Podcast Episode 4: Leadership through Self-Differentiation
Leading change requires the ability to express one’s own goals and values in non-anxious ways, AND to remain emotionally connected with resistors. Show notes: Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue, by Edwin Friedman, provides great depth on family systems theory and leadership through self-differentiation.
Podcast Episode 2: Self-Differentiation
Self-Differentiation is the key to remaining a non-anxious leader. This episode explains what it is and why it matters. Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin Friedman is a great resource for understanding self-differentiation. However, it is quite dense. Many have a hard time getting through it. You can also find […]
Three Steps to Help Manage Holidays with the Family
It’s the most wonderful time of year. Except when it’s not. Those who are grieving, lonely or in conflict would disagree with that sentiment. Even if you don’t fit this description, you can run into your fair share of anxiety, either your own or that of others. The combination of increased social activity, and […]
Lessons from Lifelong Kindergarten
The Lifelong Kindergarten (LK) group is part of the MIT Media Lab. This is how they describe themselves: “The Lifelong Kindergarten group develops new technologies and activities that, in the spirit of the blocks and finger paint of kindergarten, engage people in creative learning experiences. Our ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative […]
Three Motivation Concepts that Will Make You a Better Leader
Effective leaders recognize what motivates intrinsically. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. This is compared to extrinsic motivation which is driven by external factors such as money, social status or the approval of others. While the latter is not always bad, those who work in mission-based organizations often do so because of intrinsic motivation. Understanding […]
Life-Giving Speech in a Hate-Filled World
The rhetoric is getting intense. This Facebook post is a good example. “Some of the most hateful arguments I’ve seen on FB lately have been people fighting over what to feed their dogs. Really people?” Oh and there’s the Supreme Court nomination. Before that there was immigration, tax cuts, gun control, Black Lives Matter, health […]
Which Do You Feed, Anxiety or Hope?
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside of me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.” […]
The Problem with Seriousness
Most of what I’ve learned in family systems is counter-intuitive. Dealing with anxiety is no exception. A big takeaway is that the anxiety I feel about a situation has more to do with me and how I function in my family of origin than it does about the content of the situation. This is […]
Trouble Managing Anxiety? Talk to Your Family
The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s […]