Discover 8 key “Table Stakes” in life to help us be compassionate leaders for ourselves and others with expert Claire Kumar and your host Mike Domitrz.
Productivity Catalyst, Clare Kumar, is on a mission to cultivate high-performance workplaces through two key ingredients: developing sustainably productive employees and compassionate leadership.
* You are invited to join our community and conversations about each episode on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/MutuallyAmazingPodcast and join us on Twitter @CenterRespect or subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here.**
Clare’s BIO.
Productivity Catalyst, Clare Kumar, is on a mission to develop high-performance workplaces in two ways – helping create sustainably productive employees and cultivating compassionate leadership. As a highly sensitive person, Clare developed personal organizing and productivity techniques as a coping strategy to calm a chaotic, taxing world. She left her corporate career to begin serving others struggling to feel more in control of their work and personal lives. Now she speaks and coaches to inspire shifts in personal performance and corporate culture. True success comes from every one of us being able to live well while using our unique talents in service of others. Productivity Table Stakes from Clare Kumar: To be able to play the game at your best, this is what you need:
- Sleep
- Fuel
- Movement
- Light
- Comfort in Social Situation
- Social Interaction
- Focus
- Mindset
Links to Clare:
- www.ClareKumar.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarekumar
- https://www.instagram.com/clarekumar/
- https://twitter.com/streamlife
- https://www.facebook.com/clare.kumar
Recommended Reading:
- ** Look out for “FlowJob” COMING SOON! **
- 1. Awakening Compassion at Work, by Monica Worline, Jane E. Dutton
- 2. The Highly Sensitive Person, by Dr. Elaine Aron
Mike Domitrz: Welcome
to the Respect Podcast. I’m your host, Mike Domitrz, from mikespeaks.com, where
we help organizations of all sizes educational institutions, and the US
military create a culture of respect. And respect is exactly what we discuss on
this show, so let’s get started. This week’s guest is productivity catalyst,
Clare Kumar, who is on a mission to cultivate high-performance workplaces
through two key ingredients: developing sustainably productive employees and
compassionate leadership. Clare, thank you so much for joining us.
Clare Kumar: It’s
a treat to be here. Thanks, Mike.
Mike Domitrz: And
Clare, you talk about the fact that you’re a highly-sensitive person. What does
that mean, and what did it mean for you in the workplace?
Clare Kumar: I
often use the example of a meerkat. So you think of those animals, the really
cute rodents, and they stand at attention. You can imagine one standing on
their hind legs, keeping a watch for the rest of their pack of meerkats. And
that one individual meerkat is really on high alert to notice what’s going on.
What happens for a highly sensitive person is you’re kind of in that mode all
the time. Your nervous system is wired to pay attention to all that incoming
stimulus. Now with a meerkat, the good thing is they have a fully belly, they
do a two or three hour shift, and then they take a rest. But when you’re an
employee and your nervous system is wired to be paying attention to everything,
you don’t necessarily get to take a rest after a couple of hours. And so that
can become a challenge in our really busy world when we don’t get a chance to
turn off some of the stimulus.
Mike Domitrz: Is
that different than an empath? So an empath feels, emotionally, everybody
else’s emotions, from what I understand. I’m not an expert on empaths. But what
you’re describing is being sensitive to everything that’s … Like, if there’s
toxic energy around you, you feel that toxic energy. If there’s positive
energy, you feel that positive energy. Is that correct? Versus sensitive versus
empath?
Clare Kumar: I
think that is probably a very good description. With highly sensitive people,
it extends beyond that emotional connection, which I think we also engage in.
We can sense … And this is why, actually, it becomes a very good attribute.
It makes me good at what I do. I work as an executive coach, and as part of
that, we are listening and responding to our clients, and so that ability to
tune in and have that emotional connection is important, but it extends beyond
that to, for example, the lighting in a space, the humidity, the temperature,
the noise, all of those things, and even visual clutter. For about 10, 15 years
now, I’ve worked as a professional organizer before focusing on productivity,
and spending a lot of time in people’s homes and even office environments
dialing down visual noise so people can think.
