When I mentioned last month that I was heading to Las Vegas to see the Eagles play in the Sphere, more than one person responded with a look of surprise, post-Super Bowl: “You’re going to a football game?” That moment—a simple case of mistaken reference—got me thinking about how our assumptions a...

In preparing for the AMWA Evolve Leadership Course for trainees session on Difficult Conversations, I've been reflecting on principles from Crucial Conversations, Super Communicators, Non-Violent Communication, and How to Work with Almost Anyone (all highly recommended books). We often fall into ...

One fall, 17 years ago, as I was driving in my new state of Alaska, I was in a bit of a hurry (as was a natural state for me at the time). So you can imagine, I was a bit annoyed when the line of cars in front of me didn't move when the light turned green. The middle lane was empty, so I decided ...

Years ago, my young nephew was carpooling to school with us in my new Honda Odyssey minivan that had my first navigation system. From the captain chair behind me, he exclaimed, "Oh COOL Aunt Tonya! You have a force field?!" It took me a minute to realize he was talking about my dashboard location...

In the past couple of weeks, both in a group coaching session and a couple of individual coaching sessions with residents, the topic of strengths came up. There was an HBR article a while back that points out that many of us overlook our strengths (which are critical to optimizing our impact). In...

I had a conversation recently with someone who discussed how judgment - when it's our own - feels very virtuous. And yet, it often changes nothing except it is like a weight we bear. I invite you to experiment with me - find something that evokes a bit of judgment. But, let's not go for the deepl...