I have a long list of mom fails. Or at least things I have spent years believing were mom fails. There was the mommy meltdown in Target involving an explosive diaper. There was buying what felt like every bottle on the market because my first son absolutely refused to take one. He ONLY wanted to nurse. Then along came my second son, and apparently I learned nothing. I gave him a pacifier once and suddenly he wanted nothing to do with me. Bottles ONLY. Seriously? There were sc

What The Power of Mattering taught me about noticing people and making sure they know they matter Every once in a while, I read a book at exactly the right time. The Power of Mattering by Zach Mercurio was one of those books. The premise sounds incredibly simple: People need to know they matter. Not just that their work matters. Not just that they're productive. Not just that they're meeting deadlines, accomplishing goals or making our lives easier. They matter. As human bein

Sometimes not getting what we desperately want turns out to be one of life's greatest gifts I've prayed a lot of prayers in my life. Some have been answered exactly as I hoped. Some haven't. And at 48, I can say something I absolutely could not have said at 20, 25 or probably even 35: I Thank God for some of my unanswered prayers. There were times in my life when I was absolutely certain I knew what I wanted. Actually, let's be more accurate. I didn't just want it. I was conv

Sometimes the things that don't work out teach us more than the things that do I still remember one of my first big failures. And when I say "big," I should probably put that in quotation marks. Because adult me can look back at what happened and recognize that it wasn't exactly a life-altering catastrophe. Teenage me did not have that perspective. I attended an all-girls Catholic high school, and during my sophomore year, I decided to run for social chair for my class. I wan

What more than 25 years in the workplace has taught me about the environments people choose to stay in Every once in a while, I read something that makes me stop and think: Yes. That's it. I recently read an Inc. article titled Employees Don't Usually Quit Overnight. Here's What Pushes Them Away. It immediately resonated with me. After more than 25 years in my career, I've experienced a lot of different seasons. I've worked for different organizations, different leaders and a

Confidence, vulnerability and learning to run toward the storm I heard something recently that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. When a storm approaches, buffalo are known for moving toward it rather than simply trying to outrun it. There is something about that image that resonates deeply with me. I want to be the buffalo. Not because I enjoy storms. I don't. I don't want hardship. I don't seek out disappointment. I don't want to fail, lose people I love, make mist