What a First-Grader Taught Me about SEL

A sympathetic first-grader schooled me in the art of compassion. 

It wasn’t the first time we were together. She is part of a class of roughly 25 students I have subbed for several times throughout this school year.  They generally are a good group, but their increasing noise level put the kibosh on the day’s last subject - a read aloud from ‘Same, Same but Different’, a book that is designed to support their social-emotional learning [or SEL].  

I yelled for quiet, again. Which was the fifth time that day.  My voice was hoarse and cracking from shouting over them. 

The kids were scared silent and exhausted from being berated. 

I thought to myself: Maybe I was the one who needed the read aloud. 

What was supposed to be an easy segue from recess turned into a regrettable close to the end of the school day.  

Enter seven-year-old Roberta, a freckled-faced, curly orange-red head full of kindness.  If I envisioned her as a Peanuts’ character, she could easily bookend Linus as one of Charlie Brown’s most trusted confidants.

Here is an example of a s

ocial-emotional lesson plan.

Unfortunately, we never got around to the read-aloud of this book.

Roberta’s classmate and good friend Nathaniel got into it with another boy during recess. Nathaniel was inconsolable in the aftermath. What most upset him wasn’t the skirmish itself, but rather the prospect that his dad would rip into him for what had happened. 

Nathaniel could not stop crying. He continued bawling as he re-entered the school building after recess, up the stairs to the classroom, and then put his head down at his desk.

As the kids were locating their rug spots for the read-aloud - before ultimately being asked to return to their seats because they couldn’t stop talking - Roberta approached me and said: “May I sit next to Nathaniel and give him some love? He’s had a rough day.”

“Of course, and thank you,” I said. 

They proceeded to sit together; Nathaniel immediately stopped crying. 

I was moved. Roberta taught me a valuable lesson in being emotionally intelligent. 

In being self-aware. In being self-managed. In being socially aware. In possessing relationship skills. In responsible decision-making. 

Unknowingly, through her words and actions, Roberta demonstrated the areas of competence that fundamentally comprise SEL. 

Today is the last day of school for New York City students.    

I still have some learning to do. 

Ode to the Boombox’s Buttons

After seeing a client in Chinatown a couple of years ago, a window display full of boomboxes at an old-school electronics store on Canal Street stopped me cold.   

Then it hit me, like hearing LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out for the first time - that the boombox’s buttons - Record, Rewind, Play, Fast Forward, Stop and Pause - represent the toggled states of where my mind tends to uncontrollably wander and cycle through daily.  

My mind’s boombox buttons shifted to rewind and to April 12th, 2019, the last day with my company I called home for over a decade. And a place that reliably directly deposited my check bi-weekly. It was the same day that we - the company and I - celebrated birthdays. And, it also was the day that the AARP packet came in the mail.

The next month, I started my own shop. Since then, pushing play is where life needs to be. But sometimes moving forward is hard to reach.

Looking through the window

of a vintage electronics store

Tending to the moment at hand, with focus and precision, can become tenuous or fleeting.  

Sometimes, it’s hard to zero in on the task at hand. Your mind drifts and races and backpedals.

But life doesn’t have a rewind button.  Hitting it, and becoming regretful about what you should have done, doesn’t always turn out so well. 

Nor does too much fast forwarding, where extending too far out to plan for what may never come. 

Maybe if we could regulate the fast forward button to slow it down some, in order roll out or adapt to things more thoughtfully or intentionally.

Now, pause, record and stop have its merits - and applications. 

Take a well-deserved time out and pause the action.  Or stop altogether and take a longer, more intentional break.  

Life does not have a rewind button.

Only rewind if you’re going to hit record and playback what has occurred.  At your own speed, and dissect, like game film, what has taken place so you can anticipate the next play. 

If I were to associate a word for each boombox button, it would be: 

Play - Focus

Pause - Break 

Stop - Regroup

Record  - Learn  

Fast Forward - Plan 

Rewind - Regret 

If you need to prioritize Pause and Stop more than Play and Fast Forward, then do so. The key is, to restart, do next [something my dad used to say a lot] and continue to hit play. Four years later, I’m doing just that.

The High-Five: 5 Questions with Kevin Whitmer, President of Whitmer Consulting, LLC

For this High-Five, where we interview someone who is a close connection and who has expertise about a particular topic of industry and ask them five questions related to their sphere of influence, we welcome Kevin Whitmer.

