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Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Empathetic Leadership Lessons From the Ultimate Crash Course: Parenting

Posted on by Red Slice

Nothing has taught me more about empathy than being a parent. Full stop.

And trust me, I’ve had plenty of training. I’ve studied empathy, coached it, written books about it, and spoken to rooms full of leaders about how to cultivate it. But the real crash course? That came the moment I became “Mom.”

Parenting is empathy bootcamp on steroids. Talk about adapting to different styles: you’re not just parenting one child—you’re parenting a different version of that child every few months. One day, he’s gleefully dancing hip hop at a local dance studio. Six months later, he would rather die than dance in public, and suddenly hates that same song you used to belt out together in the car.

It’s disorienting, exhausting, and often hilarious. And most of all, it’s a masterclass in seeing the world from a perspective that’s wildly different from your own—even when it makes zero logical sense to you.

So yes, I’ve hesitated to compare parenting to leadership. It can feel condescending—no adult wants to feel like they’re being “parented” at work. But the parallels are impossible to ignore. Just like with your kids, the best leaders are the ones who adapt, listen deeply, stay humble, and respond with compassion rather than control.

Here are four parenting lessons I’m (constantly) learning—read: screwing up, reflecting on, and trying again—that translate directly to empathetic leadership:

1. Stay Humble

Your child’s world is not your world. I can try to learn the Gen Z slang. I can try (and fail) to buy the right hoodie or get the TikTok reference. But I will never be “in” his generation. I’m forever a tourist in his cultural landscape. And in his words, I grew up “in dinosaur times.”

Ouch. And also—fair.

Humility is critical here. The moment I get defensive or try to assert authority simply because I’m older or “wiser,” I lose the chance to truly connect. It’s the same with employees. You may have more experience, but that doesn’t mean your view is the only valid one. Ego kills empathy. Empathetic leaders check their assumptions and stay open to learning—from anyone, at any level.

2. Practice Resilience

I used to love a good routine. Consistency was my jam. And then I became a parent.

Plans? Ha. Routines? Temporary. There’s always a new sport, a last-minute sleepover request, a forgotten science project due tomorrow morning. Parenting forces you to improvise constantly. You bend or you break.

The same applies at work. Leadership—especially empathetic leadership—requires emotional agility. You can’t cling to rigid strategies when people’s lives and needs are fluid. You learn to adapt in real time and not take disruption personally. Change isn’t an obstacle—it’s a given. Resilient leaders don’t just survive it, they model how to move through it with grace.

3. Meet Them Where They Are

My son has his own strengths, struggles, and rhythms. I can’t project my goals or pace onto him and expect things to go smoothly. I have to understand what motivates him, what holds him back, and how he best learns and grows. Only then can we work toward something together.

This is leadership in a nutshell. People aren’t blank slates you get to mold into your ideal worker. They bring their personalities, strengths, and limitations. Your job is to tune in, not steamroll. The most effective leaders build trust by meeting people where they are—and helping them thrive from that starting point.

4. Let Go of Control

Here’s one I continue to struggle with, especially as my son gets older: I am not in control. I can set boundaries, offer guidance, and hold space. But ultimately, he’s going to make his own choices, develop his own opinions, and experience his own wins and failures.

Empathetic leaders don’t micromanage or dictate every move. They create a safe environment for people to step into their autonomy. That means trusting your team to find their own voice—even if it means they sometimes fail. Especially then. Because empathy isn’t about protecting people from discomfort; it’s about supporting them through it.

Empathy is a Daily Practice

Empathy in leadership isn’t just about being “nice.” It’s about doing the hard, human work of showing up with curiosity, humility, and flexibility—even when you’re tired or frustrated or just don’t get it. Parenting has been the ultimate mirror for me—a reminder that real empathy isn’t something you master and move on from. It’s something you practice. Over and over and over again.

