Here is a wonderful email I received after conducting a workshop at Thomson Reuters, New York at which I asked participants to write a heartfelt, sincere acknowledgment to someone from their professional career, who they had not previously acknowledged with generosity and gratitude: Hi Judy – Guess what? I did read my note to my boss and I could tell that he was deeply moved by it. And being the genuinely good person that he [...]

“I have always been  practicing appraisals for my co-workers, even before I became a manager, and having a chocolate candy box was a simple and powerful way to do it. Having read one Program Management-related magazine, back in 2005, I was struck by Judy´s POA initiative, and immediately got in touch with her. A few months after, I luckily managed to meet her at IIL´s HC in NYC. After that, I have been buying several [...]

I received a warm and poignant response from Officer Kyle Zyskowski regarding my acknowledgment of his concerned and caring actions that I recently posted. When I first followed up with him and told him about the post, and offered him a copy of my book, he wrote: “I will let my fellow officers know…. A lot of people have already heard about it. I would love a copy of your book… I wish you the best [...]

On September 21, I was driving home from delivering a presentation on Leadership and the Power of Acknowledgment to Thomson Reuters, for their Professional Development Day. I had been told by numerous participants that the talk had already had life and work altering effects on them. I was basking in the glow I always get when that happens, and was treating myself to a “reading” of a great “page turner” of an audio book as [...]

My Facebook post on Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:24pm We must lovingly acknowledge the people who have gone on, following the tragic events of 9/11. Seeing the news coverage of the day yesterday, and the “footnotes” on CNN about the people who have done their best to put their lives back together following whatever role they played that day, makes me realize what strength of spirit, what resolve, what courage, what commitment to life [...]

When I was delivering a keynote address in Brazil last year, I met up with a wonderful woman named Lindelma Rodrigues, who told me such an amazing story that I asked her to write it up for my blog. So here are her very moving words and her acknowledgment of and tribute to a real human being! I have been married for 18 years; I have one biological son and two adopted children. I have [...]

I have had the honor and the privilege of working with Dr. Harold Kerzner, the Guru of Project Management, for close to 20 years. We have worked together on book publishing projects, global satellite broadcasts, International Project Management Day (IPMDay) programs and more. Throughout the years, I have been awed and amazed by his total lack of the one personality defect from which I suffer painfully: procrastination. For example, when we asked Dr. Kerzner and [...]

People ask me this kind of question all the time. And the answer is an unqualified “no!” When an acknowledgment comes from the heart, and is sincere and authentic, the number of syllables in the words used, the turn of the phrase, or the length of the communication simply don’t matter. Here is an email I was privileged to view from a Director at an engineering company who had recently participated in my class, Leadership [...]

I recently had the pleasure of presenting a Leadership and the Power of Acknowledgment workshop to about 20 executives at a major global company. I hadn’t even made it through the first of the 7 Principles of Acknowledgment (“Acknowledgments are deserved by many, but are received by few”) when a participant started waving his hand rather frantically in the air. I called upon him, seeing that there was some urgency in his desire to communicate. [...]

This great and thought-provoking question came from Nicole, a webinar attendee: “How does one sincerely acknowledge a boss or higher up for their accomplishments without looking like they’re trying to ‘suck up’? There are many times I have to refrain from telling my higher ups that he or she did a good job on something because I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to get into their favor, although I do in fact sincerely [...]