Whitmer served as the top editor at The Star-Ledger and NJ.com from 2009-2021 before founding Whitmer Consulting with his wife, Regina. Whitmer’s career in daily journalism spanned 36 years — 30 of them in New Jersey.

Most recently, he served as Advance Local’s lead editor in New Jersey, responsible for all content on NJ.com. When he retired from daily journalism at the end of 2021, NJ.com was averaging 21 million unique visitors a month, easily making it one of the largest local news and information sites in the country.

Q: When it comes to storytelling, how can utilizing the Inverted Pyramid draw in a reader quickly, particularly as it relates to today’s digital delivery?

A: Digital journalism, it turns out, is a lot like fashion – wait long enough and those baggy jeans and velvet boots come back again and again.

A lot of people in our industry kept the inverted pyramid in the back of our closets during the narrative and long-form booms, and the ill-conceived pivot to video, but look at what happened: Digital has forced us to go back to the first thing we learned in Newswriting 101.

And that’s a good thing. Here’s why: Digital is infinitely more competitive than print. It’s no longer Newsroom A vs. Newsroom B in your city. Today, we’re competing with anything and everything a user can do on their phone, laptop or iPad. That’s the truth. So if we’re good, we might steal a few minutes between scrolling TikTok, setting fantasy football lineups or doing Wordle. And if you can’t position your content as timely, relevant and digitally intentionally, you’re screwed.

Of course, the inverted pyramid isn’t the only way to win a few minutes here and there, but I would argue it’s the best starting point for at least three reasons:

• Aggregators and search engines love it. Winning there is everything – unless you don’t want the free audience multipliers.

• Readers love it. There are people I trust and respect who will say we’re dumbing down society, but digital has trained readers to graze and graze quickly. That means you better show your cards before they move on and keep doing it to win trust and return visits.

• Bosses love it. Writing fast, clean and smart is hugely in demand right now. And going back to the basics is a great way for writers to develop and sharpen digital skills because it forces them to quickly assess the most important elements of a story and then clearly communicate those points. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a skill the dinosaurs also recognize.

Q: You partnered with your wife to form Whitmer Consulting in January. Now that you are business owners, what have you learned about yourself, each other and any lessons you may have taken from leading a newsroom that can be applied to running your own shop?

A: First off, we enjoy working with each other and being able to really share, appreciate and understand the good, bad and absurd. We haven’t had that on this level since we last worked together in a newsroom, back in 1989. Regina also happens to be a great editor and she, of course, has a special gift for … let’s just say keeping me grounded.

“Newsrooms, including the one I led for 13 years, have failed to represent their readership and the markets they cover, while also failing the journalists of color
on their staffs.”

— Whitmer

Making the transition from running the largest news organization in the state to working for clients and partners hasn’t always been easy, especially in the early days. But we’ve generally had good clients and even better teachers, who have helped us learn and navigate the world.

One big surprise? You can really connect with a client, tell them how you can help and lay out a plan for each engagement. But there are detours that put you in situations you never imagined, doing work you never imagined

Those detours have become something I look forward to – it’s kind of like journalism in that you never know what’s around the next corner.

Q: In a recent Pew Research Center survey, it asked nearly 12,000 US-based journalists in a pair of open-ended questions to write down the one thing the news industry does the best job of these days and what it does worst. Journalists most commonly say the industry is the best at getting the news out, the worst at getting the story right and issues related to bias.

In an effort to get the news out, and compete for a share of audience, are we in a rush to get it right?

A: Sure, but journalists understand competition and the industry attracts people who thrive on the pressure to be first. Bigger picture, it’s true that we make more mistakes than ever – often silly mistakes – but that’s been part of a digital transformation that has piled more and more responsibilities on front-line reporters and photographers. Twenty years ago, a reporter was a reporter and an overwhelming majority of time was spent on reporting, writing and source development. Today, they still do all that while also being copy editors, photographers, videographers, SEO specialists, travel agents, mentors, public speakers, comment moderators, social media specialists, event hosts, their own IT specialists, digital researchers and about 83 other things. So, yeah, there’s a lot going on!