So whether you’re leading a team or helping a pre-teen navigate a middle school meltdown, remember: you don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to be present, be real, and be willing to grow right alongside them.

Need some upskilling for yourself or your team on how to apply empathy in the workplace in practical ways that lead to results? Let’s chat about your needs and goals, and see if one of my  workshops or talks can help transform your team into master collaborators and fearless innovators.

Photo Credit: Surface on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Beyond Either/Or: Why Great Leaders Embrace Both/And Thinking

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Did you know that human brains are wired to adopt binary thinking for survival? We see things as black and white, right or wrong, so we can quickly assess threats and opportunities.  Like the big wooly mammoth coming at you. Or Mr. Lumberg heading over to ask about your TPS Report.

In reality, we often deal with shades of gray – and those shades differ depending on your own life experiences. Accepting that two seemingly contradictory beliefs are true is known as dialectical thinking – and this vital skill helps you navigate change, balance priorities,  and creatively adapt.

Either/Or leadership will not serve you well as a 21st-century leader. Not when complex challenges require diverse voices to collaborate and innovate together. To quickly build those trusted relationships, we need to embrace BOTH/AND leadership. 

Leadership that balances BOTH the demands of the organization AND the needs of your people. 

Empathetic leadership CAN co-exist with high performance, accountability, profitability, and even having your own clear boundaries. Stud after study shows this. 

But how? 

This balancing act is what I call The Empathy Dilemma.

For example, empathy can co-exist with high performance, accountability, profitability, and clear boundaries. 

Sounds good, right? So why is it so hard to maintain that balance?

See, it gets challenging in the modern fast-paced, stressful workplace because of generational misunderstandings, diverse voices, and those who weaponize empathy to get their way. 

Plus, the fact that most people don’t really understand what empathy means and how it can show up in a professional setting like the workplace just add to the confusion. 

So our brains, which love binary thinking and simple answers, can’t just go on autopilot. Showing up for different people based on their different needs requires effort: how we listen, how we communicate, how we offer support, how we emotionally regulate ourselves. Empathy doesn’t allow us to react impulsively or operate on auto-pilot. So, some leaders simply fall back on what they know: command and control. 

I get it—letting go of the status quo is scary! But being aware of why you fall back on bad habits is the first step to growth and change.

Let’s be clear. Empathy does not have to mean crying on the floor with your employees. Empathy at work means being able to see, understand, and where appropriate, feel another person’s perspective. And further, use that information to act with compassion. To take the next right step together.

Next step? Let’s debunk common empathy myths that might be holding you back from better collaboration and connection with your team:

Empathy is not about being nice. Nice is sweet, and thoughtful, and lovely. But it doesn’t mean you see someone else’s point of view.

Empathy is not caving into unreasonable demands. That’s people pleasing or submission, not empathy. You can make tough business decisions but do so with respect and compassion in HOW you implement and communicate. 

One of my most empathetic leaders actually had to lay off our entire team before a merger. But how he did it made a difference. He gently but clearly broke the news, gave us space to process, prepared in advance for our questions, and provided his time, resources and support to make this easier on us. He’s still a close mentor to this day!

Empathy is not a weakness. It requires great strength to take on someone else’s point of view without defensiveness or fear. You can be confidently empathetic and You can be confidently empathetic, make hard decisions, and hold people accountable.

All at the same time. Both/And.

Finally, empathy does not mean you have to agree. Empathy is about connection, not conversion or coercion. You can have an empathetic conversation, and better understand someone’s context, but still leave with your values intact. You and the CFO may not agree on a strategic plan but you can get curious, actively listen, and acknowledge her perspective. And she can do the same for you. Maybe then you find out he doesn’t support your plan because he has elder parents he cares for and this will require more of his time, or that he implemented a similar plan at his last company and it failed. Or she may reveal a truth you hadn’t considered. You can then learn why the other person sees things the way they do. Get curious, actively listen, and acknowledge why someone thinks the way they do so you can find common ground and move the decision forward. 

