Can you be friends with those you teach, mentor or coach? Some would say you can be friendly but must retain a professional distance. For what purpose, I wonder. Respect? Authority? Power? Ethics? When I consider the mentors I am…
As the decades pass with technology continuing to accelerate change and demand innovation, increasingly sophisticated skill training is required at younger and younger developmental ages. This was not so evident in my youth. As a 20-year old psychology student in…
With so much of our global experience made visible on a daily basis, I think we can all agree on one thing — life, as we experience it today, is complex. But is this the natural way of things or…
Whether platonic or romantic, I have always felt chemistry and compatibility to be foundational pillars of a healthy intimate relationship. But what do we mean when we have chemistry with another person? Is it that felt experience of instant connection?…
In 2004, the American Journal of Clinical Oncology published this 11-year research finding — 97% of chemotherapy does not work. WOW, who knew? This research result chalks up as one of the world’s best-kept secrets given most cancer patients over…
Depression has actually now surpassed HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes and war as the leading cause of disability worldwide. Rebecca Brachman For several years, the World Health Organization has predicted the rise of depression to its current status as a priority mental…
When I read the following blog title in Inc.com, ‘Collaboration’ Creates Mediocrity, Not Excellence, According to Science, I was stunned. Probably for two reasons, the first being I’ve spent nearly 30 years in business successfully collaborating and co-creating and the…
In 2015, newly-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named 15 women and 15 men to his cabinet. Unbelievably, the media questioned him as to why, and his simple response “Because it’s 2015”, made international headlines and lit up social media. Trudeau’s…
In this era of interconnected, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (iVUCA) challenges, disruptive products and services are much sought after. These innovative devices, ideas or processes disrupt existing methods by creating entirely new markets for solving the challenges emerging in…
During my early work career, authority and control were still operational skills for organizational leaders, which was the main reason I opted for self-employment. Frankly, working in autocratic hierarchical organizations of that day was paramount to having one’s creative flame…
If I polled people, myself included, as to whether they were taught to recognize and successfully navigate their emotions, they would all likely answer the same — “No way.” In fact, children and adults are still trained to suppress rather than express emotion. The evidence is present in such statements made to young males as — “Boys don’t cry” or to adult women — “If you want their respect, don’t let them see your tears.”
In celebration of the recently passed International Women’s Day, and feminism in general, I read Chimananda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. As a feminist raised in the 1960’s and 70’s, I was curious to…
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