Hooray – I’m thinking with unconscious bias

July 15th, 2016 by Kelly Kienzle

What do you think of people who go to Bruno Mars concerts? Or people who wear black lipstick? Or still others who read “The Financial Times”, live in a commune or perhaps run ultra-marathons through the desert? Did an image come to mind as you thought about

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Another Round of Applause

June 2nd, 2016 by Kelly Kienzle

I want to send out another round of applause to all of my People With Whom I’ve Worked (PWWIWs. I can’t call you simply “clients” –- it’s deeper than that.) The reason for this applause is that I recently tasked myself with doing something that I

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Judgment (Not) Day

May 2nd, 2016 by Kelly Kienzle

How much negative chatter do you hear over the course of a day? How often does your ego pipe up (in that silent but deadly way she has) and point out your weaknesses, missed opportunities and persistent mistakes? If she’s like mine, she can clock overtime

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When Defeat Becomes Victory

April 1st, 2016 by Kelly Kienzle

“One afternoon, Lucy and I drove down to Cañada Road, our favorite biking spot. (Usually we would bike there, pride forces me to add, but the hills were still too formidable for my lightweight frame.) I managed six wobbly miles. It was a far cry from

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How (and Why) Do We Interpret Silence?

January 29th, 2016 by Kelly Kienzle

It happened again. Once again when I was feeling low about the quality and impact of my work, I received a message that my work made a difference to someone. How many times have you gone through a similar cycle in which you noticed a deficit

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Being Nice: The Insufficient Strategy for Earning Respect

December 14th, 2015 by Kelly Kienzle

Earning someone’s respect is different from making them feel good. I realized recently I have been equating these two intentions. I have been assuming that if I make someone feel good, then they will respect me. My approach has some merit to it: If people associate

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True Refuge

October 31st, 2015 by Kelly Kienzle

Buddhists believe that false refuge is where we go when we feel terrible and hope to feel better. We think we will find refuge there, but then we don’t actually feel better afterwards. In fact, we may even feel worse. Blowing up an afternoon by eating

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I (Don’t) Know

September 29th, 2015 by Kelly Kienzle

We always want to know things. We yearn for certainty and assurance. But why? We want to know what will happen, who will say what and how the work will go. We assume that we will be happier and more secure if we can forecast what

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How to Make Your Vacation Your Biggest Professional Accomplishment for the Next 12 Months

August 4th, 2015 by Kelly Kienzle

I love vacation. You love vacation. We all love vacations. Why? Because we can disconnect, physically and electronically, from our routines. We can step back and view our world and our thinking differently. We can let our minds meander. We can remember how we used to

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The Big Deception of Big Success

June 30th, 2015 by Kelly Kienzle

Success is incremental. Warren Bennis warned of the folly of waiting until you’ve achieved a major success before celebrating. Major success usually doesn’t happen that way. Success happens incrementally in very small ways over a long period of time. Waiting until the bid has been won,

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