Think about how you show up as a leader and ask yourself: Am I choosing my behaviors based on either/or thinking, or can I embrace BOTH/AND thinking to show up in th best way to achieve my goals and support my team?

Photo Credit: Alice Yamamura, Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Empathy in Life AND At Work is Worth Fighting For

Posted on by Red Slice

The Dalai Lama had a lot to say about business and leadership. Yes, the Dalai Lama.

A few years ago, I read the book A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World  by Daniele Goleman. It was a game changer for me, in terms of marrying values, ethics, and business – with a splash of spirituality.

Imagine a world where compassion is the norm.

This is the world I’m trying to build with my work. 

His Holiness has met with leaders from around the world and has seen how many of them bring purpose and positive energy into their work – and how successful they were as a result. He often talks about self-awareness and self-mastery being the essence of good leadership. And if you are able to be self-aware and have self-mastery, that usually means you are putting your ego aside for something greater than yourself.

When studies like the 2024 Businessolver State of Workplace Empathy report still show that 37% of CEO’s, 30% of HR professionals, and 244% of employees believe empathy doesn’t have a place in the workplace – IMHO that number should be zero – while ALSO claiming higher rates of workplace toxicity and mental health challenges, how are they not putting the two things together?

Business is just another way we humans interact with one another. It’s not outside of ourselves. For many of us, we spend the bulk of our time there. 

How is it possible that some of us still think we have some sort of armor we put on when we clock in, or, like the Apple TV series Severance, that a chip is implanted in us to forget about everything going on in our personal lives when we walk through the office door – and everything about our work life is gone when we take the elevator back up?

Empathy belongs in any place where humans interact with other humans.

When we lose touch with our ability to be compassionate in the face of adversity, challenge or tough decisions, we relinquish our humanity. 

We shouldn’t be required to give up our humanity just to work at an accounting firm, software company, or construction site. We should be able to be whole people wherever we are in the world. However, we move about it, and with whomever we choose to interact. 

There are some pretty awful leadership role models entering our spheres of business, society, and government. There always have been, there always will be It’s easy to say we’re resigned to that. But we cannot go gentle into that goodnight, as poet Dylan Thomas once wrote. Human connection, empathy, and compassion are worth fighting for. And we fight for them not with weapons and screaming, but by embracing those values. By modeling them, celebrating them, and rewarding them in whatever sphere of influence we have. We fight by disproving the false belief that you can’t be empathetic and successful or impactful at the same time.

Only then can we really strengthen the connections that are needed to build community.

We have a mental health crisis in our culture. We are dealing with a loneliness epidemic, toxic masculinity, and oppressive systems that only make room for a few while hurting the many. Society could not be flying a large enough banner across the sky to tell us we need to change something. We need to embrace empathy again.

The Dalai Lama got it. Smart, successful leaders I speak to all the time get it. So I invite you to be part of turning the tide – speak out, and model empathy and compassion whether you’re with your kids, on social media, stuck in traffic, or, yes, at a budget meeting at work.

For further reading: 

3 Observations About Compassion from the Dalai Lama

How Purpose Leads to Company Success

Empathy for Others Starts with Empathy for Yourself 

Photo Credit: Becca Henry Photography

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Brain Injury Recovery: Letting Go of the Past to Accelerate Success

Posted on by Red Slice

September is Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month. And August 4 was my 16 year “annie-versary” (as they call it) of surviving my own near-fatal brain aneurysm.

So many blessing to be thankful for. So many lessons learned.

In my  memoir Rebooting My Brain, I shared that my own worst obstacle was not about my cognitive deficits or any physical limitations. Not even my impaired eyesight at the time. It came from within ME.

My stubbornness in refusing to change and adapt. 

I kept trying to compare myself to the Old Me, to the baseline that existed before. “But before, I could do ….easier, faster, better! I just need to do it like that again!”

