A key strategic moment for a crew during a race is taking the stroke rate up. If you have watched rowing, this moment looks like a surge of power. One boat moves on another, and with each stroke, moves farther past its competitor. In the boat, it’s an exhilarating moment when executed properly.  ….The boat…

Catching a crab while rowing is a very dramatic moment. If you are picturing a crab hanging off the end of an oar, one pincher holding on stubbornly, the other ready to significantly damage anything that comes close, allow me to clarify. Catching a crab is when the rower’s blade gets trapped in the water…

I started rowing again this spring after a 30 year pause. The last time I rowed was in college.  I was in my 20’s – fit, fearless and flexible. Now in my 50’s I find I am more cautious and clumsy. It feels different to be a 50 year old rower than a 20 year…

Kids never warn you that it’s time to adapt your parenting style to their developmental stage. It usually happens with tantrums (toddlers) or eye rolls (teenagers) or some other behavior that totally blindsides you like this: Me: Are you headed out? My teenager daughter: (Sigh) Me: Where are you going? Who will you be with?…

I have participated in many interviews for leadership positions as an interviewer and candidate.  I can’t recall ever assessing or being assessed for curiosity. I’ve been asked questions about equity: …What is anti-racism and how have you used it in your work? About building relationships: …Give an example of a time you were able to…

I used to dread performance management discussions. I would go through all manner of mental contortions to persuade myself the dreaded conversation didn’t need to happen. …I would try to convince myself I was being too critical and that there was another way of looking at things. When, no matter how I looked at it,…

Something revolutionary is happening. Like most revolutionary things, it’s thrilling – scary and exciting at the same time… It’s ChatGPT. The media is abuzz with stories about the mind blowing things ChatGPT can do. Its artificial intelligence enables it to do a decent job writing essays, news stories, emails, jokes and poetry. It has the…

This week I have been learning about results from 4 day workweek pilot programs. ..It’s made me think about things we do that motivate others to lie… ..And that made me think about ice cream sandwiches… Allow me to connect the dots. When I was about 12 years old, my sister and I were sitting…

My family survived a near stranding at Gerty Johnson beach. With the tide crashing around us, threatening to pull us out to sea, we were only able to escape by helping each other scale a tidewall. …Okay, the beach was on Bainbridge Island and the tide was only up to our knees, but it was…

The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy last week issued a warning about toxic workplaces: they are bad for your health. Toxic workplaces are disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat or abusive. Toxicity at work is destructive because it undermines our connection to one another. Our membership in a herd is so advantageous to our survival that…

When I was 33 weeks into my first pregnancy, my water broke 7 weeks early. In our Seattle living room, my husband and I had just finished watching our beloved St. Louis Cardinals win a playoff game in their bid to get to the World Series. We ditched plans to watch Law and Order and…

4 Key Elements and 5 of the Best Free Tools for Successful Hybrid Work I am still haunted by the stories I heard in the early days of the pandemic of parents struggling to do the best they could by their children and their employers. There was the bus driver who left her house in…

Do you remember what learning to ride a bike felt like? People remember the first bike they rode like they remember their favorite stuffy, or their first concert, or their all time favorite pair of jeans. Mine was a blue Schwinn I got for my birthday. I was so excited to join the bigger kids…

Most parents have experienced the oxymoron of family vacation. We envision: reading that spicy thriller everyone’s been talking about, siestas in the afternoon by the pool and the joy of discovery made even sweeter because we’re seeing it through the wide-eyed wonder of our kids. Instead: that pool becomes a death trap, the siesta happens…

I learned an important lesson about repair over spilled guinea pig shavings when my daughter was 8. When my daughters were in elementary school we had two guinea pigs that were not your normal skittish, high strung guinea pigs. Zeus and Conware came to us highly socialized by the family who had them before us.…

I was in the Methow Valley in eastern Washington over the weekend when a helicopter flew up the valley. The energy in the valley changed. Everyone paused and looked skyward and I swear even the trees held their breath. The helicopter, which was in the valley to carry logs upriver for salmon habitat restoration, was…

For the first time since the pandemic started I read two books back to back. This was huge. Reading a good book centers me. I was an English major in college. I love the arc of a story, the way stories challenge my assumptions and broaden my perspective. I love developing relationships with the characters…

Several months ago I started using daily wear contacts. My doc recommended them because the monthly ones were irritating the insides of my eyelids giving rise to little bumps that were chafing my eyeballs. I believed her when she said this would not be good for my vision long term. The change to daily wear…