4 Traits for Great Hiring, 5 Mental Models for Resilient Leadership, 6 Steps to Pivoting in a Crisis, 7 Phrases to Put a Rude Person in Their Place & 8 Micro Habits that are the Key to a More Fulfilled Life
When I see someone with these 4 traits, I try to hire them ‘on the spot’—even if I’m not hiring: What will make you stand out in job interviews? Harvard-trained career expert, CEO, and bestselling author Suzy Welch shares the four traits that make her want to hire someone “on the spot.”
Use these 7 phrases to ‘put a rude person in their place,’ say psychology experts: We deal with rude people at work, in stores and restaurants, on airplanes and public transit, even at home. Psychology and communication experts Kathy and Ross Petras share the phrases that calmly demand respect and put rude people in their place.
Wear Purple on Friday June 20th and Join the Fight to End Alzheimer’s:
The Longest Day is the day with the most light — the summer solstice. On June 20, thousands of participants from across the world come together to fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s through a fundraising activity of their choice. Our team is joining the fight! You can help by donating — or even joining a team — today. We need your help to end this relentless disease. Together, the strength of our light will outshine the darkness of Alzheimer’s.
Doctor: This one daily habit can boost brain health, lower risk of dementia There are many things you can do to keep your brain sharp, but there’s one practice that longevity doctor Dr. Avinish Reddy says is overlooked.
“We are citizens of a country that does not exist and that badly needs to exist”
– Dr. Vincent Harding
“America, you’ve never been America to me, but I swear this oath, you will be!”
– Langston Hughes
This week:
We are living a tale of two America’s. Maybe this has always been true, but it seems starker and more polarized than ever in recent memory.
What is required to dream, design and deliver a better future to all American’s?
Research found that nonviolent social movements engaging at least 3.5% of a population consistently succeeded in achieving significant change.
The “3.5% rule” shows how a focused small group of committed individuals can reach a tipping point that shifts systems and create transformative change.
If we don’t like F’s and prefer A’s then it’s time to move from fear, fighting and freezing to agency, allyship and advocacy.
I am biased. I am biased towards equity and justice.
If the arc of the moral universe is indeed long, then who and what will bend it towards justice?
Here are some insights on effective peaceful protest and here is to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans!
The Condition-
Trump Issues Horrifying Threat to Parade Protesters: The president said that anyone who protests his birthday parade on Saturday will be met with “very heavy force,” even if they’re being peaceful.
Opinion | Trump has unleashed something terrifying in the US – that even he may be powerless to control: The protests in LA are what everyone feared, and a warning to countries that flirt with populism.
“I’m watching the Los Angeles reaction to ICE raids with trepidation and regret.
Three years ago, I taught a class at Harvard on the “theater of protest”— designed to help people understand why so many protests turn out to be Republican campaign videos working directly against the interests of the original protest.
A protest is an invitation to a better world.
It’s a ceremony.
No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at.
More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is.
The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress, etc.
The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust, who will not embarrass them.
If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change.
Everything else is a waste.
There are a few ways to get there:
1. Let women organize the event. They’re more collaborative. They’re more inclusive, and they don’t generally bring the undertones of violence men do.
2 Appoint monitors, give them yellow, vests and whistles. At the first sign of violence, they blow the whistles, and the real protester sit down.
Let the police take out their aggression on the anarchists and the provocateurs trying to discredit the movement.
3. Dress like you’re going to church. It’s hard to be painted as a hoodlum when you’re dressed in clean, presentable clothes.
They don’t have to be fancy they just signal the respect for the occasion that you want to transmit to the audience.
4. Make your protest silent. Demonstrate your discipline to the American people. Let signs do the talking.
5. Go home at night. In the dark, you can’t tell the cops from the killers. Come back at dawn fresh and rested.
I have great fear that Trump’s staging with the National Guard and maybe the Marines is designed to clash with anarchists who are playing into his hands and offering him the opportunity to declare an insurrection.
It’s such a waste and it’s only because we haven’t thought things through strategically.
Nothing I thought of is particularly original.
It was all learned by watching the early civil rights protests in the 50s and 60s.
And it was the discipline and courage of African-Americans that drew such a clear line in the American sand that people were forced to take sides and that produced the civil rights act.
The American people are watching and once again if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in Republican campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this.
Wake up.
Vent at home.
In public practice discipline and self-control.
It takes much more courage.”