Until a very kind occupational therapist challenged me with tough love, saying, “Forget about what you used to do or how you used to be”  She challenged me to face what was  in front of me right now and figure out new strategies to get to my goals..

Once I stopped clinging to the past and embraced what was now in front of me, I found new ways to achieve my goals  – and I thrived. My progress accelerated.

And this is exactly what I’m seeing leaders doing now, in our post-pandemic workplaces. Leaders refusing to adapt. Leaders clinging to outdate models. Leaders return to what they know out of fear.

What does that look like? 

  • Demanding 5 days a week back in the office
  • Refusing to keep some of the flexibility they offered during the Pandemic
  • Cutting DEIB programs and budgets

And you can probably fill in more examples you’ve seen.

My empathy speaker work is about helping leadering understand how to adapt to the new paradigms of leadership and workplace culture. Once they do, their progress and success will accelerate,  just as it did for me!

However, here’s the plot twist:

Employees, you have agency, too. 

If you are lucky enough to have a leadership team who understands the benefits they get from offering flexibility and a more human-centered workplace,  great. But if you are not, YOU STILL GET TO MAKE A CHOICE. You deal with the new reality before you.

Stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole – or culture, if you will.

If your organization’s business decisions no longer align with your values or lifestyle, you get to make a decision to adapt. 

The company is showing you who they are. They are allowed to do business however they see fit. Yes, even if it’s short-sighted, limiting, and will hurt them competitively in the long run. 

BU they are not required to change for you. A human-centered workplace does not equal a YOU-centered workplace, unfortunately. The company also has a responsibility to all its employees and customers to run sustainable, with governance and compliance as they see fit. 

So the choice is yours: 

Despite your best efforts to create change where you are, will you continue to defiantly cling to the flexibilities you used to have during the Pandemic. Or will you adapt to the reality before you and chart a new path? Find a new company or role that better aligns with your values and needs?

Once you do, your progress and success will accelerate.

PS, Let’s take a moment to acknowledge that not every worker has the luxury of just leaving an inflexible environment and finding a new job. But if you are able to in your industry or career, it may be time to adapt and move on in order to thrive.

Photo credit: Ankush Minda on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Empathy and Joy in… Politics?!

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Anyone who has had to endure the DMV knows there can often be little joy in government. 

But a few weeks ago, U.S. Democratic leaders encouraged us to find joy in politics. Yes, POLITICS. The joy in helping others, building a strong country and equitable future. Joy in rolling up our sleeves and getting involved to help our communities and our nation thrive.

I was struck by how often both “empathy” and “joy” were mentioned at the Democratic National Convention, because JOY is the 5th Pillar of The 5 Pillars of Effective and Empathetic Leadership, from my forthcoming new book, The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance People and Personal Boundaries (Get your copy now!)

It’s not about the work being joyful all the time. It can’t possibly be in any organization (spreadsheets anyone?) But let’s not assume joy contradicts “tackling serious issues” or “getting results.”

The word JOY in politics may rub some the wrong way, especially when many Americans are struggling to pay rent, buy a home, afford prescription drugs, manage multiple jobs, find opportunities, untangle bureaucracy, and protect our rights and bodily autonomy.

But it is in these times where JOY is exactly what a savvy empathetic leader leverages to motivate, engage, and get people thriving. And it’s how you can get the best out of your teams as well, even when the work is difficult.

Creating joyful energy catalyzes ACTION. And ACTION is what enables your organization (or government or country) to succeed so everyone can thrive.

Empathy AND results can co-exist. Both/And. Learn more about why and how in my new book!

Photo Credit: Mike Erskine, Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

What Empathy is and What it is Not

Posted on by Red Slice

We all agree empathy is a good idea. But not truly understanding what empathy is and what it isn’t gets in our way and causes more harm, burnout, and disconnection.

