Melanie Gibson Work and Martial Arts

To Lead or Not to Lead

leadership

Ugh, sorry, this is going to be a post full of corporate speak, in which I am unfortunately fluent. Consider yourself warned…

When I’m not moonlighting as a ninja I am an organizational development consultant. Lately a big part of my job has been dedicated to a program geared to develop high potential leaders for greater responsibilities and higher roles in the organization. It made me think about one’s potential to lead as well as one’s desire to lead. The opportunity to lead doesn’t and shouldn’t have to only reside in the workplace. In fact, those of us who don’t want to be leaders in our day jobs are sometimes surprised to find we have the potential to lead elsewhere.
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Melanie Gibson Work and Martial Arts

Things Got Weird and Then Got Better

Confused_Cat
Kitty was about to have a breakdown or a breakthrough…or both.

This morning during a meeting I revealed more of myself than I intended to, and I didn’t even say a word. We were meeting with a person in another department to discuss the sticky logistics of a shared project and were trying (without too much luck) to get some clarity on our roles and responsibilities. I won’t bore you with any more details.
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Melanie Gibson Work and Martial Arts

How I Would Teach a Taekwondo Class – A Parody

teambuilding
By day I am an organizational development consultant for a large healthcare system. That means that among other things, I practice the art and science of adult learning. Meanwhile as I advance in my taekwondo career I am asked to help with warm-up exercises, teaching forms, and coaching lower ranking belts. At times my two worlds of facilitation and instruction collide. I’ve learned that asking seven-year-olds about the finer points of blocking usually results in blank stares. I do however find that threatening my professional adult learners with push-ups fills me with sadistic glee.

So if I followed the rules of adult learning what would a taekwondo class look like?

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Melanie Gibson Work and Martial Arts

Defending Your Work-Life Balance

work-life-balanceI am coming out of the corporate closet: I don’t buy into the “I’m so busy” culture anymore. More and more it seems to be the cultural norm (preferred in fact) to commiserate about how “swamped” and “exhausted” and “drowning” we are with our work.

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Melanie Gibson General Martial Arts, Self-Development and Leadership, Work and Martial Arts

Taekwondo for the Voting Age Set Part 2

aTaeKwonDoClass
AWESOME

In a previous post I zeroed in on one adult who is braving the taekwondo waters. This time I’d like to share some of the most useful things I’ve learned along my martial arts journey and can hopefully provide some guidance to other adults tkd students.

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Melanie Gibson Mental Health, Self-Development and Leadership, Work and Martial Arts

Sparring with Demons – a Response to the Death of Robin Williams and the Societal Stigma of Mental Illness

demons

Amidst the outpouring of sadness and sympathy over the death of Robin Williams come the inevitable accusations of selfishness and cowardice. Early this morning I heard a woman at work snidely remark that she was surprised it had taken him this long. I had to walk away.

Mental illness is real and it is crippling. Suicide is not a decision that’s taken lightly. It is sought after as a (misguided) way to escape crushing pain and despair. The demon of depression and its many friends are very crafty and very powerful.

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Melanie Gibson Self-Development and Leadership, Work and Martial Arts

Intense and Intentional

“You’re intense and intentional about learning,” my boss said the other day, complimenting me on my tenacity to learn the ins and outs of a field I’ve only been in for about three years. I still think of myself as a goofball whose ideal day is a Netflix marathon with a side order of Doritos, but apparently to the rest of the world I am professional, accomplished, and probably a little Type A.

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Melanie Gibson Work and Martial Arts

Novice to…novice?

“We’ll have to keep our learning caps on,” my boss said during a morning team meeting, trying to allay the fears of a teammate over a new program we’re designing. We had been down this road several times, and more often than not it ended in politely veiled crankiness. There’s been some frustration on both sides around this task, and sometimes it feels like when we take 2 steps forward we take a fall down a chute and get deported from Candyland while the Monopoly man laughs and blows cigar smoke in our faces.

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