Conversation Starters

Those of us who have taken on leadership positions should receive consistent feedback from our peers, our supervisors, and clients/students/consumers that our organization serves.  Recently, I had the opportunity to collect such feedback and it truly stopped me in my tracks -- in an anonymous-response ESCI (emotional social competency inventory) assessment, I got an insight into how my past and present colleagues view me as a leader.   After what has been a difficult year-plus professionally -- seeing 100% turnover twice in two years in our small nonprofit staff, including an abrupt departure by our Executive Director, going through an over 10-month span without permanent organizational leadership, and now adapting to new permanent leadership -- reading what these colleagues of mine think about me brought me to tears.  Genuine, happy tears.  I am so thankful for these incredible mentors, coworkers, volunteers, and community leaders who see so much value in me....

In the past couple of months (let's call them Quarantine), I've averaged daily walks of about seven and a half miles.  Often that's broken up into two sessions: a mid-morning and an evening stroll.  They're not high impact -- there's a lot of literal stopping to smell the flowers and stare at a cool cloud formation or wonder at the expanding wildlife I'm discovering in this inner-ring Cleveland pseudo-suburb.  While I walk and contemplate the beauty of the world around me, I listen to podcasts.  God knows how many I've blazed through during this bountiful alone-time.  It probably helps me feel more connected, honestly, because many of the podcasts I enjoy are conversational:  You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes  and  Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend   and  WTF with Marc Maron  -- even the more political automatic downloads, like  Love It or Leave It  (hands down the best podcast in the current rotation) or  Pod Save A...