This one is quite tricky! The word TEACH reflects as LEARN! What do

You may not see it at first, but the white spaces read the word optical, the blue landscape reads the word illusion. Look again! Can you see why this painting is called an optical illusion?

These next four blogs come to you by way of my good friend and colleague, Jason Cordoba, Manager of Small Business Systems -Aviation Industry at Component Control. I met Jason several years ago at an ACPC conference … he was instrumental in keeping the break-out session crowd under control. In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL (inside each black letter is a white letter). It’s all very physiological too, because use it visualize the concept that good can’t exist without evil (or the absence of good is evil)

My brother, Norm, called to ask my professional coaching opinion on how he should handle a work situation: “One of the guys I work with presented one of my ideas, but did not give me credit for the idea. I want to confront him, and I want to do it professionally.”

Before we could discuss approaches he should take [and he had an outline of what to say], I asked, “Norm which idea exactly did he claim as yours?”

“Aahh”, my brother replied, “He was really clever in what he said. He never directly claimed the idea was his; he strongly implied it by saying “I’ve used this for several teams and…..” If one didn’t know better, they would think he came up with the idea. In fact, when I told my boss (his boss, too) about it, my boss said “He’s always presented the information that way”. Unfortunately for my colleague, there are 2 years worth of his reports with a different way (that no one understands) of presenting the information. So, when my boss and I looked (together) at his previous presentations, my boss saw that I was correct…So, because of what this guy actually said, I can’t say that he claimed the idea as his – that is a false statement. He did imply it, though.”

So my brother’s coworker never came right out and said “This is my idea”, “This isn’t my idea” or “This is Norm’s idea” ….. he bypassed that piece of information.

It isn’t what you said; it’s what they think they heard.

Tell me, what did you hear?

[Look for part 2 … the solution … in a future blog posting.]

Every action has two sides … one side faces the sun and the other faces darkness. If you are facing the darkness, you remain in the past.  Being chained to the past keeps negative feelings churning ….. remorse, jealousy, revenge, guilt …. variations of three of your Read the rest of this entry »

I love old movies … the dialog, the classic stories, the high acting quality. And I grew up on them, so they hold great childhood memories.

I was watching an episode of Night Gallery entitled “Make Me Laugh”. It’s the story of a has-been comic [Godfrey Cambridge] who, in a bar, meets up with a gentleman professing to be able to work miracles. Unfortunately, the miracle worker does not always give the wish-ee exactly what they want … he ‘misses’ so to speak.

The comic presses for his miracle. “I want to make people laugh” he demands. He gets his miracle. In fact, no matter what he says, and even when he only stands on stage, people laugh. And laugh hysterically. Of course this is not what the comic really wants … and he changes his miracle demand to “I want to touch people, I want to make them cry.” He then gets hit by a cab and indeed makes people cry.

The comic knew what he wanted, knew what he meant. The ‘miracle worker’ gave the comic exactly what he asked for.

Let me ask you, are you clear in your requests?

It isn’t what you said, it’s what they think they heard”

Read the rest of this entry »

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch woman who was the oldest person in the world when she died at age 115 in 2005 appeared sharp right up to the end, joking that pickled herring was the secret to her longevity.

Scientists say that Henrikje van Andel-Schipper’s mind was probably as good as it seemed: a post-mortem analysis of her brain revealed few signs of Alzheimer’s or other diseases commonly associated with a decline in mental ability in old age…

Asked what advice she would give to people who want to live a long time, she once quipped: “Keep breathing.”

You have a long time to learn how to communicate effectively …. Begin now!

Shari gives an enlightening break out session at Cessna Pilot Center Conference on the importance to flight instructors of emotional intelligence and relating well to your students.  Every session given so far has been enthusiastically embraced.

Each side of our brain can succumb to overwhelm. And there are two distinctly different ways to overcome overwhelm.

Your left brain is your logical brain, your analytical and logical thought,

along with your math and science skills reside here.  Your left brain works most efficiently when it is naming and categorizing, or when dealing with the 3 R’s [reading, writing, arithmetic].  Information is managed in sequential manner.

Your right brain is your creative brain, your intuition, creativity and art and music sensors come from this side.  Your right brain whirls when it encounters opportunities to use imagination and non-verbal information.  Information does not have to be in any sort of pattern.

When you are left-brained overwhelmed [too much work to do in too little time], you are spinning in a logical quagmire.  The best thing to do is to unleash your creative side:  color [outside the lines], sing, dance, exercise …. any activity that you don’t really have to ‘think’ to do.

When you are right-brained overwhelmed, review multiplication tables in your head!  That’ll quickly get your left brain engaged so your right brain can take a breather.

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Join Shari as she talks about improving your business acumen and the foundation of effective leadership.