Mike Domitrz: So
if you are that highly-sensitive person, what are steps and strategies you can
do to help yourself? Let’s start in the workplace.
Clare Kumar: Okay,
things that I’ve done over time have been coping strategies, if you will, to
create an environment in which I can thrive, and so it’s looking at the
particular things that you might be paying attention to, and one point I want
to make is Elaine Aron, who wrote a book called The Highly Sensitive Person,
has studied this for some time, and it applies to about 15 to 20% of the
population, so it’s a fairly healthy size of the workforce that may be dealing
with these challenges. So number one, for sure, tackling what that physical
environment from a visual perspective to make sure … And I’m laughing as I
say this, because the desk I’m working on right now is the most cluttered desk
I think I’ve seen.
Clare Kumar: Because
as I mentioned my sister was over, and she was napping, and all of my stuff
from the bed is now on the desk. So as I say, take care of your physical space,
I have to laugh. And take care of the other things that will be challenging for
you. So it could be noise distractions; it could be that you want to work with
headphones on; it could be that you need to go and book a conference room or a
meeting room or remove yourself from the office environment, especially with
the increasing open concepts. We actually need a variety of spaces to function within,
and a sensitive person is going to be more taxed by that open concept office
than your average person.
Mike Domitrz: And
so if you’re the employer, the leader, of somebody who’s sensitive, how do you
help that person? Do you seek out what settings they need to really perform at
their best? Do you just say, “Hey, what can I do to support you in
creating this space?”
Clare Kumar: You
totally nailed it. I think there’s several things that you want to be as a
leader when you’re approaching your employees from a compassionate perspective.
Number one, you want to stay committed to the belief that your employees are
out to do their best, and that positive belief set is really important. You
want to be conscious, so you want to tune into what’s happening personally for
the person, as well as professionally, because we come into work as humans, and
we carry our whole lives with us, whatever might be happening at home could
affect work, and vice versa. So we want to think of our employees as whole
people and be curious, conscious of that. We want to be curious, and that’s, to
your point, we want to ask the question, “What can I do to help you
perform at your best?” That’s one takeaway question I’d love to have
people lock into their brains: “What can I do to help you perform at your
best?”
Mike Domitrz: What
if someone’s not aware of it? Is it possible that somebody is high-stressed
because they’re not even aware of this themselves, that this is their struggle?
Clare Kumar: Oh,
absolutely. I have a productivity model, which I call Productivity CPR, and the
initial activity in that whole process is self-awareness, and a lot of times,
self-awareness is challenged in our really busy … What I call “hustle
culture.” We’re not taking the time to pause and self-reflect. And you’re
absolutely right; stopping and tuning into, “Wait a minute, number one,
what’s my body telling me?” Number two, what do I think … How do I name
that emotion or that physical sensation that’s coming up, and how do I
understand that? And then what’s triggering it?” So we can then take our
problem-solving approach and try and come up with solutions.
Clare Kumar: And
sometimes, we can do that on our own, and sometimes you want to work with our
leaders to help cultivate that environment in which we can thrive. And that can
look like anything from a more quiet location in the office. I just commended
one of my early-on managers … He’s now the president of the Canadian
operations … and I commended him on his noticing that I did much better in an
office environment that wasn’t in the center of the floor, but it was away a
little bit in a quieter area. And his noticing when we moved offices, I was in
a much better place. So paying attention to that is really important, and being
curious, and then taking a problem-solving approach, too. Whenever there’s what
I call a speed bump, whether it’s internal or external, trying to solve what’s
causing that, and find a better path for performance.
Mike Domitrz: And
you specifically talk about compassionate leadership, which is really what
we’re displaying right here, how to create the best setting for people and be
compassionate for them. What else does that mean when somebody says cultivating
compassionate leadership?