Q: Some news outlets now have dedicated staff positions devoted to diversity and inclusion. What were some of the ways in which you dealt with the DEI challenges in your newsroom, in terms of assigning, covering and reporting the news? Do you get a sense that journalists of color feel like these efforts have become box-checking exercises of the news outlets’ decision- makers?

A: Newsrooms, including the one I led for 13 years, have failed to represent their readership and the markets they cover, while also failing the journalists of color on their staffs. There are no excuses here; facts are facts. So the momentum behind these changes is long overdue and there must be structural changes that do more in recruiting, hiring and, especially, developing the next generation of editors and newsroom leaders.

And I certainly do not view this as a box-checking exercise.

Q: Our last question, which is a constant I share with all my guests is around the notion of daily growth. Allow me to tee-it up. Life in perpetual BETA is essentially the notion that you are constantly and continually in the state of becoming. You’re never quite there and always are striving to improve. This concept is one I introduce when I speak about rapid organizational change and individual development and growth, particularly in a current environment where it’s been hard for some folks to acclimate to their realities.

I have introduced BETA as a mnemonic to explore ways in which one could bring about positive change in one’s life or organization.  The mnemonic begins with B for Belief, E for Empathy, T for Trust, and A for Advocacy. Would you share how you would apply these words as it relates to your personal or professional life?

A: Belief: I can’t say I woke up today expecting Fun with Mnemonics, but there are similarities running an organization and working with clients. Both require believing in yourself, your experiences and the ability to connect with people and put them in the position they can be most successful. And, yes, I do believe everyone in every organization has a perfect spot where they can be their best.

Empathy: Empathy and understanding are things I wish I had more of as a younger manager. But as you grow older and get your fill of the technical work, you learn what a difference you can make when you care and show compassion for people outside of their work lives.

Trust: This might sound a bit like my belief answer, but I wish people would trust themselves more. We all make mistakes and we can all grow to trust in ourselves to learn from those mistakes and not repeat them. We all fail. So it’s important we trust ourselves to keep getting up.

Advocacy: –We all need to be advocates for ourselves and the people closest to us, right? Those are the table stakes. The next level is working to elevate people on the next ring out – people who know and know you. Maybe that’s a former colleague or acquaintance you can help without them expecting it. That feels less expected and less transactional. As a result, they can be pretty rewarding experiences.

In Alignment: Reflections of Stephanie Battaglino a Year Later

Q: What has changed for the better or worse personally?

A: For me, it has been about creating space for some inner-focused work that I have been trying very hard to be intentional about. Some call it self-care, but I prefer to think of it achieving a better sense of balance between the work and personal parts of my life. When I chose to leave my corporate gig at New York Life in 2019 and pursue my work as a speaker, trainer, consultant – and ultimately – author, I hadn’t prepared myself for the transition from “working for someone” versus “working for myself.” As a result, I was approaching my work against the old, tired paradigm that was engrained in my brain for the last 20 years at NYL, and pulling back from that, really over the entirety of my 40-year corporate career. This invariably led to my putting far too much pressure on myself to book gigs and devote time to cultivating leads and, more broadly, my network.

Now on the surface they may sound like admirable activities to be involved in to grow one’s business, but the rub was that I was undertaking them completely out of balance with the rest of my new “quasi-retired” life. And that manifested itself in stress and tension that I just did not need in my life. I always felt like had to be doing “something,” when in reality, my post-corporate life did not depend on it. I could, in fact, change gears, but I didn’t know how.

Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly love the work that I am doing because it is such a calling for me. And, I couldn’t be more proud of the book I wrote and published last year. It will always stand as a very satisfying personal achievement. But it wasn’t until I allowed myself the freedom to say “I can do whatever I want to do, when I want to do it. I don’t have to do everything anymore,” that I gave myself permission to approach the work in a much more mindful, thoughtful and intentional way. It has helped me to unburden myself – and my calendar! I now take on commitments that speak to me and that are always in alignment with my north star. And, most importantly, create space for people to open their hearts, minds and souls to education, understanding and acceptance – the three foundational elements that always buttress the work that I do.

Q: What do you believe has moved us forward or backward [politically, culturally, et al] regarding the transgender workplace equality and education movement?

Rainbow at L&B Spumoni Gardens, in Brooklyn NY

A: Of late, I’ve taken to telling the story of how I thought, when I first started doing this work in 2005 or so, that after a few short years I’d need to go find a hobby because all of the companies and organizations that I would have worked with would all be “hip to the vibe” with regard to trans and non-binary workplace inclusion. But now, some 17 years later, I found the exact opposite to be true.