— Peter Coyote
Zen teacher and author/narrator, with Ken Burns
Note: Carry an American flag. As the administration creates a fake emergency to justify a state crackdown, it’s important to honor the values and vision of democracy for which we’re advocating.
When the Enquirer came for pics back in 2017, I smiled a big toothy grin and held a big flag as it felt so empowering and good to stand with my adult daughter, pastors, Franciscans, nuns, kids, parents, grandparents, and some women from our women’s groups for the values we tried to pass on.
After the protest, we sang and marched to a church where we heard poignant witness of immigrants trying to build a better life for their families against insurmountable odds.
Many Marines, National Guardsmen and vets are over on Threads and Substack expressing their disagreement over being used by this lawless administration.
Peace, shanti and shalom to all. ☮️
Leslie F/H
Sly Stone Knew Why America Rioted Better Than Anyone: Sly Stone, who died on June 9, wrung greatness out of the American abyss.
Kermit The Frog Drops 3 Pieces of Wisdom at Graduation Speech: Draped in “a very tiny cap and gown,” the Muppet delivered words of encouragement and inspiration — plus a forecast with a “100% chance of frog.”
“As you navigate the world of bright possibilities that awaits you, I urge you to take on the challenge and the opportunity to serve your fellow citizens.
Fifty years from now, you will want to be able to look in the mirror and know that you did what you thought was right, in every part of your life.
At the end of the day, your integrity is all you have. Guard it carefully.”
— Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a speech at a pre-graduation ceremony at Princeton University amid months of unrelenting personal attacks from President Trump.
Jacinda Ardern reflects on a career focused on the power of kindness:
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first?
Feeling Stressed? Here’s Why You Should Start Humming (Seriously) Mindfulness practices, such as meditation, are often the antidote for dealing with stress—and for good reason: there are loads of studies about the benefits of being present. But for some, meditation can be a hard practice to develop.
5 Gentle Yoga Moves That Loosen Your Body Better Than a Massage: Let’s be honest: There’s something incredibly soothing and indulgent about treating yourself to a full-body massage.
Doctors Say This Easy Habit Can Protect Your Brain as You Age—And Might Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease: Plus, simple ways to put the new study’s findings into practice.
Chronic pain could be eased by learning to regulate negative emotions: An adaptation of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on mindfulness and tolerating distress has shown promise for relieving chronic pain.
Listening to birds sing really does soothe your brain. Here’s why. Spending time in nature is important for your mental health. But studies show that even just listening to birds singing can ease symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Here are some remarks from an event I spoke at some years ago, that is remarkably still relevant almost a decade later:
Making the case for (He)Art…
What does it mean to live in color?
Why would individuals, businesses, whole communities want to support Art?
In the words of Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On?”
Have we opened our eyes and looked around lately? Because we are in mixed company, I will refrain from lighting the powder keg of politics or social justice
So, let’s find a common denominator:
If you are like 99% of us, you are stressed.
Stress is the #1 epidemic in most of the world, costing us billions in both hard costs and human consequences. We have traded false formulations of success (counterfeit correlation) for our happiness, wellbeing, and fulfillment both as individuals and as a community. It is almost as if we have forgotten what it means to be human. Have we really lost touch with our humanity?
What is going on?
“Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure!”
Artists find their inspiration in this dynamic tension…
The Case for America’s Finest City:
We talk about creating the 21st Century Innovation Economy. Some are starting to call it the Impact Economy.
Today, let’s consider the Imagination Economy
Our imagination is a preview of coming attractions
What does your imagination hold for you and for our community?
What is YOUR craft?
“Creativity is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status” says Sir Ken Robinson
We want creativity, from ourselves, from our teams from our kids, yet most of the time we don’t create the conditions for it.
Whether its craft beer locally with over 100 craft-brewers, (and Ballast Point recently selling for $1B) or whatever your craft, to foster a vibrant, colorful imagination economy we need he-Artists!
Any way you look at it, convention is in dire need of an intervention!
Bring in the He-Artists…
It is time to Re-Imagine His-tory and Her-story
It is time to get real, find your smile, and rekindle our humanness perhaps by learning, if not from each other then from another species: the dolphins
We think we are the smartest creatures on the planet, but I think it is the dolphins and here is why:
Let’s use POD to capture their genius…
P: Play more. They play! Play is a prescription that has equal efficacy to antidepressants or other medicines, yet we don’t make time for play
What kind of play am I talking about?
Lego of old v. Lego of new (unstructured, open, free v. proscribed)
Here is the thought experiment:
If you were a lego set, what is the picture on the cover of the box you are trying to craft and create?
