so one night after class I asked Sensei […]
answers, frustrations, martial arts
In the days way before cellphones, if you wanted to call someone outside of your own area code you would reach out to an “operator” at the phone company for assistance. You would pick up the phone, dial zero, and an operator would pick up. They had a few options for how to place this […]
Communication, connections, talking