Entries by Catherine Bachy

Listening Pockets–think pita pockets with ears

In a short piece, Daniel Goleman(see Curing the Common Cold of Leadership: Poor Listening)  reminds us again of the importance of listening as a key leadership skill.  Neuroscience tells us that our brain is super proficient at mastering procedures like brushing our teeth or sending a text.  It stores these “how to” processes in the […]

The Twenty Year Throw

In Aikido there is a particular throw that practitioners refer to as the “twenty year throw.”  Why?  It takes twenty years to master this move.  I’m in my third year of learning the twenty year throw. (Yes, that’s me, the one standing in the snapshot). I am little more fluid, a little more graceful.  I […]

Why pictures?

75% of our meaning making comes from visual input (Roam, 2009, p.22).  By visual I mean both physical and cognitive vision like dreams and inner vision:  both the STOP sign you see while driving and the inner vision you have of your car coming to a stop. David Sibbet’s new book (2013), Visual Leaders speaks […]

Meet Bigness with Bigness

When faced with big challenges, it’s easy for our bodies to contract, to tense—to brace for what is coming towards us.   I notice this impulse in my Aikido practice.  My opponent comes towards me with a strike, and my body wants to brace and contract.  Yesterday, in one of these moments, I heard the words, […]

What is your vision?

The great leader and visionary, Martin Luther King Jr., would have celebrated his 84th birthday this week.   Dr. King held the vision of equality for all.  He dreamed a world where, “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”  In […]

Soupir: Rest Notes

In written music rest notes are marked just as all the other musical notes are indicated.  The rest notes are pauses of a certain length between notes.  Not every rest note is the same.  Some are whole rest notes, some are half, or quarter, or sixteenth rest notes.  The one pictured here is a quarter […]

Listening to the Whole

“Leadership is about being better able to listen to the whole than anyone else can,”  Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation   What is the quality of your listening?  Are you listening to your own opinions forming in your mind while being spoken to—preparing a response?    Or are you able to place your intention in […]