Leaders need skills, tools, and courage to manage these in-demand — and often demanding — business-critical workers — For many high performers, the drive to achieve at work is similar to what animates marathoners and climbers of Everest. It just feels good to do hard things. Pushing the boundaries of their capabilities and contributing to the fullest of their capacity is their drug. Organizations ostensibly value productivity. …

Finding peace, joy, and comfort in the poetry of reverence — Raised a Catholic, I repeated the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday at mass. One night, when I was a young teen, I lay awake with a question on my mind: What did all those words in the prayer really mean? Religion, I had come to believe, was a mystery. Perhaps the…

To admit we lack self-confidence is to become a whistleblower on ourselves. But if we don’t help ourselves, who will? — Self-confidence. It seems like such an obvious thing. We should all have it. We should be born with it — this confidence in the self. Simple. But it’s not. Expecting everyone to have self-confidence in every situation is like expecting every child to intuit how to ride a bike simply…

Five keys to unlocking better relationships and winning at life — Help. Few words are as loaded with meaning. Many of us think asking for help telegraphs weakness. We fear appearing needy or incompetent in part because we recoil from people who appear to us to be needy or incompetent. Some think accepting help means we’re obligated to return the favor…

Declutter your mental space — Several years ago, I was assigned to work on an enormous, complicated project. To do my part, I had to spend most workdays in a windowless and cold basement with roaches clustered in the bathroom sinks. I hated being chilled and below ground. But I couldn’t do a whole lot…

To fight the virus we need both physical distance AND mental togetherness — Examples of acts of kindness and community are cropping up in my social circle. For instance, a neighbor posted a note using the Nextdoor app to offer help to anyone with errands or groceries during this extraordinary time. A 78-year-old woman responded, saying she was okay for now, but wasn’t…

Some people are born optimists, the rest of us have to work at it. When I was 22 and waiting for a friend in a local bar, an acquaintance shattered my ego and I’ve been the better for it ever since. …

In the end, it’s what we choose to believe that counts. — It began with a question. I sat on my bedroom floor, petting our elderly golden retriever, Ace. Jackson, age nine, perched on a chair nearby, working on a puzzle in the dining room with my husband. “Mom,” Jackson asked, “Are you moving the elf at night?” For those of you…

I scared myself silly climbing a mountain (and I’d do it again). — We bumped along a rutted dirt road in a rented SUV, parking a quarter mile from the trailhead leading to the summit of Mount Democrat. The four of us hoisted backpacks stuffed with water, food, dry socks, and extra clothes onto our backs. The thin, 38-degree air nipped at exposed…