Empathy is NOT:

  • Being nice
  • Giving in
  • People pleasing
  • Making everybody happy
  • Avoiding hard truths to ensure comfort
  • Unanimous consensus (or satisfaction)
  • Hiding information
  • Doing someone’s work for them

Empathy is:

  • Listening
  • Getting curious
  • Knowing your triggers, strengths, and blindspots (and those of your team!)
  • Take a beat
  • Making space and time
  • Enabling everyone to have a voice as input (even if you make the final call)
  • Transparency in decisions, especially the tough ones
  • Letting go of ego or righteous indignation to see another’s point of view
  • Knowing that good ideas come from anywhere
  • Admitting when we don’t know the answer – and rallying others to bring their ideas forth
  • Having the tough conversation as soon as possible, with grace and respect
  • Making clear decisions…AND
  • …not being afraid to course correct if you’re proven wrong or get new information
  • Seeing the whole person, both inside and outside of work
  • Meeting people where they are
  • Creating moments of joy and levity, even when the work is hard

Empathy is not doing FOR. It’s being WITH.

How does empathy show up in your team or organization?

Photo credit: Desola Lanre-Ologun on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Shift Your Marketing Mindset

Posted on by Red Slice

I want you to shift your thinking. 

I want you to shift your thinking about promoting and marketing your valuable work. 

What you do is valuable. It enhances people’s lives. It enhances their work whether you sell B2B or B2C, and you know it. 

So if you are not excited when talking about your business, if you shy away from sharing your philosophy and your values around the work that you do and why it’s different from what someone can get elsewhere…

…you’re going to have a problem with marketing effectively. 

The bottom line is: If you are not your biggest fan, no one else will care. You have to be the most excited, the most passionate, the biggest cheerleader for the work that you do, because that’s what’s going to attract people to want to work with you. 

It doesn’t mean it’s an ego trip. It doesn’t mean you’re just talking about yourself, but if you find joy in your work, you need to share that story with your ideal prospects so that they can get excited too. 

Again, if you have no passion and joy for talking about your business, if you downplay it, if you hide, if you’re bashful about it, no one else will be able to see the beauty of it. 

You have to be your number one fan.

Want to learn more about how to craft a brand story that empathetically resonates with your ideal clients and captivates them to learn more about you? Check out my free masterclass right now!

Photo credit: Frank Leuderalbert at Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

3 Ways You Can Make Empathy a Habit

Posted on by Red Slice

As science has proven to us, empathy is innate to human beings. It’s just that sometimes, barring specific psychological disorders, that muscle atrophies. Whether it’s because of how you were raised, or your current workplace, or who you surround yourself with, the muscle can lose its tone when empathy is not celebrated, rewarded, or modeled.

And like starting a new fitness routine, we need to tweak our surroundings in order to support this new habit we want to develop. It’s like stocking the fridge with healthy food so you can easily make better choices about your nutrition!

I’ve been listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is amazing. In it, he talks about needing to change your environment and context in order to create habits that stick.

So how does this apply to building a habit of empathy?

Well, we can’t always easily replace our colleagues, managers, family, or friends! But we can develop an awareness of how they may or may not be showing up with empathy that supports our own desire for transformation. And we can make our own small changes to increase our chances for success.

If you’re falling back on negative, old, outdated leadership models, what can you do to physically, psychologically, and emotionally change your context to cultivate more empathy?

Try these ideas:

