Honestly Honesty!

Weiner showed us how to create a bad situation and how not to handle it well.

When you work in public relations/marketing the first rule you recommend to others as part of crisis management is to address the situation honestly, make a statement and sometimes what you plan to do differently to avoid the mistake again.  Honesty is first step.

It's disappointing to see our public service governmental representatives fall short of honesty.

Crane Update

173 oragami cranes folded 827 more to go!   They actually are relaxing to do when you're just watching tv and you want something to do with your hands.   It's a new stress reliever activity!

If you remember, I'm folding 1,000 of them for an art project.  The inspiration is a japanese legend that says if you fold a 1,000 cranes you can make a wish and the crane will grant you it. 

Pam

What's Your Environment?

You've heard the saying, "we are products of our environment." I stopped to think about this today.

How long before you lose your leadership skills if you don't work in an environment that has strong leaders, supports leadership growth, provides leadership mentoring and teaches leadership?

If where you work doesn't invest in your learning and skill set improvement, how long before you either make it your personal goal to do it anyway for yourself, or you just quit thinking about it and wonder why you aren't growing?

What happens to people who work for companies like this? On the extreme end, the company could fail and everyone loses their job and are less marketable because they lost touch with what they once were passionate about. A more middle of the road scenario could be that the company exists but is not a remarkable company and it's people become less remarkable because they too just exist or leave. At the other extreme end, the company, could become clearer on how to engage everyone, develop their skills, and the company is clearer about what it's priorities are so it becomes a remarkable company.

Learning

A colleague shared this link with me in which the speaker sessions are available to view until June 10th. · http://www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com/firstsession

There are some really great leaders speaking at this Chick-Fil-A Leadercast. I took good notes from the John Maxwell session on leadership, Dave Ramsey on what makes you a successful leader and Frans Johannson with his inspirational way on how to get the best creative ideas through diversification of input! I'm excited to be able to watch some of the other presenters tomorrow night! I wish I didn't have to go to bed as I'd just watch as many more as I could tonight!

Self-improvement and learning are really important to do in life! Every moment counts!

Techie Learning

I've decided to learn all I can about Social Media so I've immersed myself into it. I'm reading books, articles, trying out things, tracking things, etc. There is sooooo much out there! I'm loving learning it. Sometimes when you embark on something like this it can either feel like a drag or feel invigorating...this feels energizing and fun! No matter what age you are you need to keep learning and improving yourself. It's easier if you pick things that match who you are! It's hard to get motivated at times and get out of your comfort zone but when you do...the payoffs can be huge.

Oh and while I'm at it, I finally bought an iPhone! That's kept me busy as well! So cool!

What Is Talent?

I taught adult education advanced watercolor classes at one time. We would meet twice a week in a middle school science lab room. My students were three times plus older than Iwas. I was such a wet behind the ears teacher to them I'm sure. As it goes, I learned more from them than they from me. What was cool was that they'd sign up semester after semester and most of my core group stayed in tack unless there was a family emergency or trip or something.

We all got to know each other quite well. There was Joe who was such a good painter that he could teach the class. And his friend, Bill who painted and drew little postcard sketches each day that were just lovely studies and very precise because he was an engineer and payed attention to everything! There was Annette who had a son that now lived with her because he had brain damage from falling off a roof while working on a house. She came to class for stress relief. There was a few Moms with children in elementary and middle school that were great friends and my class was their night out from the family.

I taught them how to paint skies and trees and oceans and brooks. They taught me patience and trying. I taught them the color wheel, and as I listened to their chatting as they painted i learned that life is all the colors of the wheel and more!

There was one particular lady who tried so hard to get the watercolor technique down but she was just always tight and her watercolors didn't flow. She would get frustrated but she came back each week and each semester. One night I came in and I walked around the classroom and her watercolor was perfect. I remember saying, "Geraldine, your technique is great tonight! How did you do this?" And she replied, "I just went to be a few nights ago and got up the next day and it all just clicked in my brain and I could do it."

The students would sometimes say, I'm never going to learn to do this and I'd always encourage them to keep on trying as sometimes you have to practice. In the back of my head, I wondered though if some people just had talent and others would never have talent. What I learned from Geraldine was that if you have the passion to want something and you keep trying at it, then eventually you will get there.

Busy is as Busy Does

Somehow I've gotten myself busy and having fun doing it.

Sometimes people complain about being too busy. My goal is to create a good work life balance this year. I'm doing it but I've gotten busy! You see just because I'm not working all the time didn't mean I could go home and sit on my can. I just keep being busy but have transferred it to other things...fun things!

So, the crane project is going - fold 3 cranes a day to achieve the project in 333 days! Then I still have my breast cast to finish painting - it's been hanging around the kitchen for a few weeks! Somehow sewing grabbed hold of me as my furniture cushions in the screened room needed replaced! And I enjoyed planting my flowers and little vegetable seeds (except for the poison ivy.) I'm waiting for them to pop through the dirt! Exciting! Then planting them in the garden and babying them to grow more!

I have several books I'm reading and several waiting for me to read. I've been self-learning about social media so that I can apply it to work eventually. I go to the gym several times a week!

And then there's just the daily stuff. Being busy is fun to me....so long as there is work life balance I advise everyone to do it!

And when I find my list of all the blog topics I want to write about, which was getting quite long, then I'll try to fit in more Blogging too!