Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of a challenging situation where conflict has progressed to the point that the individuals involved are suffering. Even after you’ve tried to taken action steps toward harmony, the situation has only shown minimal to no progress. What should you do now? Often in situations like this, the contrast can run so deep that the team is on the brink of disengagement. What do we do when we are faced with a team member expressing negative behavior that is escalating to the disengagement of the whole group? 

Some possible angles to consider to take the best course of action: 

Could there be something else going on that might not have to do with the topics that are being brought up? From what you know, would you say this person’s way of “engaging” had to do with something else: His or her status in the group? A deep seated resentment because something happened in the past? Often the mis-alignment is not about the...

Thriving is that result we want for anything that matters to us. When the activity of leadership is performed effectively, a state of thriving results. Thriving is what we refer to as the universal outcome. If you were to ask someone what they want for the things they care most about, their answer will always be some version of thriving.  

The word thriving originates from Norse and roughly means “to grasp for oneself.” The word denotes seizing the moment to bring about the desired results for the important things in your life. Its original meaning implies that if we want a better state of affairs, we must “grasp for ourselves” in order to make it happen. 

The standard definition of thriving is: to grow or develop vigorously, to succeed, or to flourish. Some other descriptions that also fit: health, excellence, and happiness. Regardless of the exact wording, what we want for the things we care about is some version of thriving. Universally, we...

Life Principles and the Deep Sea: A Written Series based on interviews with Elite Diver John Chatterton 

 A series by Phylinda Moore

Notice: This interview series contains strong language.

Part IV “Change your perception about things.”

“I don’t have to wait for the problem to adjust for the problem.” And “Whatever the problem you’re a lot better off with a self-reliant solution. “Self-reliance gets mistaken for ‘I don’t care’ and that’s totally not the case. The best team member is you. Be self-reliant. Bring more to the team. Don’t be needy.” Instead it’s about challenging yourself, “How good you do your job. How well does the other diver’s understand?” He cautions that, “anxiety takes precedent over tasking,” but this is “less an issue about anxiety and more an issue about discipline. Think more in terms of self-awareness. Worry about what can I...

Life Principles and the Deep Sea: A Written Series based on interviews with Elite Diver John Chatterton 

 A series by Phylinda Moore

Notice: This interview series contains strong language.

Part III “Huge difference between knowledge and understanding.”- Chatterton 

People who study decision making say good decisions are a function of three things: 1. Training

2. Rules (based on your training, establish some rules for circumstances. but not a lot of rules.)
3. Rehearsal 

John says, “It isn’t rocket science. That’s the way to make good decisions.” 

In all cases it is crucial to know how to apply knowledge to understanding. “Consistently.” says John. “Observe, collect data, process that data in our mind, then we make a decision.”Again, the lessons come back to the fact that this is up to you, your training, your preparedness and your psychology. 

John says, “modern solutions to dive problems...

Life Principles and the Deep Sea: A Written Series based on interviews with Elite Diver John Chatterton 

 A series by Phylinda Moore

Notice: This interview series contains strong language.

Part II “If you have something to breathe, you can solve the rest of your problems”

 Apart from the dives the rest of the days are spent mixing gas and preparing equipment but also primarily in the classroom, where technical knowledge is covered, the morning’s dives are analyzed, and the psychology addressed. John says, “you can only train for so long and so much.” John’s presents his commandments early as they are touchstones he will refer to throughout the class.

The Thirteen Commandments According to John Chatterton

1.     Be your own savior (this one used to be “Go unfuck yourself”)
2.     One is none. Two is one. Three is two.

III.   Don’t get lost, and when lost don’t get...

Life Principles and the Deep Sea: A Written Series based on interviews with Elite Diver John Chatterton 

 A series by Phylinda Moore

Notice: This interview series contains strong language.

 Part I:  Who is John Chatterton? 

  What an elite diver has to teach us about discipline, leadership, and effectively applying our talents.

  What happens to a person’s essence when you put a human under extreme pressure, and every moment might mean the difference between life and death? John Chatterton, an elite deep-shipwreck diver, believes it is under this pressure that a person’s essence is revealed. The deep ocean is the most unforgiving environments a human can choose to put themselves in on this planet.  Here, your life depends on your success. “We were never meant to work in the underwater environment. But we do,” says John.

 John Chatterton is also a war hero, and a modern explorer. He has solved some of our...

Life is about drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient information.  How are we supposed to know the best way to invest our educational years? How is someone supposed to select a major and career and, potentially, assume thousands of dollars of educational debt in the process when a person doesn’t even know what they want to be when they grow up?

This is what college advisors help with day after day. Research conducted on focus groups of 21 advisors provide useful insight.

Identify your strengths and then build your life around them. Researchers at the University of Minnesota (Krista M. Soria, et all, NACADA Journal: 2017, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 55-65.) studied over 5,000 students and made the following observations:  

• Students who employ a strengths-based approach experience increased engagement, confidence and sense of belonging
• Post-college, these same students find great benefits in work-life beyond college such as higher job satisfaction, commitment to...

How do you provide students with the right tools to succeed?

Here’s how a panel of students who have applied the strength based student content explain how it has influenced their daily lives, as well as their future career/academic paths. The students interviewed have been part of a community program YPI (Youth Philanthropy Initiative). This program, follows the strength based student curriculum, gives students the opportunity to play a direct role in making a financial grant to a local, grassroots social service organization in their own community.  To highlight a few of the topics covered in these classes are:

• Student orientation
• Career development
• Internship and interview preparation
• Graduate school planning
• Leadership development

Based on the students experiences with this material, we asked them: What might lead to someone being a strength based student?  Here are four students individual responses.

Nathan graduated from High School in 2014 and just...

Jennifer Downing, Executive Director of Leadership SouthCoast, shares her experience using the Positive Leadership Curriculum. She explains how using the material provides her program participants with new applications as they take Positive Leadership initiatives in their communities.

How Synchronizing Clocks is an Act of Positive Leadership

by Phylinda

Every morning Betty Cary made the rounds in one of her beloved communities quietly synchronizing each clock in the school.

Betty was an integral part of the community at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1941 until her death in 2015. This means that for over 70 years, which adds up to be over 25,000 days of her life, Betty was a positive leader in her community.

Her daughter Dorothy recalls that her mother had an absolute sense of time, and believes Betty’s care of time sourced from the same wellspring as everything else in her life: consideration for others. Dorothy said her mother led a quiet, contained life in her communities. She loved all of her communities and cultivated them her whole life. So why the clocks?

Betty knew the value of time, was deeply considerate of other’s time. She understood that taking action to sync the clocks would result in a smooth transition...