Clare Kumar: Well,
I think it’s important on two levels, and it needs to start with self. And the
number of leaders, actually, that I’ve talked to who are … who get this with
respect to their employees, but then will turn to me and say, “But I’m
really terrible at taking care of myself.” So I think it’s really
important for leadership to demonstrate self-respect, and when I talk about
self-respect, I’m talking about recognizing that we’re human animals. There’s a
lot of talk about artificial intelligence out there. I want to talk about how
we respect our human intelligence and honor the fact that we’re animals and we
need sleep. We need nutrition. We need movement. We need light. We need social
interaction. There are a number of things I call productivity table stakes, and
when you as an individual understand what your needs are for every one of those
table stakes, then not only can you look to create that in your schedule and in
your environment, you can gracefully defend those boundaries that you can put
in place.
Mike Domitrz: Now
the term is table stakes?
Clare Kumar: Yeah,
I call it productivity table stakes. And I’m a poker player, but I thought …
When I was thinking through how to explain this, it’s the things that you need
to have in your life to show up, to deliver your best performance. So to be
able to play the game, this is what you must bring to the table, so table
stakes became what I call it.
Mike Domitrz: So
are there standard, set groupings or categories of these, or are they
completely different for everyone?
Clare Kumar: There
are eight different productivity table stakes, which also works with the poker
table analogy, because they’re often eight-sided, and they’re everything from,
as I mentioned, sleep, fuel, movement, light, the comfort in your physical
environment, social interaction, and your ability to attend to things, your
focus. And I think the most important one is mindset. And so understanding our
relationship to each of those things, and how we cultivate what we need for
each of them is really, really critical.
Mike Domitrz: And
that’s great. You can see how somebody can look at each of those and go,
“Where am I hitting? Where am I missing?” Because the odds are slim
that most of us are hitting on all eight.
Clare Kumar: I
think so, yeah. I think so. As our society evolves, I see a lot more
loneliness, and this was even with some younger employees in a company. They
were new to Canada, where I live, and finding it difficult to make social
connections. So looking for what level of social interaction might somebody need
might not even be on their radar as something that might be getting in the way.
Mike Domitrz: And
when we’re talking about compassion, what are examples to help people
understand where they might not even recognize that they’re lacking the
compassion? Like everybody wants to believe, “I’m a compassionate
leader,” so what are some examples where people might have thought they
were but they weren’t? Just help us all look in the mirror and go, “Hm,
could that have been me at a certain situation?”
Clare Kumar: I
love that question, and there’s a few examples from my personal experience, and
then another one with … I’ll tell you that story first. But I think it’s
first recognizing that you have a personal bias, and you bring your culture,
your upbringing, your personal beliefs to whatever you do, and to first be able
to say, “Maybe I don’t know everything” is great, and that’s why
staying curious is really an important point as a compassionate leader, is to
say, “Hm, maybe I’m not experiencing things the only way they can be
experienced,” and holding onto that as a mindset as you work with your
employees. And the story that I have is I was working with a team of
individuals through an organization, learning organization. Right from the
senior vice president to the admin assistant who … And they were all in a day
workshop with me.
Clare Kumar: And
as part of the facilitated discussion, we got into a conversation about culture
and communication and interaction in that workplace, and in that discussion,
the senior vice president learned that, every day, the admin assistant was
taking about two hours of work home with her to complete solely because she was
in that core hub position in the office, open concept, and she was a social,
engaging person, and the number of people that would drop by and interrupt her
meant that she couldn’t complete her tasks. So when he learned this, he … And
he had no concept at all … he said, “Well, wait a second. What if you
worked for two hours from home, got that focused time that you need,
uninterrupted time, and then came into the office?” Well, life-changing
for her. She not only missed rush hour and had a more pleasant commute in, she
was able to manage her workload and still have the right amount of engaged
time, but with also that protected focus time.
