Lessons In Leadership Brain Health — It’s Just Smart In stressful times, employee appreciation begins with supporting brain health. A year ago, just before COVID-19 started forcing lockdowns, a small group of Freeman people attended a lecture by Bonnie Pittman, who is an art historian, scholar, author, and Director of Art/Brain Innovations at the Center for BrainHealth for The University of Texas at Dallas. She lectures and […] Written by BPH March 4, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Lessons In Leadership Leading Through Tough Times These three attributes are critical. I always enjoy chatting with my friend Candy Gray. In addition to being an HR leader at Facebook, she also has experience at DreamWorks SKG, Disney, Airplay, and assignments where she’s rubbed shoulders with all types of talented individuals and would-be leaders. We’ve compared notes on what it takes to […] Written by BPH February 12, 2021May 6, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Lessons In Leadership The Power of 3 The power of three is hardwired into our brains. From bedtime stories (The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, etc.) to literary trilogies (Sophocles, Trollope, Tolkien), three seems the right number. Even the stories of world religions and folk mythology use some sort of trinity – from the Three Magi to the three Fates. Aesthetically, […] Written by BPH October 8, 2020October 26, 2020 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Lessons In Leadership Don’t Be Right — Be Effective Shouting never helps. Is it me, or is everybody getting a bit overwrought these days? Election rhetoric tends to cause a certain degree of national divisiveness, but this year it is compounded by the added stress of pandemic concerns, economic woes, and social justice issues. Everything seems to be subject to debate, even such former […] Written by BPH August 28, 2020October 23, 2020 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Lessons In Leadership Are You Avoiding Me? Office conflicts are rarely as damaging as the effort to avoid them. Conflict avoidance can seem like good “adulting,” but sometimes it’s as effective as hiding in bed with a blanket over your head. I get it. There are times when we are just not ready to grapple with a thorny issue that someone keeps […] Written by BPH May 29, 2020October 23, 2020 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Lessons In Leadership What Have I Done For You Lately? The best cure for feeling unappreciated is to show appreciation. I suppose everyone is entitled to the occasional pity party. Even people in the C-suite. Some days it seems that no one knows how hard we work. No one treats us with the respect we’ve earned. No one gives us what we really want. Are […] Written by BPH January 31, 2020October 26, 2020 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Unexpressed Expectations = Planned Resentment Recovery begins with a realistic recalibration. There’s a psychological phenomenon that I refer to as “unexpressed expectations = planned resentment.” In all walks of life — social, business, family, recreational — people are disappointed, become angry, and are sometimes disillusioned because an outcome falls short of their hopes and dreams. And they don’t connect their resentment with […] Written by BPH July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Next Big Thing Isn’t Hybrid events are a transition to something better. During the deepest days of the pandemic, we learned that the Number One search query on our Freeman website was “hybrid.” This term had become shorthand for the sort of stop-gap live/virtual event format favored by the industry as it regrouped following pandemic-driven event cancellations. In March […] Written by BPH June 30, 2021June 30, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
This Is My Job Seeing the people who aren’t there. I’m old enough to remember leaders who felt totally justified in dismissing discrimination and other vital social issues as, “not my job.” There was a sense not only of entitlement but actual indignation that these “bleeding-heart” issues should be raised in a business context. The history of American business […] Written by BPH June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A Good Problem to Have Ramping back up in the new world order. It seems ages since we started having those tough discussions about furloughing our amazing team members. And now we’re approaching summer again. At long last, our clients are talking about the return to in-person live events. That means our leadership team can make plans to ramp up and […] Written by BPH May 26, 2021May 26, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