  1. Make a commitment to bring empathy to all your interactions as best you can: You can only control yourself. Be the model in the conversation so you “train “people you work with that this is how you want the interactions to go. For example, ask more questions. Reflect back what someone says before you launch into your perspective to make sure you’re on the same page and you heard them right. Ask about how people are doing and really listen before diving into business right away. These subtle cues will get noticed and people will start to recognize that when they interact with you, they need to take a pause, see the other person, and engage in active listening.
  1. Share your empathy-building goals – out loud:  Clarity is one of the five pillars to being an effective empathic leader that I talk about in my forthcoming book, The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries. Don’t make assumptions. If you have a goal to be more empathetic, share it with your team and colleagues  Something like, “To help this team feel more engaged and be more successful, I’m setting a new habit for myself and I would so appreciate your support. I’m working on strengthening my empathy so that I can be a more connected leader for you. So if you feel that I’m not seeing or hearing you in our interactions, please call me out on it. Maybe you’ll all join me in this effort to bring more empathy into our team dynamic.”
  1. Change your routine, context, or environment: You can get creative on this one. It could be something as simple as a sticky note on your laptop that reminds you to “Ask 3 questions before starting anything in a one-to-one meeting.” Or revamping meetings to make space for not just on-the-fly brainstorming that benefits extroverts, but journaling time before offering ideas to support introverts. Or creating a rule that no meeting can take place without an agenda and any materials to review sent ahead of time. Implement a way for all team members to give feedback that feels safe and encouraged. Take a poll of your team and find out the best times to hold weekly meetings so you are supporting all lifestyle needs of parents, disabled team members, or those who handle elder care. Recognize someone each week who has exhibited empathy with a colleague or customer so that it becomes a public celebration.

Building an empathy habit does not require massive disruption. It’s in the small steps that we make progress. Find those small and easy opportunities to change your environment and context so your empathy habit can better stick.

Photo credit: Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Marty Maraschino Taught Me Resilience

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Resilience might be eligible for word of the year. You hear it everywhere you go. We talked a lot about resilience during the Pandemic. How do we bounce back and adapt?

One definition of resilience is: The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

Clearly, we need to embrace resilience as human beings. In a chaotic, unpredictable world where the only constant is change, you might drive yourself mad if you cannot adapt.

But more importantly, how is the skill of resilience strengthened, taught, or learned? Can it only be built when you face change or disappointment? Is it kind of like skydiving? You only learn how to really do it by jumping out of a plane?!

And how can I teach it to my son before he actually needs to draw on it?

Thinking back, I got lessons in resilience and rejection early. From professional acting as a child – where I never held on to any one opportunity too tightly and was on to the next if I was not cast – to participating in plays at school, I learned that rejection was not about me, per se, but about whether I was the right fit for a role. And that was nothing personal.

While I got many juicy roles in school plays, I remember the ones that stung. Particularly one. A school theater director organized a joint 7th, 8th, and 9th-grade production of the musical grease. And I wanted to be Marty Maraschino sooooooo badly. She was the sophisticated red-haired Pink Lady, brilliantly portrayed by Dinah Manoff in the movie version. My favorite line of hers was “I’m Marty Maraschino. As in cherry.”

Before the audition, I studied the lines. I watched the movie. I perfected my sexpot pout (even though I had no idea what I was doing at 13). The director somehow knew I wanted the role ao it was mine to lose.

And lose I did. While I have been a choir singer for a very long time, I was (and still am) very insecure about singing solo.  So I bombed the signing portion of the audition, singing Freddy My Love offkey and likely too softly.

The director even (sharply) asked me later, “What happened?!”I don’t know, but the role went to a much more deserving classmate who did a fabulous job. 

And I got the part of Dorothy the Cheerleader.

I loved that my school plays would often give names to the extras, so we didn’t have to simply be known as Cheerleader #5. But I could play Dorothy, and give her a whole backstory! I got to be in every dance number, sported a very fun 50s cheerleading outfit, and even got to do the hand jive with a cute boy during the big dance scene.

I learned from moments like that to process my grief over what I’d lost, but embrace what was in front of me – and make it my own. Play Dorothy to the  hilt and perhaps, maybe even steal the show (I mean, I was voted “Best Pickpocket” in the 7th-grade production of Oliver)

Another unexpected resilience lesson came when I was in middle school. I desperately wanted to be on the Drill Team, which was the middle school’s and high school’s dance squad. 