Mike Domitrz: That’s
an interesting one, because I could hear some people thinking, “Move her,
so that the other six hours, she’s not bombarded with everybody coming at her
for personality is one that gets distracted through social interaction,”
and so I can see the positive in, “Give her the two hours,” but
wouldn’t she still be set in this overwhelming social setting?
Clare Kumar: I
think part of her job was actually that engagement, so she was sort of
reception, admin, both. And so it made sense for her to be physically located
where she was, but she also needed protected time for some of the tasks that
she was in charge of.
Mike Domitrz: So
in that example, the leadership actually caught it. They showed compassion, and
they adjusted. What’s example where somebody did not? Like they thought they
were doing the right thing for the organization, but they were actually lacking
compassion in the moment?
Clare Kumar: So
I’ll give you two personal stories. The first one is I was 23 years old, and in
a high-tech environment, the kind of place where we all wore all-nighters on
our arms like badges of honor. It was a very busy place to work. A lot of
really bright minds. And unfortunately, my father was fighting cancer, and he’d
been fighting cancer, by then, for about a year. And I was at work one morning,
and I got the phone call from my mom that he was no longer in remission. Well,
that kind of hits you like a blow to the stomach when you’re 23 years old and
you get that news. So I was pretty upset at my desk, and I don’t know, it was
about half an hour or an hour, and my boss came by and saw that I was upset,
and I explained to him what happened. He sat down in my office and looked at me
and said, “Hey, when my dad died, I took three days off. You don’t want to
let this ruin your career.”
Mike Domitrz: Oh
my.
Clare Kumar: Yeah.
I was … Well, clearly, it didn’t really make me feel much better in that
moment, and I haven’t forgotten it in, what, 27 years? So I thought that was an
example of him taking his personal view of his relationship with his father and
assuming that I should be able to take his approach and apply it to my
relationship with my father and my relationship to work, and there wasn’t a
performance issue at this time. So it wasn’t particularly motivating or
compassionate. And then fast forward another six months, and my leadership
changed, and I had a new boss. And unfortunately, at this time, my father had
become more ill and actually slipped into a coma in ICU. It was pretty grueling
time. And the manager I had then talked to me and said, “You know what,
Clare? Take all the time you need.” That difference … Same company. Same
culture around. But that difference in compassion in the leadership … Can you
guess who I wanted to work harder for?
Mike Domitrz: Absolutely.
And I think what people forget sometimes is we get so caught up in the
deadlines and the goals and the benchmarks that we forget it’s people achieving
those.
Clare Kumar: Exactly.
Yeah. And so that’s why I want to bring the humanity and the fact we’re animals
back into this, and sort of one way to do that that I’ve found useful dealing
with anybody in trying to drive up compassion whether it be a family member or
strangers is to think of everybody as if they’re three years old. At three
years old, you don’t think anyone’s intentionally trying to make you have a bad
day. They’re just learning and doing their best and figuring things out. And if
we can think of ourselves as three years old and be more nurturing and think of
other people and how we can guide them and support them and help them grow,
then that’s been useful.
Mike Domitrz: Do
you get pushback on that? Like somebody thinking, “Wait, that’s just weird
and uncomfortable to think of everybody …” especially in a place of high
intelligence and creativity, and to think of somebody as a three-year-old is
almost diminishing the intelligence of what’s happening. How do you respond to
that pushback?
Clare Kumar: That’s
a great question. I first talk about thinking of yourself as the
three-year-old. And in fact, I have myself as a three-year-old … a picture of
me at three years old on my office wall to remember that spark. There’s a
devilishness and a grin, and it’s this incredible vibrant energy. And so it’s
not to diminish intellect, it’s to reposition our expectations. I spoke to a
wonderful gentleman last night who is an advocate for disabilities … for
people whose children have disabilities. His son was born a quadripllegic. And
he said, as he watched his son grow, the opportunities and compassion just
disappeared as he aged. And I think that’s why I talk about thinking of someone
in their youth as a way to drive compassion. So it may be new, it may be
somewhat weird, but try it on yourself first would be my advice, and see how
that feels.
