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At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Fiona Apple, at not quite twenty years old, accepted her award for Best New Artist with a speech that earned the criticism and derision of many.
“This world is bullshit,” she said, her choice of words bleeped by the censors. “You shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.”
Read MoreIt was really fun to go back into the classroom this past spring after a couple of years away.
Not only was it a Covid-era triumph to be face to face with a group of young people again, it was an opportunity to flex my leadership chops and see how they were functioning. Could I still create a container that would allow each person in the room to feel safe contributing, be heard, and learn?
And could I do it in such a way that I wasn’t totally drained at the end of the day?
Read MoreA friend of mine mentioned that she was unsure how she should have reacted when her toddler pinched her.
Her instinct, when it happened, was to jump and say, “Ow!” because it hurt. But her husband noticed that this upset the child, and suggested that, in the future, she try to suppress her reaction and act as though nothing had happened.
Read MoreI worked with a leader, Evan, who was extremely humble and self-effacing.
Evan was constantly working to improve himself. Whenever anything went wrong, his first move was to look at his own behavior. His default assumption was, “the problem must be me.”
Often, though, Evan had already done what he needed to do. He had made a plan, communicated clearly, and followed through on his promises.
Read MoreA friend of mine, a stay-at-home mom, is locked into a perpetual battle with her career-oriented sister-in-law.
“You’re so lucky that you were able to stay home,” says the sister-in-law. “We never could have afforded it.”
My friend seethed. “It wasn’t luck!” she told me. “We sacrificed. She could have, too.”
She wants her sister-in-law to acknowledge the nobility of her choice to stay home with her kids. The rightness of it.
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