This afternoon President Barack Obama will go on television to give a speech to the schoolchildren of America. The speech ( Text below ) is essentially a call to action for the students to do their best and a plea not to give up on school.
For some, to me, inexplicable reason many parents across the country are taking issue with the speech and the temerity of Obama to dare speak to the children of the country.  Many schools are not showing the speech due to the outcry.  I don’t get it.  Obama is not telling anyone what they have to do, he’s giving some common sense advice.  What is in this speech then that is so offensive?  If you can tell me please do.

And remember:  “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”  - John F. Kennedy - January 20 1961

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Last Thursday evening was our first Positive Parenting Forum and it was fantastic! The forum was designed to provide parents with a safe and non-judgmental space in which to explore a shift from discipline to learning. Through the looking glass of The Inspired Learning Model™ parents explored their individual definition of discipline, learned how to apply the practice of positive regard and supported their ideal positive parent style.

We had an intimate group in which people had a number of “aha” moments and saw some new ways in which they could positively impact their parenting and interactions with their children.

The parents were able to make choices that honored the strength and individuality of their children while strengthening their family style and agreements. One mom’s intention was to counter her personal demon; she felt that as a child herself, growing up in an authoritative environment had broken her spirit. She was obviously concerned about the impact this would have on her children. After our time together, she was able to walk away with the possibility of connecting with her own personal spiritedness, for the first time in a long time. She also took away perspectives on managing her dealing with her children. Realizing this option was available to her brought a smile to her face reflecting a chance to reclaim what she had previously seen as lost to her.

The space was comfortable and inviting, as some took off their shoes, helped themselves to a cool drink and enjoyed the safety and discovery that took place. It was powerful and uplifting with the participants leaving with intentions for steps they would take into the coming week and having a chance to follow-up to share their progress.

We hope to see you next Thursday for this on-going series on From Discipline to Learning through the looking glass of The Inspired Learning Model™.

Visit http://singularitynyc.com/positiveparenting for information registration.

June 19, 2009 - Taunton, MA – The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women recently named Elizabeth Tito, MD, one of its 100 “Unsung Heroines of 2009.” Dr. Tito, a breast surgeon at Morton Hospital and Medical Center, was nominated by her colleague Ginny Starvish, RN, Morton Hospital Breast Care Nurse Navigator.

Dr. Tito was honored for her outstanding contributions to Morton Hospital and the greater Taunton community during a ceremony at the State House in Boston. The event was hosted by NewsCenter 5’s Liz Brunner, and featured an introduction of each honoree, as well as a catered reception.

According to the Commission, the Unsung Heroines “don’t make the news, they make the difference,” and Dr. Tito has been making a positive difference at the Hospital for several years. Some of her most recent accomplishments include the initiation of a nurse navigator program to assist breast care patients, and the creation of a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to improve future programs and services to breast care patients. She is a constant advocate for women’s breast health awareness, and has helped to raise more than $10,000 to support patients and their families.

“It’s been an honor to work with such an amazing group of women in our community,” said Tito. “These brave women faced breast cancer, and at the end said what can we give back? The Community Advisory Board that I created gave them a chance to serve the community and shine.”

For more information, or to make an appointment with Dr. Tito, call (508) 828-7693.

So as we continue to peel back the layers of what lies beneath our recent economic collapse, I now find myself reading articles like Time’s “The Future of Work: Training Managers to Behave” (which, the title in and of itself, is a bit disconcerting) and a Harvard Business Review article titled “The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School.”

The Time article talks about a time when business schools attempted to align themselves with the medical and legal professions in terms of values and norms but that intention seemed to fall off back in the ‘70s. Business school served more as a ticket to a high paying job vs. the inclusion of honor and ethics along with a solid education.

In the Harvard article, HBS professor Scott Snook’s recent survey of MBA students said “he found that a third regarded right and wrong as defined by the norm. That is, if several people were following a course of action the students felt is was OK for them to do the same.” So, if enough people are doing something unethical or downright dastardly around you, you’re good to follow along?