Mike Domitrz: That
makes a lot of sense, by saying, “All right, picture myself with that
curiosity, that discovery, that open heart,” I can see how that would make
a big difference starting there.
Clare Kumar: Yeah,
and you don’t think, “I wasn’t so smart at three.” That doesn’t
really come into my thinking about myself at three.
Mike Domitrz: Right.
Right, exactly. And how does the concept … ? So we’re all about the Respect
Podcast here. And you talk about productivity. How does respect align with
productivity?
Clare Kumar: Well,
I think we’ve touched on it a little bit. The respect for yourself is
paramount, because those productivity table stakes … When you understand how
they can impact your performance … That respect for self … And sometimes we
have to be brave to demonstrate that respect, and sometimes we have to put our
money where our mouth is. And one example of that I can give you is I’ve done
some work on shopping television, both in the US and Canada, and it can be a
24/7 world. In one instance, when you’re doing what they call a showstopper up
here in Canada, they ask you to do seven hours of television in 24, and the
most sleep you can get with the way their schedule is set up is about three and
a half hours. Well, I decided some time ago, for health reasons, that
protecting sleep is absolutely paramount because that’s when the body heals,
and so I’ve turned down several thousand dollars a day of work because I wasn’t
able to preserve sleep during that time, not adequately. And so yeah, you have
to be a little bit brave, and that’s where respect comes in.
Mike Domitrz: How
do you respond when somebody says, “Well, you have the privilege of being
able to do that. I can’t afford to turn away the business that … or the job
situation to feed my kids, to feed myself. I’ve got to … That’s all I have.
That’s my only opportunity to make money.” How do you respond to that
person?
Clare Kumar: That’s
a beautiful question, because we all have to juggle very full lives, and I
think when you recognize that your health is the most important thing and if
you look at losing capability, which I’ve faced. I’ve just decided to be public
about the fact that I have MS, multiple sclerosis. And when you face losing
capability in a large degree, you are then forced to look at how you’re living
and really subscribe to the things that sustain your performance. And so what I
would love is for people to figure that out before they lose capability, before
a state of chronic stress taxes the body and the mind and perhaps cultivates a
challenge like I face. I think we are in a challenging time where expectation
drives us to that, and conditions are not easy. I live in a very, very
expensive city, and making choices is difficult.
Clare Kumar: What
I would say is continually strive to better your situation. Look for a job
that’s closer to home. Look for a job with slightly better conditions for
yourself or greater flexibility. This is partly why I lobbied a long time while
I was in the corporate world to senior leadership for flexibility and reduced
work weeks, so that we can honor our capacity as human individuals. And it’s
about being sustainably productive. So I want everybody to have their teams
there next year with more energy, vitality, commitment, than they do right now.
And that comes from having everyone thrive.
Mike Domitrz: And
I appreciate you sharing with us about MS, so thank you for sharing that
strength and that courage tells us that … You just decided to come forward as
far as speaking publicly about this. And I think that goes to what you were
discussing in compassion and respect, and that’s a concept of how much
compassion we have for ourselves and respecting our space and our privacy. What
was that process like for you?
Clare Kumar: Two
things: scary as hell. Excuse that word. But scary, because number one, I’ve
always thought, “What if I need to get a job? No one will hire me.”
And it’s a very, very real concern with anybody with a chronic illness. And
number two, I’m dating, and so I also thought that’s probably not very sexy. So
do I want this out or not? And then I finally decided in September that I need
… I’m thankfully living a very full life right now with no real effects that
I’m dealing with other than fatigue, I would say, but a very full life, and I
thought, “You know what, even with the speaking engagements and the
coaching and training that I do, I need to construct that so that I can deliver
very well,” and but also, out of respect to my clients and transparency, I
want them to understand why my golden day is going in for a lunch and learn
type meeting followed up by half a day of coaching. It’s not five days
back-to-back training. That’s just not going to be something that I’m going to
thrive through.
