Crying? Me? Why do you ask? These red and swollen eyes? Just allergies. Honestly! Well, ok…truth be told, I’ve been balling like a baby. We just finished The Good Place on Netflix and I feel like I’ve lived a lifetime while watching this show. Simply put, it is brilliant. I laughed, I cried, I learned …
“Leave leadership out of it”. It was the second time I had heard that statement in a week and it caught me off guard. Even more this time. How could we leave leadership out of servant leadership? Isn’t that the entire purpose of this Four Simple Words journey to figure out how we can lead …
I am sitting in one of Elsie’s favorite places, surrounded by memories of her and Clifford, aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins once removed. The chair is in the kitchen at the farm house she and Clifford bought in 1942 just outside of the village Chaffeys Lock, an hour north of Kingston. The chair …
Our Four Simple Words Forum #2 with CV Harquail this week about the connections (and tensions) between feminism and servant leadership was brilliant for a number of reasons. The conversation really challenged a lot of my thinking about what feminism is, my role in it and being aware of the MANY barriers that people who …
Our Four Simple Words Forum this week with my friends Glenna Banda and Melanie Lang was a lot of fun. The three of us shared some experiences around serving teams remotely. It was a great chat and had me reflecting on how I need to be adapting my leadership in these dramatic times of change. …
This week was filled with Zoom meetings. From hardly using the platform 3 weeks ago to now running my day, I have to say it is a great tool. Privacy issues aside (yes IT friends, that is a big aside) Zoom is allowing me to serve clients, expand my volunteering in creative ways, check-in with …
This has been a challenging week. With work grinding to a halt and a number of other projects now on hold, I’ve been feeling very limited in my ability to truly serve. While most of my professional life is online and the phone, something has felt different this week as the collective level of anxiety …
This week has been filled with examples of strong and not-so-strong servant leadership. Trying to absorb the onslaught of information has me reflecting on the power of acknowledgement as we lead others through change. A great example of servant leadership has been from a long-serving CEO of a hospitality business crumbling because of the sudden …
I witnessed a great example of Servant Leadership this week while attending a training session about the power of feminist business development. It was fun to be an audience member (rather than the person running the room) and gave me the opportunity to see other professionals in action. One attendee arrived well after we started …
I want each of us to think about how we can grow our servant leadership skills in 2020. No public pledges, no social media commitment or pressure. Just an ask that we each intentionally engage those around us at home, work and in our community and actively look for ways to serve their needs. Servant …
Mary Elsie was born to Ida and Charles McBride in 1903 in the small town of Smith’s Falls Ontario. The first of four daughters, the family lived a comfortable and rewarding life as Charles was the town’s only dentist. From the get-go, Elsie was a mover and shaker. She was an energetic child that did …
March 8 is International Women’s Day. It’s also my 50th birthday. Can’t imagine a better day to launch FourSimpleWords.ca. At this halfway point in what is a pretty spectacular and blessed life. Between Mel, the kids and our extended families, an amazing network of friends, working with great staff, partners and clients at Pearl Street, …