I’m going to do my best to not say things like “…and the world is going to hear a loud pop as our leaders of business pull their heads out of their a__” or anything else aggressively confrontational and I will refrain from suggesting we have been duped by selfish, egocentric, greedy sons of b____ who cannot think beyond their next $35,000 commode.

I will however say that I’m guessing this moral disconnect can be traced back further to the current state of our public school system. And then I think we all need to ask ourselves how much of an emphasis is placed on instilling a strong sense of values and honor in our children as we raise them. Yes, the system has a lot of room for improvement and I’m sure every one of us could rattle of a list, as long as my arm, sighting the things we would like to see more of in the education of our children all the way up to and through business school. But, on average, we have them home up and through high school. From a developmental psychology and personality development standpoint, some say that early development is the most critical and sensitive period in one’s life. The belief generally focuses on the importance of character development in the first six years of life, viewing later experience as irrelevant.”

What can we be focusing on at home with our kids, teaching them, explaining to them and helping them to understand how important it is to look within for the truth and the honorable choice? How can we support them even more so they feel equipped and confident in themselves and can resist following those around them, especially when those around them are making less than brilliant decisions?

So, if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

Today Catalyst held a webinar titled “Engaging Men in Gender: Initiatives: What Change Agents Need to Know. In a recent study, Catalyst looked at the characteristics of those men championing women’s initiatives in the workplace as well as those not engaged in such activity. They also explored some hurtles stopping men from being supportive of women’s initiatives and ways in which women can try to overcome the hurtles they face when getting men involved and supportive of these initiatives.

Research showed that those men being supportive of women and their careers in the workplace tended to defy masculine norms, have had women mentors and have a strong sense of fair play.

The hurtles faced when engaging men in gender initiatives included a lack of awareness of the obstacles women face, an absence of apathy or a perspective that this is an issue not impacting men but more of a women’s issue and fear. Obstacles that fall under the hurtle of fear included concerns about how men might be perceived by others if they are championing women’s initiatives, will a man be seen as doing something “politically” driven and men wanting to know “what’s in it for them?”

In a panelist discussion, which explored the ways to overcome the hurtles associated with engaging men in gender initiatives, solutions included making men aware of the struggles faced by women in the workplace, appealing to potential champions’ sense of “fair play” and outlining the costs to men too by not creating a more gender diverse workforce.

When highlighting the much talked about discrimination encountered by women at the middle management level, leading corporate diversity officer’s ideas included:

• Holding managers accountable during the hiring process in that the candidate pool must include female applicants and that the hiring manager focus on competencies as the measure for an appropriate fit versus people
• Managers must have diverse teams and create a pipeline for up and coming female talent
• Show managers how the strengths of women positively impacts firm performance and ability to come up with more diverse client solutions

When the panel was asked to give the webinar participants one idea they could take away from today’s presentation, recommendations followed along the lines of a philosophy of positive regard that I’ve been promoting in workshops. They include:

• Stop polarizing men and women around the topic of women’s initiatives
• Educate men and women about the biases we all bring with us to the workplace, learn to release them and allow men and women to come together and move toward common goals together
• Generate a greater awareness of how welcoming manager’s are to others – be inclusive both formally and casually to create a level playing field
• Try to engage men in a non-threatening way
• Have women mentor high potential men. The benefits include showing young men the skills of women and it helps men to understand the difficulties women

I was really pleased to hear specifically about what tends to hold men back from becoming more engaged in supporting women at work. I appreciated understanding the realities men face around this topic. As one male senior executive from the panel put it “help us to help you.” I got the sense that it’s not as if there is some great conspiracy but more nature of the differences in the way men and women internalized information and function.

If I worked at a large corporation I might look for those male managers who have a strong sense of fair play, either in your department or across division lines and, in a non-threatening manner:

• Share about the female experience in the corporate setting
• Explain the ways in which women feel discriminated against within the corporate culture
• Talk about the skills women (or more specifically you!) bring to collaborative efforts
• Talk about how working together, more expansive client solutions can be created
• Create supportive relationships with men in the workplace and help each other as you grow your careers
• Learn about how a man might approach a situation to learn more about male communication or “language” and use it share your message, idea or to claim an opportunity
• Understand and know your value and learn how to release the need to judge yourself
• Learn to acknowledge yourself, both internally and externally

Anyone else?