Clare Kumar: And
honestly, I construct my full days now … Full days of training from … to be
five- or six-house days, and I’m telling you, not only do I love it, but the
employees love it too, because there’s time on either end to check email.
There’s a good lunch break where we get outside. It’s actually walking the
talk, and it feels a whole lot more aligned for me, and so I am trusting now
that being honest about it will open up opportunities and hopefully, with
people that are listening, if they’ve got a challenge, will help some bravery
in claiming those productivity table stakes so that you can then be really
giving your best. I call it success. One of my definitions of success is being
able to use your unique skills in the service of others, and so that’s what
this is all about is understanding what conditions we can thrive so that we
continue to be giving, serving people, and that drives our personal
fulfillment. So it’s a big goal, but I’m hoping that it inspires a few people
out there.
Mike Domitrz: Well,
and for our listeners I’ve got on this show, and it’s … I was typing up the
eight table stakes that you mentioned so that they could find those, because
it’s always hard when you’re listening. So for our listeners, know those are in
the show notes at mutuallyamazingpodcast.com. They’re also in the show notes if you’re
on iTunes or wherever you’re listening to. Clare, you have a book you’re
working on called Flowjob.
Clare Kumar: That’s
right.
Mike Domitrz: So
obviously, that title in and of itself will get people’s attention. What’s
Flowjob all about?
Clare Kumar: So
two things, I don’t know if you know the Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called Flow.
Mike Domitrz: I
do. Absolutely.
Clare Kumar: Okay.
Right. So that’s the optimal psychology of experience, and so when I’m coaching
someone, I realized over the years, that I’m trying to bring them into that
state of flow where life isn’t necessarily easy. There’s a right amount of
challenge in a task, but you enter that timelessness where you’re using your
skills and you’re just so engrossed in your activities that time passes you by
and you’re enjoying it, that in-the-zone state. So I want people to have that
experience at work. So there’s really a spiritual element to having flow at
work, and that’s where Flowjob comes from, and I just thought I’d have some fun
with it, because one of my values is nixing productivity and pleasure for
sustainable performance because I think we have to be enjoying the journey,
enjoying what we do. So hopefully, that translates in the title.
Mike Domitrz: Now,
did you get any pushback on going with the title? Are there people who think,
“Well, that’s going to offend, so stay away from it?”
Clare Kumar: I
love that you’re asking this. I’ve been researching the title for about five
months now, and I will say that 80 to 90% of people laugh right away, and for
me … My love of humor is … That’s a huge win for me, but there are a few
people that will come to me afterwards and say, “You know, I’ve been
thinking about that title. I’m not sure it’s for corporate. I have concerns
about hashtag MeToo, and I hear all that, and I respect that position. I think
when people understand I have a very … There’s a lot of gravitas around the
message that I want to get out around bringing flow to work that they’ll see it
as hopefully clever, not offensive. I’m British, and wordplay is massive. Me
and my dad … My dad and I used to laugh at the worst puns all day long. It’s
just … That’s my sense of humor. It was almost on my license plate, and then I
thought, “I cannot drive my high school son to school and pick him up with
that on my car. That won’t work.” So you should see his face when we talk
about the book title now. He rolls his eyes in great horror.