There are so many companies that simply weren’t around back then that in the earlier stages of their own equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives and they are being very intentional about creating as large a tent as possible for all individuals of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

And that is very positive and supremely important when you put it against the broader context of what is happening today – and last week in the Supreme Court. The forces of hate and bigotry seek nothing less than the complete eradication of LGBTQ+ people, in particular transgender and gender non-conforming people. These individuals offer no compromise, no middle ground. So we MUST educate, we MUST enlighten, because we now – more than ever – need our allies to stand in solidarity with us in what no doubt will be a battle moving forward.

Living in Perpetual BETA: Blogcast with Stephanie Battaglino

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“What was great about this year’s Pride Month, is that it was celebrated in the White House.”

— Battaglino

The High-Five Blogcast: 5 Questions with Eugene Mitchell, President and CEO, E. Mitchell Enterprises, LLC

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“We’re not so much divided in the black community as we are disconnected, in the black community. And especially in the case of the insurance industry. Looking out across this landscape, only 4% of agents in this industry are African-American. Even fewer of a percentage are managers. And even less are principals, or general agents, or managing partners, depending on what company it is that you work for.

And when I look around, many of them are just hanging on - never making the upper levels of success, let alone making a true and successful career out of this, and | or passing on a business on to their children like I see other communities doing.

To answer your point, and where I am going with this, is that we have to get connected.”

— Mitchell

Eugene Mitchell, President and CEO, E. Mitchell Enterprises, LLC

The High-Five: 5 Questions with Stacey Finkelstein, Associate Professor and Area Head of Marketing at the University of Stony Brook

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Q.. As the area head of marketing for Stony Brook's marketing department, what advice have you given to your students who just graduated, as they look to brand, market and differentiate themselves in this challenging job market?

A. This is such a great question - I have so much empathy for what my students are experiencing. I was first on the job market during the last recession and I remember seeing job postings disappear and hearing stories of hiring freezes. My advice was that students just need a job so that they can pay the bills, and, ideally, they find a boss and team that will mentor them and offer professional coaching so that they can build skills in whatever facet of marketing or business they find themselves in.

This might mean following a different career path than what the student initially envisioned, but finding the right company culture and fit is so much more important than what job title they have. While the economy struggles and businesses pivot or, sadly, close, students should build their skills in the area they eventually want to end up in. For instance, if a student wants to end up in digital marketing, they can take free courses through Google Academy and earn certifications and there are other places offering free education as well, including HubSpot. If a student wants to end up in advertising, now is the time to boost their written communication and consider MOOCs in journalism. So, generally, my advice is to find a good company culture and if it's not in the industry they want to end up in, to use their time to boost skills using free coursework or MOOCs so that when the economy DOES recover, they can transition with relative ease. 

Q. Flash forward to September: What do you believe the classroom experience looks like?  What learnings from the tail-end of this year are you currently bringing forward in conversations with your peers and colleagues to help shape and inform those experiences this Fall?

A. I wish I had a crystal ball as this question is on everyone's minds. I am not sure what Fall will look like. My own experience and discussions at SBU have focused on readiness and experience with technology. Many of us had experience teaching online and had time to work with instructional designers to build over months - or even years - well thought out online courses. Some of us had less experience. I've been happy to see the faculty and staff come together to promote the best outcomes during a tough time - students still learned so much in our courses and made progress towards their degrees.

As face to face instruction resumes, it will probably look very different. We might be wearing masks or be in distanced classrooms and we might rely on some of the same tools we used this Spring to promote experiential learning (such as group break out rooms in Zoom when groups can't meet face to face). There are other potential apps that can boost engagement - i've heard from some faculty at other universities that Slack channels limited to class registrants can allow for a robust real-time discussion. It's encouraging to see innovation that solves the need to connect and promote experiential learning.  

“I have so much empathy for what my students are experiencing. I was first on the job market during the last recession and I remember seeing job postings disappear and hearing stories of hiring freezes. My advice was that students just need a job so that they can pay the bills, and, ideally, they find a boss and team that will mentor them and offer professional coaching so that they can build skills in whatever facet of marketing or business they find themselves in. ”

— Finkelstein

Q. As the world shifts to a new way of life in the midst of a global pandemic, marketers are facing new challenges, scrambling to adapt to changing consumer needs and experiences. What do marketers and brands need to do now to adjust their strategy in order to help ensure they will be viable in the future?

