With the market gyrations, what should you do — if anything?

Published 3/25/2020 in The Maryland Daily Record This has been a huge few weeks in the world and a major shift in the euphoric state of being that many of us had fallen into when considering our expectations for investment returns. For over a year, within my team, we have been on the lookout for “the thing” that would kick off the market. We knew there would be something to move the attention away from politics, causing the markets to shift into fear mode. We couldn’t have predicted what it would be and regret that it is a virus outbreak that has put lives in…

The ‘5 Love Languages’ at work

Published 2/23/2020 in The Maryland Daily Record Fitting for the month of Valentine’s Day, a recent employee interaction reminded me of the lessons that I learned from reading the book “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace” by Gary Chapman. The original book, “The 5 Love Languages,” was intended for couples who were struggling to navigate their way through marriage counseling. Chapman compiled notes of nearly 15 years of counseling couples and found that problems in communication fell in five general categories that he named the Love Languages. The general concept is that each of us expresses love and…

Making life easier

Published 1/24/2020 in The Maryland Daily Record Several years ago, I became convinced that saving passwords in a notebook or Excel spreadsheet wasn’t the safest way to go. At that time, having a smartphone was still new to me. I relied on an employee in my office to do the research on the best options in the market for online password keepers. Without much more than her recommendation, we managed to sign up for the only service that did not have a mobile app. I told myself this service must be the safest. Despite the pushback from others more in…

Looking for your 20/20 in 2020

Published 12/19/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record Here we are at the end of a decade. When put in these terms, considering that we are at the end of a decade feels significant. In some ways, the last 10 years have felt like a lot of everything and nothing. These extremes are reflected in many facets of life today. High tech has taken over, and there is close to no place left where the application of technology isn’t impacting our daily lives. Yet even with all of this greater efficiency, so many of us feel totally overwhelmed. Everything and nothing…

Learning to listen, learning to lead

Published 11/13/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record On Oct. 30, along with 60 classmates, I graduated from the 35th GBC Leadership Class, positively the Best Class Ever. The experience was so vast in depth and impact for me. With such an in-depth level of learning about the historical awareness of each facet of how Baltimore has evolved as a city, a community, a neighborhood, a system, a something that is not easily expressed in one word. Complex, simple, complicated, quirky, divided, together, black, white, same, different, proud, shameful, city, county, better, worse. We haven’t decided. As each session progressed, these opposing…

Parents’ influence on their college graduates

Published 9/15/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record I often find myself in conversations advising college students and recent graduates about how to navigate the start of their career paths. These inquiries range from a parent’s insistence to a professor’s suggestion and sometimes from the individual by his or her own initiative. I’m often met with a shyness or resistance to engage with me. I have loved the way that young minds can be moved when they have no expectation of what they should do with their lives. I have always felt this is a learning experience for me in that…

Helping adults with disabilities

Published 8/18/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record With the increasing focus on diversity & inclusion (D&I) within our work communities, there is a growing acceptance that having a set of people who look, think, talk, act and simply are different from one another creates the most impactful and meaningful outcomes for organizations and for us as human beings. The lens of D&I is most often focused on characteristics like race, gender, sexual orientation, age and geography. Far less often are developmental and physical disabilities a part of this inclusive effort. Those most excluded from access to the work force are…

The same old … Baltimorisms

Published 7/14/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record I am in the market for a new home. This surprises me, given how much of a city girl I am. I have loved living in Butchers Hill, one of many neighborhoods in Baltimore that provides such a rich city experience. Sadly for me, the main thing it did not offer was parking. If I had parking available, I am convinced that I would not have moved. Well, that and the fact that my son, soon to be a middle schooler, is eager to live in a setting where kids have more independence…

A method to help safeguard time

Published 6/16/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record For so many of us in professional services, when you reach a certain point in your career there is an inflection point when you evolve beyond being a service provider to becoming a trusted adviser. With this role comes an added level of responsibility to not only be the key to ensuring that each moving part is fulfilled but also to be the high-level thinker of solutions for clients. In the years since I have felt this shift occur, I have also gained a keen insight about the most valuable resource that I…

Regaining the life you want

Published 5/19/2019 in The Maryland Daily Record For many of us, regaining the life we want is more a matter of gaining and less a sense that we ever intentionally carved out the space we imagined for each of the priorities in our lives. This has never been truer than for working parents. As children grow and their needs evolve, each of us is faced with ongoing daily, even hourly choices that require us to be in two places at once, often forgoing the place we really want to be over where we feel we need to be. This unending…

1 2 3 4 5 Next »