Pay it Forward. Give and You Shall Receive. You get what you give.  There are many sayings tied around the rewards you receive when you give.  Here is my new favorite story gifted to me by a high school friend, Michelle Courtney Fout, that Facebook has brought back into my life.  Michelle attends the University of Washington in Seattle. The tree in the picture is a beautiful fixture on the campus, but the story of this tree is even more wonderful.

There was a tree in Cambridge Mass, where George Washington first took command of his troops in 1775.  A scion of that tree (a part of the tree that you use to start another tree growing) traveled to the Washington University campus and was planted there around the turn of the century.

The original tree in Cambridge died from disease and the favor of a scion from the Washington University Elm traveled back across the country and was planted in the original spot in Cambridge.  Then there is another turn in this reciprocal gift of life.  The Washington University tree was struck by lightning and once again a scion from Cambridge came back to Washington State to plant this beautiful joy of a tree. read more »

As we raise our son, we strive to develop his critical thinking and leadership skills.  As I relaxed with him this week, I considered what is helping him mature the most.  I believe it is constantly giving him the authority and responsibility to make the choices he is capable of making.  Sometimes, he doesn’t make the right choice, but he learns from those choices.  Because we control the environment of his choices, he still has a safety net of not failing too big.

Do we do this enough with our employees that we are developing?  Do we give them the chance to make choices in just enough of a controlled environment that they can miss the mark by a small enough margin that it doesn’t damage their reputation too badly, or damage the department’s ability to execute?  Do we give them the chance to wind up with a gross mixture of ice cream and toppings, which will help them stop and think about their choices a bit more the next time? Or will they consult more expert ice cream eaters to increase their chance for success the next time? read more »

An ardent supporter of mentoring programs, Lois Melbourne reveals the secret to ensuring successful mentor-mentee matches and explains why corporate mentorship programs are more important than ever to organizations. Discover how she has shaped her own career and taken her company global with lessons learned as both mentor and mentee. From students to entrepreneurs, mentors and mentees, Lois shares the benefits of this enriching personal development tool.

Second in a series

While mentoring another entrepreneur a while back, he asked questions that really  made me focus on why things had worked for Aquire as we grew the business, and what the big challenges had been in decision making. Forced to concentrate on the why and how of big, tough, and pivotal decisions, I analyzed some of  the best and worst stuff I/we have ever done. read more »

First in a series

While mentoring a college student (I have several outlets for my mentoring passion), we discussed people’s different communication styles. Some people like to get text messages and others might be confused or offended by the straight forward “throwing” of information the way an Instant Message delivers it. I pulled out a tool, Communication Builder by Strategic Coach, that our company uses to help people understand how their team members like to give and get varying types of information. It dawned on me that we hadn’t discussed the results of this tool for quite awhile, and we all needed to bring out our communication worksheets to share departmentally again. read more »