Do the puzzle pieces in your box line up with the picture on the cover?
Are there any pieces missing?
Art creates the space for play to matter, & can answer these existential questions- as well, if not better, than science
O: Others are important. Make connectedness count. We are social creatures. Loneliness is today’s smoking when it comes to health risks. Are you a pack a day isolate? Enough me, me, me already- enough selfies. How about WE? What happened to WE?
Art connects us to our most humane and universal essence.
D: Downtime matters. Our lives are way too fast-paced and just like elite athletes, for peak performance we need the oscillation of intense activity with periods of rest and stretching- you do too. Take more breaks and experience more breakthroughs!
We say we are too busy for downtime. Busy is a false indicator of us doing work of importance, just as sleep deprivation is a lousy indicator or your amazing ambition. If you can’t make time for down time, what you are really saying is you can’t make time for creativity, what you are really saying is you can’t make time for be your best self.
So now let’s apply this to our kids…
Children learn what they live
Sadly, you are only a kid, for just a short time, and then relegated to adult status for the rest of your life. Yet instead of celebrating childhood, we lament that “youth is wasted on the young”, then do our best to steal it from them with developmentally inappropriate expectations, forcing them to grow up, catch-up, over-extend, over-schedule, all over-tired.
Play, Downtime, Creativity, Art. We’ve got no time for that. No child left behind, resulted in no child LEFT!
Time steals our youth fast enough. Why are we buying into and contributing to this forced acceleration? What if the opposite reality became the norm and you were only an adult-in-training for just a short time, and then rightly trained and equipped, your youthful attitude, zest for life, belief in the impossible, & focus on the positive were the longest season of your life cycle during your short time here on earth?
Kindness is NOT weakness.
Busy-ness is not Fulfillment
“Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure!”
My plea to you:
Enliven your P.O.D. , live in color and find your craft.
As this is Martin Luther King week, I must end with some MLK quotes:
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends!”
Please don’t be silent about art- live loud, proud and in color.
You are brilliant, powerful, creative, limitless, and boundless.
Like Dolphins: Shoulder to shoulder, not face to face- we can change our world
Take time through your craft to celebrate the moments no one will ever know when you best self-showed up!
As MLK said, “The time is always right to do what is right”
Blessings….
Living With and ON Purpose: Virtuous purpose, as David French writes, is rooted in sacrifice.
It ennobles the individual because it serves the common good.
“Real Leadership begins with Trust, grows through Love
and shows up most clearly in your impact on Others”- Frances Frei
Alas, seeds of distrust, hate and cruelty instead of love, and self interest in lieu of serving others have taken center stage and sucked the oxygen out of the space.
How is not the time for fear and freezing, its time for hope, help and healing.
Adversity does not breed character, it reveals it!
We have a leadership crisis in America if our values are centered in democracy not autocracy.
With the disruption of the historical coexistence between government and nonprofits, for example, we need to invest in the next generation of leaders while upskilling those in current leadership roles.
Here is a program focused on just that.
NCPC’s Impact Leadership Accelerator is launching its next cohort of no more than 40 in August, and you can learn more about it here.
Scroll down and enjoy some words of wisdom as Grant Oliphant the CEO of the Prebys Foundation and I chat on a webinar, attended by over 160 people, about the importance, value, and impact of leadership.
If you are interested in participating, coaching, volunteering, underwriting a leader or helping get the word out, I would be most appreciative if you would engage and help spread the word!
Note: This burden does not just fall on nonprofits and the social sector. The Aspen Institute talks about the 4th Sector- at the intersection of the private, public, and social sectors- where seemingly large and intractable challenges can be addressed when we all come together.
Businesses, individuals, funders, corporation, foundations, and government must all rise up and meet this moment with Allyship, FiscalSupport, & Advocacy, to lead the way and serve as a voice for those who can’t or are afraid to stand up for themselves.
This is as fundamental to the American ethos as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and today might better be “framed” as the Declaration of Inter-dependence!
As a bumper sticker I saw recently said, “Who would Jesus deport?”
Here are some additional thoughts and insights from leaders on leadership to get you activated…
Don’t Be the Smartest Person in the Room—Be the Most Curious: But leadership isn’t a game of intellectual dominance. It’s a practice of continuous learning. And that requires a very different orientation: curiosity.
