Up in Northern New York State, my dad is just finishing up another round of artisanal sugaring (producing maple syrup from the sap that runs in the spring). It's a hobby that bridges the depth of winter and sailing season — a hobby from which my brothers and sister and I reap serious maple syrup dividends.

Out of all my siblings, I live the closest to our father, so I see him the most frequently. The way I contribute, albeit meagerly, to his sugaring efforts is to save glass jars for him. Old syrup mason jars, peanut butter and pickle jars, and those jumbo jars the kalamata olives from Costco come in.

I save the jars, but I draw the line at removing the labels.

Have you been in an important meeting during which you sat on the edge of your seat, trying to jump in at the right time, only to – when you finally do – get the floor swept away again by someone else? This is stressful and anxiety-provoking, and these emotions have the negative effect of impeding our best thinking.

Besides a few bobs, I've had long hair most of my life. I have spent years trying myriad ways to keep my hair out of my face, It might be a combination of having a relatively small forehead and a habit of slightly tucking my chin down that caused my hair to fall in my face very easily. Even just seeing it in my peripheral vision bugged me!

In our closest relationships that support our growth and development, alignment is naturally in flux. When things get messy or confusing, or trust falters, how do we straighten it all out?

Ok, time for some personal talk. This one is for you, my lady friends. How does your monthly cycle affect your leadership strategy? Or your presence? Or your mindset? I’ve talked before about managing our energy as the key to managing our time and achieving balance.

There is no managing of time, really. Time management is one of those elusive leadership phrases that, when you pull back the curtain, nothing appears to be there because we can’t actually control time - it just happens.

Radical empathy is the term I use to remind myself of the skill of employing empathy in the hardest circumstances. Empathy is about putting ourselves in someone else's shoes and imagining what it is like to be them within their circumstantial context. We may not naturally do this when that 'other' is on opposite sides of an issue from us.

I have this hypothesis that our strengths and our weaknesses are not two separate lists of characteristics. I believe what makes us ineffective — our true “weaknesses” — results from the misapplication of our strengths.