Category: Book Notes

Conflict Aversion in the Workplace Having a highly empathetic work space is a lovely thing, but we’ve also been trained by society that we should go along to get along. Brene’ Brown says “Clear is kind.” Make it a workplace mantra and you’ll see exactly why. If you see behavior that doesn’t seem right, but…

4 Day Workweek — For Equity Today was late start Monday at the elementary school. That means that families who work need to secure childcare or go into the office late so that teachers and staff can have an extra hour to do whatever is on the agenda that day. It’s always like that — and I like it on…

I reject job applicants and they thank me Make your process worth it and nobody will hate it. Especially not you. Maybe it’s not straight ahead with us, but it’s a veer to the right place, instead. I just had to send my first round of rejections to applicants I interviewed, and a couple came back with…

I’m not afraid of being fired: woman-friendly policies matter Balance only works for so long — building in employment that recognizes the scales tip more than they stay stable is important. Twice this week, I’ve had two key staff members tell me that working for me is the first time in their whole life where their kids and…

OpenGrip Management — training employees for success I used to be an English professor, and the basic pedagogy of teaching is: Teach the material Have them practice the material Quiz them on the material Assume they got it or didn’t and keep going That’s how we all got taught (if we were lucky), and that’s a default expectation…

Ground Squirrel Management These are my notes from Farm Bureau’s presentation on California ground squirrel management, arranged by what I thought were good take aways for regular people (it was a course designed for professional farmers and pest controllers) — but everyone keeps asking. All of this information is available at this website. Know your ground squirrels…

Top 5 benefits of woman-led business from the 2022 US Chamber Winner of Woman-Owned Business of the Year I applied for the award because I’d had a lot of messaging around “you don’t get what you don’t apply for” and “awards help with recruitment and retention.” That was it. My husband and I structured our businesses…

Ditch the Resumes: How This CEO Hires Better Not having a formal business education (I was an English lecturer at a community college back in the day), the weakest part of my processes has always been hiring. I knew it every single time we expanded. I knew when the candidates we interviewed were wasting our time…

Should you declare your pronouns? Child’s hands painted with a colorful rainbow. It is becoming common practice in certain circles to put your pronouns (she/he/they/zey, etc) in emails and social media bios as well as have meetings start with, “Hi, my name is Kristin and my pronouns are . . .” But why do it? It normalizes discussion about…