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I have been thinking a lot about legacy these days. The start of a new year always puts me in the mood to be more intentional about what I want for the next 12 months. Yes, it’s goal setting time, but more importantly, I want be more deliberate in how I show up and leave a positive impact with my life this year.

If you could leave the people you love with something important when you check out of life, what would it be?

• Your grandmother’s rocking chair?
• Your family photos?
• Your home?

When we think about leaving a legacy, so often what we’re talking about is grounded in materialism – in things collected, loved, handed down, that have resonance for us. But...

• Do your loved ones know why those things matter to you?
• Do they know the stories of the people from whom those treasures came?
• Do they know what you hold dear?
• Who you were as a child?
• What really made you who you are?
• What words of advice or encouragement do you want them to carry with them through...

"Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.” Alan Cohen

November a happy/sad time of the year for me. It is packed with events and emotion like Mid-term Elections, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and November has been proclaimed by each President and Congress since 1984 as National Hospice Month. It’s an opportunity to acknowledge the fine work that hospice staff and volunteers do for dying people and their loved ones. Few organizations receive the honor of an entire month’s commemoration, and surely none is more deserving of such a “thank you” than hospice for the sacred work they do.

In the last couple of weeks, I delivered three keynote speeches to hospice staff and volunteers to mark National Hospice Month. The first was for Haven Hospice, the organization where I was Executive Director for 16 years, overseeing its growth from a very modest three employees...

ARE YOU A PLAYER, OR A FAN?

Even in a year in which I’d stretched myself past what I thought were my limits, October was the most intense month of growth I could imagine. There were days I felt like my brain might actually explode (fortunately for those around me, it didn’t.)

My October quest began with a question; How is the world beyond hospice using new technology to get their messages out in powerful, meaningful ways? I began the journey at Mel Abraham’s Thought Leader Academy. Mel is a CPA who helps people from across the world put their special genius into a framework that’s simple to explain and share with others. With 35 years of hospice and leadership experience I realized the things that I know and take for granted are unique – and I’m learning to bring them to a broader audience. For an idea of what thought Frameworks can do, think of how the pyramid graphic makes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs simple to understand.

Patti and...

Being a leader in uneventful times takes focus and attention. Leading in times of chaos is a whole different thing. Nowadays, organizations all over the country hone their readiness for emergencies with “disaster drills” that prepare them to function in all manner of catastrophes; calamitous weather events, onsite shooter drills, and multi-casualty incidents like train wrecks or plane crashes.

But I live in Florida, home of the hurricanes, and I’m not talking about the University of Miami mascot. I’m talking about Michael, and Irma, and Andrew; storms that have brought such widespread and stunning devastation that it is difficult to describe in words.

I know that every part of the country is afflicted with some kind of natural disaster - wildfires and earthquakes out West, tornadoes on the Great Plains, and Snowmageddon-sized blizzards in the North - but for me, hurricanes mean autumn in Florida – a far cry from beautifully colored leaves gently...

I’ve had a very busy summer consulting with hospices all across the US. In talking with administrators about their biggest worries, I heard one alarm sounded everywhere I went: Hospice is in the grip of a critical nursing shortage. Certainly, in some areas the problem is greater than in others, but make no mistake; recruiting the ideal experienced, compassionate, smart, flexible and dedicated hospice nurse (or social worker, for that matter) is more challenging by the day. As a board member of the University of Florida College of Nursing’s Alumni Council, I can tell you that the school cannot afford to admit more than 120 new undergraduates/year. The University of Delaware College of Nursing admits 136. Numbers like these will not begin to meet the burgeoning needs of the Baby Boomer generation as they age.

And it’s not just that new nurses aren’t entering the field at the rate we need them to; we’re losing those we have, nurses who are leaving the...

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” Mark Twain

How much time do you spend in planes, trains, cars and hotel rooms? I love traveling thanks in part to Mark Twain’s quote above. Getting to see my clients while traveling is the bonus!  Travel for work can feel like an endless sprint of stuffing suitcases and figuring out rental cars, bolting down airport meals and rejiggering your internal clock to match the time zone you’re in. As someone who spends a good chunk of her working life on the road, I’ve managed to come up with some useful strategies that take a lot of the stress out of constant travel, and I’d like to share them with you.

I keep a suitcase mostly packed and at the ready at all times. Mine contains a full, separate set of my makeup and other must-have beauty products, all in the regulation-sized bottles and jars. I keep a complete outfit of walking/workout clothes in there and a pair of running shoes,...

Bad bosses - they’re the inspiration for movie comedies, great literature (Charles Dickens and Shakespeare wrote more than a few) and hilarious dinner party stories. But there’s nothing funny about having a bad boss, much less being one. Bad managers drive good employees away, undermine their workplace’s success, and cost their organizations in dollars and lost institutional knowledge when those disgruntled team members move on.

Good managers rally their employees to strive toward a common goal, grow loyalty for their organizations, and get – and retain - the best of the best even in a competitive labor market. We all know them when we see them – but what exactly are the qualities that separate great managers from failed ones?

I am a Predictive Index Talent Management provider and I help clients put the right people in the right seat on their bus. Predictive Index World Wide set out to answer the question definitively in This comprehensive new...

Are you distressed by the many negative news stories we’ve seen about hospice in recent days?  I certainly am.

            From the headlines last week in the Dallas Morning News -  Frisco hospice exec admits overdosing patients ‘to hasten their deaths’ and make more money- to the report out this week from the Office of the Inspector General, Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program Integrity: An OIG Portfolio, which focused on the very things that are, or are supposed to be the hallmarks of hospice care: pain management, patient AND family support, 27/7 care availability and provision of the 4 levels of hospice care. What did they find? That  “hospices do not always provide needed services to beneficiaries and sometimes provide poor quality care. In some cases, hospices were not able to effectively manage symptoms or...

What does pushing past our limits look like? At this moment in my life, it looks an awful lot like me, standing in the wings of the famous Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles, waiting to go onstage. And no, I’m not joking – though believe me I will be, and with all my might, when the spotlight hits me.

            What in the world am I doing here!?

            Speaking in front of an audience is one thing. Doing standup is another thing entirely. Will I fly – or will I fall? Whichever it is, once it’s behind me, I know I’ll feel stronger for having done it, because that’s how it’s always worked in my life; every risk has brought some reward, even if it’s just a hard lesson and wisdom. And there are no rewards at all unless you are willing to go out on a limb – or in this case, a stage. The fact is, complacency...

“You have everything we’re looking for - you’re hired!” 

            Have you ever said those words at an interview, only to find yourself wondering, “What was I thinking?” three months later?  Somehow, that “perfect hire” you so enthusiastically took on turned out to be a sub-par employee, and nothing like the candidate that presented so well in the interview. Full disclosure; it’s happened to me, even with the rigorous interview process we had in place.

            The fact is, there are people who are superstars at interviewing.  Masters of the art of conversation, they’re personable, charming and know how to turn questions around so that the interviewer winds up doing all the talking.  Sometimes those people are just what you are looking for, in jobs involving sales, customer engagement, or...