A. I think many businesses are seeing the way they do business undergo a massive revolution. The restaurant industry has to figure out how to still turn a profit when businesses reopen to reduced capacity and the retail space will certainly see massive shifts. There's certainly much room for improvement in website development, social media efforts and how to manage effective campaigns and identify new customers and messaging tactics to reach them, and to use incoming data to understand how business decisions are impacting profitability. Many small businesses in particular will grapple with all of these considerations under uncertainty and messages related to hope and community will probably resonate and cut through the cluttered media space. 

Q. Healthcare decision-making and consumer behavior are just a couple of your research specialities. In the wake of COVID-19, the delivery of healthcare, and the decisions affecting it, will likely prompt an increase in virtual health platforms and tele-medicine models. Against that potential eventuality, what roles do you believe marketing and technology will play related to the shift in consumer behavior and experiences in this emerging space?

A. Funny you ask since I just spent 90 minutes today in a roundtable at the Marketing and Public Policy conference talking about exactly this! I think telehealth poses unique opportunities and challenges for consumers (in this case, the consumers are patients) and providers. Of course people might be concerned about privacy, but there are also differences and disparities in access to technology and internet service and comfort with technology and this will shape a lot of when and how patients decide to access care. Additionally, many consumers are engaging in decisions about when to see a doctor and whether or not seeing a doctor or receiving care at an ER or Urgent Care Center for something non COVID related poses so great a risk that they decide not to seek care at this time. While telemedicine can help, many physicians find that they are unable to offer diagnostic tests and so some in-person visits might be required for labs, testing etc and how risky this in person exposure is varies as a function of cases in the area, medical capacity, and individual patient risk. Privacy and how information is kept confidential is also probably top of mind for consumers. 

Q. Life in perpetual BETA is essentially the notion that you are constantly and continually in the state of becoming. You’re never quite there and always are striving to improve. This concept is one I introduce when I speak about rapid organizational change and individual development and growth. I have introduced BETA as a mnemonic to explore ways in which one could bring about positive change in one’s life or organization. The mnemonic is below. Would you indulge me and share how you would apply these words as it relates to your personal or professional life?

1. Belief - I think people who have the ability to update their opinions and change their mind will go far in life, especially during this time of societal polarization

2. Empathy – I often speak to my students about what's called the fundamental attribution error or the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational explanations for an individual's observed behavior while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations for their behavior. What this means is that if someone lets you down, instead of thinking of them as being a "mean" or "bad" person, ask what in the environment might have prompted them to act that way. Thinking more broadly about the environment and situational factors that shape behavior allows space for empathy - to put oneself in another's shoes and consider how you would react if you were in their situation. This relates to how negative rumors are spread through organizations, professional assessments/evaluations, and any number of other interpersonal issues in the workplace. 

3. Trust – I firmly believe (and research supports) the role of authenticity in building trust. 

4. Advocacy – I think of this in two ways. The first involves advocating for junior talent when you are in a position of power and lifting up voices that are traditionally marginalized. The second relates to advocacy in that business plays a large role in societal well-being and collectively organizations can shift to more sustainable and equitable practices as relates to how they treat their employees and also the products/services they offer to consumers. 

The High-Five: 5 Questions with Charlton McIlwain, Vice Provost for Faculty and Engagement at NYU

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Q. Now that you have moved beyond the classroom as Vice Provost for Faculty Engagement with NYU, what are some of the ways in which you are supporting and engaging your faculty team[s], across the various offices and networks, in this current environment? 

A. Much of what I have been doing lately is very simple – listening. The folks I work with, like many others, have been thrust into circumstances that complicate not just their work but their lives – especially given that two worlds have largely merged. Regardless, people want to do great work. They want to engage their students. Provide an environment conducive to learning and development. They want to continue to do their research and write and engage with other scholars and ideas. Doing what was normal has become complicated in many ways and much of what I’ve been doing is listening to what concerns people. See if there are things that are within my power to do to help them do what they need and want to do to be successful as teachers, scholars, people engaged with their communities.

