Quotes from a Champion

With Wimbledon in the rear-view mirror and the U.S. Open in the windshield, here are nine quotes from tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” “Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have…

The Connection Conundrum

You wake up, roll out of bed, brush your hair so you look presentable for your first video meeting with your team, and you pop in a Keurig pod of Starbucks coffee to get your morning started.You jump from one virtual meeting to another, only turning your video on if absolutely required. You have lunch…

A Toy Story Connection

We just saw the movie, Toy Story 5. It is a sweet story about developing real-life friendships in today’s digital world. In the movie, two prospective young girls, Bonnie and Blaze, begin a friendship by reaching out with a sweet compliment. Bonnie tells Blaze that she likes her boots, and Blaze tells Bonnie that she…

Sharing Strength Stories

An exercise that encourages you and others is to share “strength stories.” During strength stories, team members share a verbal narrative about a time when they were at their very best. Have them conjure details of that time: what they were doing, who they were interacting with, what they accomplished, and how they felt. As…

A Father’s Legacy

On March 4, 1914, my late father, Peter Colantuono was born and would soon become part of the Greatest Generation. Over 100 years later, I sit in my ergonomic office chair gazing out my window at a beautiful tree line. It’s a welcome mental break from considering a particular client’s challenge and polishing up a…

11 Reflections from Maya Angelou

Wake forest gate

When the great American poet, the late Maya Angelou, reflected on her life and learnings, she said, “I’ve learned that… No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. You can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three…

A New Leadership Mandate

Something is healthy when it is in an optimal state of well-being. We strive for healthy relationships, a healthy diet, a healthy body, a healthy mind, healthy emotions, healthy perspectives, healthy conversation, healthy awareness, and healthy finances. With all this focus on healthy everything, we asked, “What about healthy leadership?” There are far too many…