When I was attending UW Business School, I had a class where the very first thing our professor told us was "This class will be very hard and usually nobody gets an A in my class, so I just want you all to know you will have to work hard but some of you who are used to getting As will be disappointed."

There are so many people around me who only do the minimum at work. Enough to get the job done, to meet expectations. I want to do more but I don't know how to. I don't want to show up as too ambitious, or too full of myself. It's not like there's anything really wrong at my work. Life and work are good. I am just a creative person and I see all kinds of ways how things could be improved and slightly changed and would make a big difference for the people I work with and for our organization... Have you been in a similar situation before?

How to build trust that builds the foundation for truly high performing teams

Engineers I talk with wish they would have…

"Feeling, they discovered, is a form of thinking."

This sentence launched a pretty good discussion in my Not Your Typical Book Club last Monday.

Engineers are known and respected for their thinking and their knowledge.

But this sentence exposed a gap.

And opened a door. A door for curiosity.

What does that mean: feeling is a form of thinking?

Mary joined my Not Your Typical Book Club because she loved processes. In her view, negotiating was a skill build of logical process steps and she wanted to expand her skillset as a leader.

Imagine how surprised she was when, in the first chapter of the book Never Split The Difference, she read "I realized that without a deep understanding of human psychology, without the acceptance that we are all…”

I feel sometimes people think I am too much.

For those who ever had that thought, let me tell you more.

I am not too much. I am MORE than what you expected of me.

What do you need a little more of right now?

Me...? I need…

Not time... cause I cannot buy more in the store.

Here's a story about how being curious & taking action resulted in a super awesome moment: a moment that made my son's day today.

Last night my son expressed his desire for a bigger desk (trigger for my curiosity).

You can use a mirror to look into it. You can also use it to reflect away the hurting arrows of others who want to put you down - because you are too much, you are different, or you don't fit their expectations.

In essence because they just simply cannot connect with you thus they don't understand you.

Friday's the day to bring you VALUE. Check out what I have discovered these past 2 weeks. The door is open for you, too.

This week I asked an Engineer "So, what did you do with that feedback?"

"Nothing" he said.

Early in my corporate career I heard this perspective "Feedback is a gift" but honestly I didn't know what to do w it.

"I try to recognize my team all the time." he said.

"And how often do you accept their recognition?" I asked.

"Well, not that often. But it isn't about me. It is about the team." he replied. "How does accepting the recognition help the other person anyway?"

Yesterday I caught the last 2 minutes of the football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings.

It's amazing how much can happen within 2 minutes.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space is the present moment.

In that moment we can choose our response.

With our response we shape our lives and the world.

I personally experienced the power of realizing I didn't know what I didn't know. And then my life started changing.

You might be, like I was, someone who is mostly concerned with knowing as much as you can. You believe like I did that knowledge is the constant focus of your life.