Why a Leader’s Voice Is a Powerful Guide During Tough Times: It’s easier to say nothing and let it all play out, but that isn’t leadership. Sometimes, saying nothing is the only option. For example, when people you work with are delegating up, and you have to (gently) hand that request back. There are also times when you can’t not say something. I’d say that the times to speak up lately outweigh the silent moments. A recent conversation with a good friend who advises CEOs reminded me of this. Leadership requires you to speak up.
Leadership is a decision, not a position! Take the decision today to create the world you want to see and help grow the next generation of leaders in our network.
“The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.
I see the church as a field hospital after battle.
It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars!
You have to heal his wounds.
Then we can talk about everything else.
Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. …
And you have to start from the ground up.”
-Pope Francis
The Pope’s Hope courtesy of Ryan Berman: Pope Francis passed away last week at the age of 88. While I didn’t study Pope Francis “religiously”, my brilliant co-author of a new book I have coming out in September (Headamentals), Suzy Burke, had shared the following with me and it stopped me in my tracks…
I share his profound wisdom below:
“The walls of hospitals have heard more honest prayers than churches… They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports…
It is in hospitals that you see a homophobe being saved by a gay doctor.
A privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar…
In intensive care, you see a Jew taking care of a racist…
A police officer and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care…
A wealthy patient waiting for a liver transplant, ready to receive the organ from a poor donor…
It is in these moments, when the hospital touches the wounds of people, that different worlds intersect according to a divine design.
And in this communion of destinies, we realize that alone, we are nothing.
The absolute truth of people, most of the time, only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible loss.
A hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are, in their purest essence.
This life will pass quickly, so do not waste it fighting with people.
Do not criticize your body too much.
Do not complain excessively.
Do not lose sleep over bills.
Make sure to hug your loved ones.
Do not worry too much about keeping the house spotless.
Material goods must be earned by each person—do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance.
You are waiting for too much: Christmas, Friday, next year, when you have money, when love arrives, when everything is perfect…
Listen, perfection does not exist.
A human being cannot attain it because we are simply not made to be fulfilled here.
Here, we are given an opportunity to learn.
So, make the most of this trial of life—and do it now.
Respect yourself, respect others. Walk your own path and let go of the path others have chosen for you.
Respect: do not comment, do not judge, do not interfere.
Love more, forgive more, embrace more, live more intensely!
And leave the rest in the hands of the Creator.”
—Pope Francis
You Don’t Have to Be the Pope, to Make a Difference of Consequence:
My dear friend Dr. Ken Druck, a highly sought after Mental Health Expert and Mensch, shares his insights, with Drew and me on How to Survive Tragic Losses and How to Cultivate Hope, Meaning, Loving Kindness, Joy, and Compassion.
Pope Francis’ Greatest Achievement Was Emphasizing Mercy: Pope Francis true legacy will be his emphasis on mercy, which he believed would create a Church in ‘God’s style.’
Megaphone Hand, business concept with text Attention Please, vector illustration
Why Do We Dehumanize Ourselves by Being Tone Deaf to the Plight of the Needy and Those That Can’t Speak for Themselves?
Pope Francis Focused on Climate Change as the Planet continued to get Hotter:
The patron saint of animals and ecology brought together science, morality and faith and prompted people across the globe to pay attention to what is happening as the planet continues to heat up!
Why a transformative leader is a protector not an antagonist…
Plants ‘Scream’ When They’re Cut, We Just Couldn’t Hear It. Until Now… For centuries, humans have viewed plants as stoic, green stalwarts of nature, keeping to themselves unless a gentle breeze made them rustle.
According to research, they’ve actually been making sounds this whole time, we’ve just been too hard of hearing to notice.
Elephants form “alert circle” during earthquake at San Diego Zoo Safari Park African Elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park instinctively created an “alert circle” during the earthquake some weeks back.
Even wild animals circle the wagons to protect the vulnerable.
YouTube launched 20 years ago with an 18-second video at the San Diego Zoo That’s the title of one of the most consequential videos of all time. The video to start all videos. The “Big Bang” of the video-sharing world.
These are some of the best animal, people and panorama photos in the world! This incredible golden heron leads the winning images of Picture Award’s 17th edition, centered around animals, people and panoramas
Breath and choice – Meditation Medicine Musings with Eric Kaufmann
Help Leaders Reclaim Their Energy with Suneel Gupta
What we can all learn from embracing the Japanese concept of “oubaitori”
Breath and Choice – Meditation Medicine Musings with Eric Kaufmann:
Dear friends in practice,
It’s Monday, and this morning, as I sat to meditate with our Monday group, I could feel the familiar tug of the week ahead – meetings waiting, tasks beckoning, the current of action already moving under the surface. It would have been easy, quite automatic, to be carried off into planning and preparation. Instead, I noticed the pull, nodded inwardly at its persistence, and – gently, deliberately – chose to return to the breath.