I loved to dance. Channeling Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson with my bestie to their iconic 80’s hits on her living room couch, I even gained some brief notoriety with an unforeseen gift and rhythm for dirty dancing! 

But my Achilles Heel was not being able to do the splits. Despite taking ballet and gymnastics as a little girl, this flexibility eluded me. I even remember following random remedies like stretching after a hot bath, doing 5 minutes a day, or splits against a wall. If you were on the Drill Team, you knew how to do the splits. High kicks and all of that.

That didn’t stop me from trying out….THREE YEARS IN A ROW. I tried out in 7th, 8th, and then 9th grade for the high school team. 

The feedback? I nailed the routines, my smile was magnetic, but I couldn’t do the kicks or splits. And the competition was fierce, so…others made the team when I did not.

With each disappointment, I still got up and tried out the following year. What could I do better? How could I finally limber up enough to do the splits? Could I make up for this inability with precision moves and bringing the energy? They now call this a growth mindset, but it just came naturally to me.It wasn’t about being praised, it was about my own innate desire to practice and improve. What could I tweak to change the outcome next time?

A popular girl’s mom was on the selection committee, and even told her to tell me how amazing I was at tryouts, that I had such a great smile, but that the splits stopped me. 

But here was what I consider the truest test of resilience.  Back then, there was no email so you had to go to the school on the designated day and check the list posted on the door. Once again, my name was not on it. But two of my good friends were. 

And I remember being on the phone in my kitchen with one of them, as we compared notes. Weeping in silence as we talked, I found a way to share in her excitement. Through tears, I said, Ï’m so happy for you! You deserve this.”She said all the right things – that she was sorry, and it wasn’t fair -, but in the end, she made it and I didn’t. On that phone call, at the tender age of 13, I learned how to hold my own disappointment in check while still being happy for my girlfriend. 

Talk about #hypewomen  – thank you, Erin Gallagher, for naming this needed ability, starting this movement in 2023, and showing how it only lifts all of us up.

None of this answers my initial question about how you can “teach” resilience without any real fire actually testing your strength.  There are some great science-backed ways presented in this article by Greater Good on ways to build resilience,  – change the narrative, face your fears, practice self-compassion, meditate, and cultivate forgiveness, but I submit that these are more like things you can do to shore up your foundation so when you need to practice resilience, you are ready. 

I don’t know if these tips actually build resilience, because I’m still not sure it can be built until you are actually tested. I believe they make your internal landscape more amenable and open to resilience, they “seed the soil”, so to speak. Happy to hear other opinions about this!

I’m curious how you have learned resilience in your own life, as a child or an adult. Do you intentionally do things to set up a better environment for yourself to be resilient?  Did you have good role models, or was this something you had to teach yourself? Please let me know!

Photo Credit: https://grease.fandom.com/wiki/Marty_Maraschino

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

So, This happened This Year…Best of 2023

Posted on by Red Slice

As we careen into the holidays and end-of-the-year hoopla, I wanted to share some reflections with you on the year that was 2023 here at Red Slice and offer some best-of hits for your enjoyment.

This year, I was honored to present more empathy workshops for leadership training programs and conferences, interview amazing guests on The Empathy Edge podcast, and even deliver powerful brand story work to amazing clients.

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite podcast interviews and blog posts from this year. Hope you enjoy!

My favorite 6 episodes from The Empathy Edge podcast (although that’s like asking which child is your favorite!):

My Favorites Posts on Red-Slice.com

As we go into 2024, I am still putting together my plan and goals. I know I want to continue working towards Joy, Impact, and Magic, as I did last year as I said last year at this time, (it’s okay to renew your themes and goals if that serves you. And I can’t WAIT to share my newest book with you, The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries – coming September 2024!

Wishing you a joyful holiday season and merry new year. As our world reels from so much tragedy, hate, and war, may we continue to find ways to find the light in the dark and bring empathy, kindness, and joy into our own homes, workplaces, and communities. This is the way.