Wagaliciousness Begins Here!

If April showers bring May flowers, you know it’s time for peek-toes, flip-flops, and bare feet very soon! That’s probably why today is National Mani-Pedi day – gotta get those foot-tootsies summer-ready. Yes, even if you’re a dude, the benefits of carving an hour or so out of your day for pampering is a highly recommended experience.

Taking care of yourself with things like manicures, pedicures, facials, and massages can sometimes feel self-indulgent and maybe even wasteful. It’s not – taking care of yourself is giving yourself permission to relax as you allow someone to help you look and feel your best. Making time and space in your life to do things to help you live well and be healthier is, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the perfect way to manage your stress, increase your energy, and reduce your risk of illness.

There – did that get your attention? NIMH wants you to get a mani-pedi this week!

Self-care helps your overall sense of wellbeing, and there are ...

Today is so taxing! If you’ve noticed that people are cranky, distant, or just plain missing, it’s probably because today is the day Uncle Sam demands his due. It’s tax day, and those who waited until the last minute have discovered that there aren’t a lot more minutes left to get all that paperwork handled.

As irritating as it can be to do make-work for the government and perhaps write a big check on top of it, there are other irritations often found in the workplace that you may have to deal with on a daily basis. Here are the top 5 things that team members do that annoy their coworkers:

• Talking too loudly on the phone
• Wearing too much fragrance
• Speaking in jargon instead of plain English
• Calling/texting/emailing outside of business hours & expecting a quick reply
• Poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling

In the post-pandemic world, people tend to be more stressed and touchier about the idiosyncrasies they find in their co-workers. Whether in person or virtual, everyone show...

Dogs are an important part of my life. Yours too? Growing up, my family always had a small dog and she (it was always a “she”) was a member of our family. The first was Bobbie, the one who sadly taught us the importance of not allowing puppies to dash out the door unrestrained. Next was Pixie, from an “oops” litter one of Dad’s co-workers had. Then came Buffy, the Pomeranian Mom always wanted, who joined the family after I moved out to chase my dreams. Who were the pets you grew up with, and are your memories as fond and bitter-sweet as mine?

Animals in general and dogs in specific are the launching pad for today’s newsletter. This week holds the dual, related designations of Dog Bite Prevention Week and Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week. Both are celebrated annually during the second full week of April, and both aim to educate, one about the responsibilities that come with dog ownership and one about the important role animal control officers play as first responders in animal...

In the past week, did you eat anything? Did you drink anything besides plain water? Did you sweeten something with sugar or monk fruit or stevia or honey? Do you have fresh fruit in your kitchen, canned goods in your pantry, meat and veggies in your refrigerator and freezer? Then you are the end user of thousands of unseen and often unappreciated farmers, growers, ranchers, dairy farmers, beekeepers, fruit farmers, vintners, etc. etc. etc.

Every day should be National Agriculture Day. Last week was the official one, and I hope the people who grow, farm, ranch, harvest, and collect food for us so we can eat felt appreciated.  Farmers work hard to provide food for American families – according to the USDA, 96% of the farms in the US are family-owned and operated, and most of them – 88% - are small operations that gross less than $350,000 a year. Before you get all excited and decide to go out and start your own small family farm, realize that one good, multi-purpose agricultural tractor...

Are you a team lead? The team can be a work team, a sports team or a family team – most people lead some sort of team, whether they know it or not. Some people enjoy the role of leader, helping people develop their full potential, while others are intimidated or uninterested in taking a leadership role. No matter where you fall on the leadership continuum or what sort of team you lead, it pays to know how to shape your words and actions to help your people understand and want to follow you.

In 1938, Sears Roebuck & Company began an ongoing survey of their employees, looking to understand important yet difficult to quantify concepts like loyalty, satisfaction and organizational behavior. Their longitudinal study attracted sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists, all of whom parsed the survey results in a myriad of different ways. In many respects, this was the beginning of a strong corporate human resources focus. Fast-forward to now, when the science of the brain is much more ...

Even if you don’t have a dog, you just might learn something about leadership, your own self-development, and training humans from this newsletter, so please humor me on this one.

As a life-long dog person and someone who’s been deeply involved in dog sports all my adult life, you might guess that dog training is something I’ve done a lot of, and you’d be right. I’ve trained my own dogs, as well as worked with people to train their dogs to show in conformation competition, which is what you see when you watch the Westminster Kennel Club, the National Dog Show and the AKC National Championship dog shows on TV.

I’ve also worked with people and teams, coaching and consulting, teaching mental wellbeing, team dynamics, leadership, and communication skills. What I’ve discovered is that when training people and when training dogs, many of the same skills are needed.

Many people add a furry family member during the winter holidays, live with the puppy through January and might be at their w...