No battle, no criticism. Just a quiet remembering: this breath, this moment, this choice.
Breath meditation is often described as simple – and it is. What is more simple than attending to the most elemental function of our life? The very first action we took upon being delivered from our mother’s body was to take a breath. It is natural, with us our whole life, and happens all on its own. Yet within that simplicity nestles a profound invitation. Every time we return to the breath, we are practicing, and getting closer and closer to becoming, a conscious being at choice. I love this phrase – a conscious being at choice. It comes as close as I know to operationalizing enlightenment. This is exercising the core of awakening: the ability to see clearly what arises, and to choose, freely and compassionately, where to place our attention.
The mind spins its stories. The heart feels its tides. The body broadcasts its hungers. That is the nature of being alive. Our practice is not to extinguish these movements – what is life without mind, heart, or body? Our practice is to notice them – and to realize that we are not their prisoner. Remarkably, we are NOT fated or destined to roll blindly into our patterns. We are free, moment by moment, to anchor in what is steady, real, and alive within us.
I invite Carl Jung to weigh in here as he wrote, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it Fate.” Jung, having explored the concepts of destiny and patterns, suggests that unconscious influences shape our lives, often manifesting as seemingly predetermined patterns. He believed that understanding and integrating these unconscious forces was crucial for personal growth and realizing one’s true potential, essentially overcoming the illusion of “fate.”
So how does breath meditation help us overcome the illusion of fate? Because it cultivates awareness and choice. Breath meditation helps make the unconscious conscious because we note, in real time, what is arising. Choosing to return again and again and again to the breath is the real-time and real-world expression of a conscious being at choice. Conscious of what’s unfolding, arising, demanding, and compelling. And at choice about whether to be swept along in the compulsion, or to – gently and firmly – choose your path.
As you take your seat this week, I offer this encouragement: Let each breath be an act of courage and curiosity, a small and sacred choice to belong to this moment.
And, while being curious, check in with yourself: What shifts in me when I truly remember that I am free to choose?
With warmth and gratitude, Eric
Help Leaders Reclaim Their Energy with Suneel Gupta:
What we can all learn from embracing the Japanese concept of “oubaitori” It’s an important reminder that everyone is on their own journey and timeline.
Art is never finished, only abandoned. – Leonardo da Vinci
Greetings!
Feeling a bit dysregulated?
Neuroscience Says Music Is an Emotion Regulation Machine. Here’s What to Play for Happiness, Productivity, or Deep Thinking: Neuroscience shows music has big effects on our productivity, performance, and state of mind. Use that to your advantage.
What kind of headspace do you want to be in today?
Focused and productive as you tick through routine to-do list items?
Dreamy and creative? Happy and social? Contemplative? Analytical?
Whatever mood you’re aiming for, neuroscience says music can help.
The purpose of life is to give it away.”- Pablo Picasso
Want some live music, in an arts and culture context, with 250 featured artists, 4 live music stages, interactive art and free trolly tickets for the first 3,000 that use their phones to sign up?
Yes, Kids and Dogs will have a blast too…
Its Mission Fed ArtWalk 2025!
17 years of us serving as title sponsors for the largest arts and longest running (41 years) arts experience on the West Coast, this coming weekend Sat April 26 and Sun April 27th in Little Italy. Come enjoy a day immersed in art, and if you are yearning for some live music, join us on Saturday April 26th from 3:30 to 4:30p as Strange Crew plays on the Main Stage in the Piazza della Famiglia followed by my son Arman’s band Tone Deaf from 5-6p, with me sitting in on percussion on both sets.
And here is a CloudCast media podcast with Jacob from ArtWalk and me talking about the Mission Fed ArtWalk experience and its importance for San Diego:
The ArtWalk San Diego interview “Spotlight on the Community” Show:
Why it’s time to rethink what happiness really means: Explaining exactly what’s going on in our brains when we experience joy or pleasure remains frustratingly out of reach this year once again saw the publication of the annual World Happiness Report. The latest international rankings put Finland at number one and several other Nordic countries dominating the top 10.
Happy Soul Food Friday! 