Last week I had the opportunity to work with several teams across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Two of the sessions were Real Colors workshops. And every time I mention Real Colors, I get the same question: what in the heck is that? Real Colors is a personality workshop. If you've heard of Myers Briggs, DiSC, or any of the other tools out there, it's similar. It's a way to explore how people think, how they act, how they communicate, and what things mean to them. This is

I've been at the Road Commission for 21 years. That's a long time. Not the longest tenure in the room, but long enough that my brain is basically a filing cabinet of random history, processes, institutional knowledge, and details that most people don't even know to ask about. I remember looking at the long-timers when I first started and thinking...how do they know all of that? Will I ever get there? Well, I sure don't know everything. But I've gotten there in a lot of ways.

The result? They look like a diamond. Their coworker looks like a chunk of coal. And nobody actually did anything different. One person just decided their shine required someone else's shadow. Here's what I know about people who build others up. They are magnetic. People want to be around them. People want to work for them and with them. They create environments where everyone does better, because when one person wins and it feels safe to celebrate, the whole team gets more

There is a phrase that has been rattling around in my head lately: perfectionism is the enemy of done. That is not permission to do sloppy work. It is not an argument for carelessness or cutting corners. It is a recognition that at a certain point, the extra hours we pour into something rarely return anything meaningfully better than what we already had. The energy we spend chasing perfect is energy we are not spending on the next thing, the next person, the next project tha

Here's my honest take, and yes, I know some people will call me a Pollyanna for saying it: I think the vast majority of people are reasonable. Most people, when given accurate information and treated with respect, can understand what is and isn't possible. They can handle a "no" if it's explained well. They can work with timelines, constraints, and the reality of limited resources. I have spent over 20 years working in public sector HR, mostly in local government and public