"Since the pandemic started, I've wanted to stay connected with our community. Through the form of a weekly blog, I share my insights and reflections on various topics."
On February 6th, at the age of 86, Donald Shoup died. I had never heard of him prior to reading about his death, and I suspect many of you had not heard of him either.
I attended a conference about a month ago, and in a discussion about having trust in the workplace, the presenter noted that he implicitly trusts his employees and then added that “to quote Ronald Reagan, trust but verify.” My first reaction was to chuckle as Reagan made that quote when talking about dealing with the Russians, our adversary, as opposed to one’s employees.
A couple of weeks ago, we had some guests at our office, and during a discussion about managing conflict and resolving differences, one of our guests, Tamara, mentioned that she always assumes positive intent where there is a difference of opinion between two of her colleagues.
In the US at the end of January, the focus of the sports community is the football playoffs culminating with the Super Bowl on February 9th. Three weeks ago, following the game in which the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Buffalo Bills, something amazing happened.
On Wednesday, I was in Charlotte attending a planning conference. I flew home that afternoon, arrived safely as expected, and made my way home. As anyone who drives along the George Washington Parkway knows, I saw many planes and helicopters over the river.
If you haven’t noticed, people seem to be on edge. Whether it’s weather events, inflation, the economy, or politics, stress levels seem to be higher than normal.