In Print

I am not an engineer, physicist or scientist by education or occupation. However, when not reading material from my field…

Emergent, a Syracuse-based leadership development firm, continues to raise the consciousness and performance of leaders in Central New York and…

Most of us believe what we see with our own eyes. At the same time, we know that looks can be deceiving. We all have at least some sense of the fallibility of our perception, and a healthy respect for the mysteries we cannot grasp. We often use “awareness” and “consciousness” interchangeably to refer to…

I see them everywhere I look – in the news, on television talk shows, and even in academia, where most of us were likely the beneficiary of many years of problem-solving practice. Math tests asked us to solve countless problems: find the value of X in a complicated algebra passage, for example. We learned the…

I get a version of this question frequently, usually from people with full schedules–some overwhelmed and flustered, others simply intent on squeezing out every bit of productivity each day. Related queries usually go something like this: How can I get by with less sleep? How can I get more of my work done between 8:00…

I live like a caveman. Despite my modern home, two cars, multiple technological devices and a nice wardrobe, I am no more than a fancy mammal – granted, one who doesn’t have to kill what my family eats, thanks to Wegmans. But human mammals have always, according to many scientific theories, processed 60,000-80,000 thoughts per…

As a leadership development specialist and certified executive coach, I work with leaders who are interested in scaling their leadership. Scaling leadership is defined as building organizational capacity to create outcomes that matter most. The scope of development is typically in three focus areas: The leader as an individual The leader’s team(s) The organization the…

When I went to grade school in the ‘70s, the curriculum was still based on “The 3 R’s” of Readin’, wRitin’ and ‘Rithmatic.” These cornerstone fundamentals of education were not my favorite and of the three, I gravitated the most to reading. Like so many others, I enjoyed the adventure of new places, people and…

The Army War College coined the acronym VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity – in 1987, drawing on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus to describe or reflect the general conditions and situations of the post-cold war world. Covid-19 has certainly reinforced the concept; for almost all of us, it is…

Absent pathology, we all wake up in the morning with the best of intentions to do good things. Sure, we all entertain and even act on the occasional devious thought – a prank on a colleague or spouse, a few choice words lobbed at the TV news – but for the most part, we are…

I just heard it again today: “Sometimes my voice isn’t heard.” I’ve heard this complaint from leaders at all levels–individual contributors, middle managers, and senior-level executives, and it’s a critical issue. When people don’t feel heard, they often believe they’re not being fully utilized for all they have to offer – and often, they’re not.…

Conscious leaders are in it for the long haul. Their vision, strategies and actions are aligned with timeless principles. Their vision is wide, deep and long and all of their decisions consider the needs of all stakeholders. This allows their organizations to sustain their performance over time. Unfortunately, the last few years have brought to…