10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Taking Paternity Leave
This is my second week back at work after about three months of parental – or paternity – leave. I’ll use the term “paternity leave” going forward because this is a story for dads, or soon-to-be-dads, who are thinking about taking time off work to spend with their...
Six Ways to Support a Spouse Running for Public Office
This fall my partner ran for public office. It was a first time for us both. While she was unsuccessful, losing by a mere 300 votes, the experience was very instructive for both of us. Running for public office requires you to “put yourself out there” and invest...
Seven Ways to Embed Co-operative Principles in Your Organization
Co-operatives are an underutilized model for running an enterprise. October 16-20 is International Co-operatives Week and I work for one of Canada’s pre-eminent co-ops, Vancity Credit Union. I am quite biased in my thinking that the world needs more co-operatives. I...
Four Professional Epiphanies for Thirtysomethings
As we get older, things change and our career priorities and expectations shift. Let’s focus on how professional priorities shift for Millennials when we leave our twenties and enter our thirties. Here are four professional epiphanies for thirtysomethings. High...
Three Ways to Foster Generosity in Kids
Generosity and kindness are important qualities that all parents strive to instill in children. Being incredibly generous will make you a better leader and more successful in work and life. Cultivating these habits at an early age is a very straightforward process....
Five Tips for Managing Multiple Problems
Most of us struggle from time to time to “hold it together” when surrounded by multiple issues, worries and problems. In these circumstances it’s not unusual to feel overwhelmed and helpless. There’s no easy solution to these feelings and each situation is different....
Three Ways to Write Your Professional Journal
Writing makes your life better. Fast Company’s Drake Baer has his reasons for why writing cultivates knowledge, wisdom and a powerful personal narrative. For me, writing is the thing that slows down my thinking, sorts out my ideas and goals, and sets clear context for...
Four Tips for Beating Winter Blues
If you live on the West Coast like I do then you might be struggling with the damp greyness of our weather. Or maybe you’re having a hard time sustaining your new year’s resolutions. According to Cliff Arnell, a professor at Cardiff University in Wales and the...
Six Professional Lessons from The Starters
The Starters is one of my favourite podcasts (it’s a show on NBA TV and YouTube, too). Last week the six-person team – Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis, Trey Kerby, Jason Doyle, and Matt Osten – celebrated their 10th Anniversary with an oral history of the show....
Four Ways to Feed Your Career
As we press through the first few weeks of the new year it is an opportunity to reflect on how we can feed ourselves in a healthy, pragmatic and cost-effective way. A good, balanced diet (where you don’t forget to eat a meal) is one of the most basic things you can do...
How to Get Things Done Faster by Slowing Down
Big, complicated and expensive projects often cause physical and emotional stress in people. Looming deadlines demand us to work faster. Balancing employees’ professional development with producing results requires us to multi-task,which hampers productivity and...
How We Will Realize Our Potential in 2016
With a new year upon us, it’s time for Michael, Kurt and I to engage in a The Potentiality New Year’s tradition and make public commitments about how we will realize our potential in 2016. By aligning goals with our natural talents, being aware of barriers to our...
Five Tips for Setting Strengths-Based Goals this Year
For many of us, a new year brings opportunities for improvement through goal setting. We call such goals “resolutions” and human beings are notoriously bad at achieving them. In fact, over 90% of us will not follow-through on our resolutions. The problem is that...