Clare Kumar: But
overall, it’s making people laugh. When I was researching the name, it was
actually a company in Ireland as well that was a job site. So connecting people
to work. So it’s been used before in a professional sense, and if I make people
laugh along the way to a journey in which … that they can be learning the
tips for not only personal productivity, which is the first three parts of the
book, and then the leadership perspective on building … being that
compassionate leader, which is the fourth part, then I’m … I think I’m at the
point where it’s worth, perhaps, that initial concern from people. And I’d love
to talk with people about it, but overwhelmingly, people laugh and say,
“You know what?” They say … This is coming from a few really
respected speakers. They’re like, “You know what? I don’t know if I would
do it, but … ” Actually, no, what they said was, “This is risky,
but I wish I’d thought of it,” is what they said.
Mike Domitrz: Well,
there you go.
Clare Kumar: “And
can I use it?” So overall, overwhelmingly, I’m going with it, because I
think in this, I have a background in 15 years of marketing, and getting
through our busy communication culture right now, it’s hard to get attention.
So I figure, I’m going to go for the attention-grabbing title with some
gravitas and humor, hopefully.
Mike Domitrz: Well,
I appreciate that, love it. And I love that it’s playful and it’s fun. That’s
very cool. So I want to thank you, Clare. This has been a great insight you’ve
provided us, for both being able to help ourselves and those we work with,
especially for leadership.
Clare Kumar: My
pleasure, Mike.
Mike Domitrz: For
our listeners, you know what time it is. It’s time for Question of the Week.
Before I answer this week’s Question of the Week, I’d love to ask you a
question. Would you please subscribe to this podcast, the Respect Podcast with
Mike Domitrz? By subscribing, you can make a huge impact. Now you might be
wondering, “Mike, how does my subscribing to your podcast make a huge
impact?” Well, here’s how. For every person that subscribes, it raises the
rankings of the show in the search engines. So for people who care about
respect like yourself, when they’re doing a search for podcast, they’re more
likely to find the show, thus providing an awesome opportunity for us to spread
more respect around this world. And all you do is hit subscribe under your
podcast. Plus the second benefit is, by subscribing, you automatically get
every episode right into your phone or whatever device you are listening to the
podcast on. It happens automatically. So subscribing also makes your life
easier. Now let’s get into this Question of the Week.
Mike Domitrz: Oh,
and by the way, you can always ask your questions of the week by joining us on
Facebook in our discussion group. It’s called the Respect Podcast Discussion
Group. Go there on Facebook and ask whatever questions you would like me to
answer and/or address in this segment of the show, and then listen to each
episode to find out when your question is included. This week’s question is,
“Mike, what’s one of your favorite books?” Now, for listeners who are
frequent listeners, you know this is something that I add into the Question of
the Week about once a month, once every two months. We add in a book that
guests have not mentioned. Here’s the book that I want to share this week that
I continually turn to for how powerful it is, because you can open a page and
have an entire chapter on a page. That’s how short the chapters are, to just
make you think, settle, and reflect in that moment. The book is Tao Te Ching.
Now some people pronounce it Dao Te Ching. I may be pronouncing this whole
thing wrong, and I apologize for that. The subtitle is A Book About the Way and
the Power of the Way, and it’s about Ursula Le Guin, which Le Guin is Le
G-U-I-N, G-U-I-N. Ursula’s U-R-S-U-L-A. The book Tao Te Ching: A Book About the
Way and the Power of the Way. So powerful and reflective.
Mike Domitrz: Do
you know what I would love? I would love to hear your answer to this week’s
Question of the Week, so would you please answer what your answer would have
been if you were asked that question today on the show? All you do is go to our
Facebook page. We have a special group where we have these discussions called
the Respect Podcast Discussion Group. So the Respect Podcast Discussion Group,
and share with us, what would your answer have been to this week’s Question of
the Week, and if take a moment, post us a new question for future episodes.
What would question would you like to hear me answer on an upcoming episode?
That’s all done at on Facebook in our special group, which is the Respect
Podcast Discussion Group. Can’t wait to see you there. Thank you for joining us
for this episode of the Respect Podcast, which was sponsored by the Date Safe
Project at datesafeproject.org. And remember, you can always find me at
mikespeaks.com.