So here I stand in my son’s school playground. More fights break out here than in any fictional biker bar. The tempers are shorter, the attitudes more stubborn and the potential for damage is at least as bad.

Suddenly crying peals through the steel forest of slides and monkey bars. A girl had bumped into one of her friends. Her friends started teasing the girl. She didn’t want to go to another part of the playground because she wanted to play with THIS! A more dire, orange threat alert, fuel up the missles moment I can’t imagine.

I stepped into this maelstrom of tension and with patience, understanding and some calm words diffused the explosive situation and soon everyone was playing nicely again.

No magic, just patience and understanding.

So I suggest that from now on diplomats should be required to be parents of toddlers. That’s right no non parents and once the kids are grown you get the boot.

If you can deal with kids, international politics would be a breeze.

In a previous post titled “Where Can We Find Leadership?”, I ended by mentioning the skills women bring to the equation of our current economic situation.

In ForbesWoman, many of the advantages of having a more balanced female/male “executive” branch of the workforce is highlighted in “Cleaning Crew – the Women Who are Fixing the Financial Mess.”

Although a bit direct in its opening paragraph, it is truthful in that men have been at the helm of the financial crisis. I cannot say whether or not this would have happened had there been more female executives in charge but the expertise they are now bringing to this financial mess, I believe, could be the change we need.

Studies show how women, with at least 30% representation in the executive suite, outperform all-male companies blah blah blah….

What is it with us humans? At all levels, men and women need each other. Yes, we are all strong enough to do most things on our own or with the right resources, but in the end, on average, we all look to mate for life. The survival of our lives, our world, hell our planet, is OUR responsibility.

Just think about all the people of the opposite sex you know in your life. Whether you want to say it or not, I’d bet you could easily see the ways in which you think they are amazing or brilliant. And I’m sure you can quickly see those things that men excel at and the ways in which women excel. That’s it!!! It doesn’t get any more complicated. Women are good at some things and men are good at others.

The point is we need both! Instead of throwing rocks in your glass house, why not let someone hand you a soft inside toy so we don’t damage so much and so many?

I recently read an article about companies like Intel Corp. offering employees Tutoring Benefits for their children as a way to ease the burden on working parents. Even as the mom of a kindergartener where the homework is optional, I can appreciate how big a job it is to get homework done with your children and can only imagine how that continues to expand as you move up in grades. It is a wonderful way to extend support to employees who could really use help in this way.

As I thought about this issue more, I wondered if there was a way to make it more acceptable for parents to be more available to their kids to do homework and then finish off their day’s work in the evening. For some this option might not be ideal but I focus on the aspect of the responsible employee who knows what they need to accomplish for their job in a day, a week, a month or even a year.

In some cases deadlines are inflexible and for good reason. But in many cases, receiving something at 4:00 in the afternoon is not so different than receiving it at 9:00 in the morning. Often, the red tape of a large corporation can create delays far greater than delivering something first thing in the morning versus end of day yesterday.

From the human resources standpoint, one might be concerned that offering such flexibility to employees might be easily abused by those less than honorable in meeting the obligations of their position. However, this is where measuring performance based on specific goals and accomplishments might be valuable. I know I am not the first to tout the benefits of this type of approach to performance review but I see great value in the expansion of this approach to employee and performance management.

As I watch my six year old develop habits that will be with him for a lifetime, I realize how important setting a good foundation in a positive attitude, good routines and the continued reinforcement of our family values and beliefs will support him in life. This is something we feel strongly about for our family and seemingly, according to a recent study done at the University of Maryland, as highlighted by the Washington post in Despite ‘Mommy Guilt,’ Time With Kids Increasing, there are other parents who welcome being there with their children as well. I think employees might happily choose and appreciate the flexibility of being able to manage their time more easily and with greater autonomy.

