There’s a wonderful children’s book that I read to my grandchildren titled, The Hardest Word. It’s about a bird named Ziz, that flies high above various towns and swoops down to speak to the children. He instructs them to bring the hardest word. One says, “pisghetti”, (spaghetti), is the hardest word. Others bring back words like rhinoceros and Rumpelstiltskin, but none is acceptable. In the end, he discovers that the hardest words for them and all the townspeople are “I’m...

My clients, Richard Citrin and Michael Couch, have thought-provoking conversations with great thought leaders on their Leadership Café show. One of the questions they often ask is: “What has the pandemic done for you?” First, I want to acknowledge the dreadful conditions and deaths the pandemic has brought to millions around the world. And rather than asking what the pandemic has done to you, I’d like to look at the question from a different angle which is, what has the...

Taking over the news this past week was the death of Queen Elizabeth II whose reign lasted more than 70 years, more than any other in British history. Elizabeth ascended the throne at age 25, during a chaotic time following World War II, on February 6, 1952, at the age of 25 after the death of her father, King George. She soon became a central and beloved figure for many in the United Kingdom and the commonwealth countries. Though not...

Knowing I would be out of town working with a client today, I took the opportunity to prepare my newsletter a couple days in advance. Monday, September 5, is Labor Day in America, and there’s really nothing comparable to it in my native Israel. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on the morning of September 5, 1882, where a crowd of spectators filled the sidewalks of lower Manhattan near city hall and along Broadway. It was planned to be...