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I’ve had an earworm in my head again this week. This time its’s the song From A Distance that in 1987 the late Nanci Griffith, first recorded and in 1990 was a major hit for Bette Midler.

Lately it feels as if the turmoil and chaos around the world is too much. The latest Covid variant is spiking, wildfires in California, horrific floods in Kentucky, and heat, hot weather making everyone edgy. Then the song pops in…From a Distance:

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

Watching the news often increases my stress level. Then I’m reminded: the sun came up this morning! Gravity is still working! I am still breathing, and my heart is beating without doing anything! We are on a planet that has been around for 4 ½ billion years and it’s still spinning in space with us attached! And very importantly…my...

From A Distance

I’ve had an earworm in my head again this week. This time its’s the song From A Distance first recorded by the late Nanci Griffith and was a major hit for Bette Midler.

Lately, it feels as if the turmoil and chaos around the world are overwhelming. The Covid Delta variant is spiking, earthquakes in Haiti, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and Afghanistan. I find myself becoming discouraged and stressed. Then the song pops in my head…From a Distance...

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

Watching the news often results in an increase in my stress level. But then, I pause, take a breath, step back and I’m reminded the sun still came up this morning! Gravity is still working! I am still breathing, and my heart is beating without me doing anything!

We are on a planet that has been around for 4 ½...

We All Just Want to be Liked…

My summer Collaborative Group Coaching program has just finished with an amazing group of women leaders. The group was brave enough to open their hearts to the challenges I presented. As a result, they discovered more brilliance about themselves and each other.

The group grappled with this question: “what is one limiting thought that you have thought or focused on about yourself for way too long?”.

Topics came up like: “I’m not good enough”, “I’m afraid I won’t be liked”, “I too often compare myself to others” or the ever-present imposter syndrome, “someone is going to discover I’m not supposed to be in this job”.

Most of us want to be accepted and liked. Somehow, we go from toddlers filled with joy and speaking our minds without regard to anyone’s opinions. To adulthood jumping through hoops to be what we think others want us to...

As someone who’s been an executive, a management consultant, and a leadership coach, I know that there are all kinds of effective leaders out there.

Some styles are more effective in certain situations than another. Great leaders do share some important traits, and I talked about four of these in a recent post; resilience, ambition, openness to opposing ideas, and staying grounded by listening to “the common man/woman” for their point of view. To these I’d add a good dose of humility, and another of self-awareness, because without understanding your own strengths and prejudices, and your leadership style, you literally don’t know what you’re missing.

The same organization will need different kinds of leaders at different points in its development. A startup company needs a Risk Taker.  A leader whose tolerance for risk is sky-high; someone daring, confident, and decisive. But once success is achieved, this kind of personality can get bored...

So - your CEO is leaving, and you’re faced with the challenge of finding a new leader who’s the right fit for your organization. This may have been a planned exit, or an unexpected change of course: In either case, getting the right CEO/ED is key to the health of any organization, and no more so than in hospice, where mission is such a critical piece of the work we do.

In the past, hospice leaders most often came from the clinical world - nursing, counseling, or social work - with a business background. Today’s CEO needs a good grasp of not only the increasing emphasis on the business side of the organization, but also the clinical operations. While candidates don’t necessarily have to have MBAs, they must understand financials, profit and loss statements, and gross returns on investments. And with the new challenges we’re facing, entrepreneurial experience and attitude is as important today as it was at the beginning of the hospice movement.

Insider or...