Q. What does the future of education look like at the university level? 

A. That’s the million-dollar question. I don’t know that any one knows, but I think most would agree that the landscape of higher education will look pretty different, at least for the near future. I think “remote” forms of teaching and learning and the role that technology plays in the educational environment will look different, particularly as many find that remote and environments and technology pose challenges, but also some opportunities that we may never have experienced if we’d not been thrust into this situation of not having much choice. Affordability will be an even greater challenge for many higher education institutions, given the financial impact that the current crisis will likely have – something we also don’t fully know yet, generally speaking. These and many other challenges mean that I think higher education institutions in the near future will look differently as we ask faculty, students and administrators to have to think creatively about how we do what we do under constraints that we haven’t quite experienced before.

Q. I m discovering that, living through this pandemic, the digital chasm appears to be growing. Remote learning for kids of color, primarily in elementary school, has been challenging because the access to the requisite technology either has been non-existent, or it’s being shared by siblings. Despite the best intentions from schools issuing temporary laptops, we need to understand how the lasting and severe impact this new ‘abnormal’ can have on educating future generations of underserved and disenfranchised populations. What are your thoughts there? 

A. We’ve always known – whether we as a society choose to acknowledge it or not – that education is one of the greatest sites of rampant inequality, where one’s educational opportunities are largely a function of one’s accident of birth and geography. That is, who your parents are, where they live, and what kind of money they make. Geography is frequently destiny given the way that we fund our school systems across the country and vast amounts of money and resources separate students and what they have access to and what they don’t, all depending on where they happen to live.

This is all becoming so much more difficult to ignore in our current situation, especially when it reveals itself in the gap between those who have access to digital tools and those who do not, and those who have access to family situations that make it easier to take advantage of computers and internet service, and remote learning or asynchronous teaching and learning. The fact that public schools across the country are giving up on even trying to finish some semblance of the academic year speaks to this. It’s during crises like these that these inequalities are laid bare and show us that something must be done if we are not going to continue to let birth and geography pick winners and losers in terms of access to quality education.

Q. Building on the last question, your recent book Black Software speaks about the advances that African-Americans have made in computer technology and their pioneering leadership in that space to make their voices heard, appreciated and respected in meting out racial equality and justice. The book also, however, addresses racial biases inherent in how digital technology is positioned and deployed up through today, to where the seemingly meritocratic state of the Internet is in fact gamed and tilted to those who are in power. With that backdrop, will today’s health crisis have an adverse effect on African-Americans’ ability, or capability, to make their voices heard through our digital platforms and outlets? If so, how? If not, why not? 

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“It’s during crises like these that these inequalities are laid bare and show us that something must be done if we are not going to continue to let birth and geography pick winners and losers in terms of access to quality education.”

— McIlwain

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A. Well, I think this goes back to what we promised this Internet thing would be way back in the early 90s and beyond. It was supposed to be a great, unifying, democratic space. It was supposed to provide everyone – regardless of race or gender or sexuality or any other difference – a voice, a way to express ourselves and most important a way to make our voices heard among those who often need to hear it. People in power. People creating the rules that we will have to live by. People making decisions that will affect our life chances and course. Today, we clearly see that not only does access to the Internet and digital connectivity in general exist for some more than others. But also I think the lesson of the last twenty plus years is that the Internet has been great at giving us the Illusion of having a voice.

What we know from research though is that in the same way that technology has always worked, it seems to help the rich and powerful more than those who are not – folks who are also disproportionately people of color, immigrants, people without means or access to means. Sure Black folks and other people of color have many platforms from which we can speak. But is anyone listening? Are the right people listening? Do they care what we say? Can we cut through all the noise to be heard even if folks want to? Frequently the answer to those questions are an emphatic – no! 

Q. Life in perpetual BETA is essentially the notion that you are constantly and continually in the state of becoming. You’re never quite there and always are striving to improve. This concept is one I introduce when I speak about rapid organizational change and individual development and growth. I have introduced BETA as a mnemonic to explore ways in which one could bring about positive change in one’s life or organization. The mnemonic is below. Would you indulge me and share how you would apply these words as it relates to your personal or professional life? 

Belief – Principles that guide how I make decisions. 

Empathy – It’s what makes us, “us.”

Trust – Can’t lead without it.

Advocacy – Sharing my influence to benefit others