Posts by Jennifer McEwen
Balancing Your Views with Others
Comparing ourselves to others can be useful, and it’s also very natural. Why we do this may vary: we may be curious about others, look to others for validation, or maybe want to relate through similarities. When done in excess, comparisons don’t serve. Why? Because one mark of a brilliant leader is having the confidence…
Read MoreEmployees as Customers
In order to create positive customer experiences, organizations must ensure that company values and leadership are evident in every interaction. When I say the word customer, you may be thinking of the people who buy things from a company. Yes, and I view customers as even more than that. You see, the word customer in…
Read MoreCoaching Over Feedback
Sometimes feedback can be misused. When it’s used to make the feedback giver feel right, it will not likely sit well with the receiver. “May I offer you some feedback?” Those words are harmony to some ears and discord to others. Even when you are open to it, their words can trigger—in a nanosecond—a reaction…
Read MoreRecognizing All Parts Played
Now more than ever, we are part of an increasingly larger network of people, which beckons for crystal clarity on the roles we play. Who is the star of the show at work or in life, the person taking on a heroic role? You may know someone playing this role, or maybe it is you.…
Read MoreAvoiding Group Blink
As we act faster than ever just to stay on top of everything these days, it’s so important to remember that silence does not necessarily mean alignment. You may have personally experienced this: Your team leader shares a vision, and you are secretly uncomfortable with it or have different ideas. Yet despite your internal gut…
Read MoreCurious or Complacent?
How we view a given situation is shaped by our relationship to it. “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” This phrase – sometimes called “Miles’s Law” – is attributed to Rufus Miles, a 20th century US government official. Our different experiences explain why different people take away vastly different messages from the exact,…
Read MoreCourage Through Intention
I’m in Texas visiting family today. I feel blessed I have loved ones to see. It’s a stark contrast to those in the city of Uvalde who lost family members after the tragic events of May 24th at Robb Elementary School when a gunman entered and opened fire. Many lives were lost. But not the…
Read MoreGrowth from Resistance
What’s occupying my mind lately—racially motivated tragedies, war in the Ukraine, economic hardships (especially where I grew up in Sri Lanka)—also quells my optimism. Before my mind does its ‘auto-balancing act’ to replace bleak thoughts with comforting images (about all the things that are going right in the/my world), I want to explore this discord…
Read MoreFrustrated Lately?
Many of the conversations I’ve heard lately are about people’s frustrations…with their employer’s return-to-work decisions, with other people, with rising prices, and so on. When coaching executives, I often ask “How’s it supposed to be?” I use this question when I hear a complaint to uncover a person’s vision for what they wish were the…
Read MoreFailure as a Foundation
I feared failure for much of my childhood and did my best to avoid it by aiming for perfection. It wasn’t until my early adulthood that I started noticing something wasn’t working. The more perfect I tried to be, the more upset I became with the outcomes. I realized that I needed to cut myself…
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