And I’d bet the kids would love it. I know the needs and expectations children have for their parents evolves as they get older but I believe there is definitely staying power to our children’s need for us. My son Sean made this very clear to me one day when he was just acting out all over the place and when I finally slowed him down to ask “what is it Lovey? What is it that you need or want from Mommy that I’m not giving you?!” And very quietly, he looked up and said “You Mama, I want you”.

What is a trade-off?  It is the exchange of one kind of value in a situation for another.  Life is full of them.  Extra sleep or an early start?  Spend on a vacation or save for a rainy day?

Balancing parenting and a career is a classic trade-off for an individual.  Choosing between losing valuable contributors and making investments and policy changes that help avoid losing them is a classic trade-off for employers.  We can be happy that employers consider these trade-offs - for years the benefits of such trade-offs were overlooked.  But there is room for vast improvement.

The trick in convincing someone to make a trade-off is to help them conclude that the value gained is equal to or greater than the value traded away.   For example, flex hours: the benefit to the employer of retaining experienced employees and maintaining staff continuity is perceived as more valuable than the cost of scheduling inconveniences and having to accommodate different working hours in the office.  How about teleworking?  As the cost of technology dropped and the ability to conduct business remotely increased, allowing home workers became a more attractive trade-off for employers.  A previous post presented the idea of bringing babies to work - the cost of additional insurance and the potential for distraction (by parent and co-worker) is offset by the ability to retain the parent and reduce the schedule conflicts that daycare can present.

So here’s the challenge.  This is a forum for the exchange of ideas.  Let’s brainstorm.  What are tomorrow’s trade-offs?  What idea will convince the working world to trade a long held policy or belief for a new and innovative one?  I’ll start:

“Parent track” job rotation program.  This will not work for all jobs, but for businesses where a variety of skills are preferred or demanded this can be made to work.  Work assignments are structured as discrete tours of duty with varying lengths.  Soon-to-be parents notify their manager of their due date and a plan is developed to roll the soon-to-be-parent off their present rotation at the appropriate time.  When they are ready to return, the parent is started on a new rotation assignment.  The cost to the employer is in devising and managing the rotations in a way that does not negatively impact productivity; there may even be improvement opportunities as different people bring their own individual talents to rotation assignments.  The benefit to the employer is in being able to retain good people and minimizing staffing surprises.  An enlightened approach to balancing parenting and career may even aid in attracting people who might otherwise be disinclined to pursue a traditional career.

OK, who’s next?

A few months ago I had seen an article in Workforce Management about a program called Babies in the Workplace.  This program, which now boasts a list of  companies, helps organizations make it possible for parents to bring their babies to work.

I was fascinated when I heard this and have finally come back to explore this topic further.  The list of benefits of putting this type of benefit in place include:

Earlier Return to Work
Increased Employee Retention
Higher Morale
Enhanced Teamwork
Attraction of New Employees
Lower Health Costs
Increased Overall Productivity
Attraction of New Customers
Higher Customer Loyalty
Low Implementation Costs

Yes another way in which we can integrate and balance our lives.  The cost is minimal and the benefits are significant.  At first glance, this seems a small company solution but possibly there are aspects that could transfer to a larger corporate environment.

Often we have difficulties truly understanding the needs of others, “…walk a mile in his shoes” is a proverb that comes to mind, I also think sometimes people don’t realize the impact that helping someone else can have on oneself. I just read a Time magazine that had a short article talking about President Obama’s emphasizing community work and involvement.  One of the many advantages of volunteer work is that it allows one to step out of themselves and think about the person next to them.  In studies volunteer work has been linked to personal happiness and positivism.  I have experienced this myself in my own volunteer work.

So how about it “Mr. Manager?”  Things are not always what they seem and often, the best solution comes in the package you least expected.  Perhaps helping your employees can have a positive impact on your own bottom line. How about putting energy into how together, we can all make balance between personal and professional life work for all of us?

Who knows, there may be benefits you never expected…