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 »

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 »

When I was 18, I volunteered to help with a local judging competition of ad agency work. I wasn’t qualified to be a judge. I was qualified to be the hostess for our out-of-town judges. I made a connection with one of the judges, Rich Flora, with whom I have since enjoyed a relationship which has evolved from career mentor, to vendor, to informal life coach, to dearest of friends for the last 24 years. What I learned from him about Dallas even had an influence over my decision to move here. Rich is a writing genius, yet I believe his leadership skills are his truest calling. read more »

Have you ever interviewed a new grad or spoken to a college-age family member about business or job hunting and been surprised they were unaware of what seemed like basic information to you? The problem isn’t that these young adults are lazy or foolish. Rather, what I’ve found is there are some really large education hurdles blocking our kids’ race toward careers. Each and every one of us in business – and especially in HR – needs to help change this. In short, we need these kids in our future org charts. read more »