Lead Dad 101
What I Actually Want For Father’s Day
As all mothers know, and most children have to be reminded, Father’s Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of June. To be clear, I think Father’s Day is a great idea. But I’ve got a few issues with this holiday that I’d like to be entered into the record. First of all, […]
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A Dad Fighting The Good Fight – To Be Called First By School
When the phone rang from my daughter’s elementary school, with just two days left to the year, I scrambled to answer it. By some iPhone quirk it went to voicemail after just a ring. I wasn’t overly worried. I figured there was a 90 percent chance that the school nurse was calling with a reminder […]
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What You Want To Hear When You Say You’re Taking Parental Leave
I was in a room of ringers yesterday. And I should have known how they would answer my questions. I looked at a woman in the audience and said I wanted her honest response. She nodded. “I’m a woman in your organization,” I said. “I’m pregnant.” Without missing a beat, she said: “Congratulations.” “Right answer,” […]
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Why Lead Dads in the C-Suite Matter
Lead Dads can be in the C-suite. I say that to clear up the misconception that Lead Dads are stay-at-home dads. In fact, only 8 percent of Lead Dads devote all their time to their families. The rest are working while being a super-involved father at home and parenting advocate in the office. A recent […]
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How To Be Clutch As A Dad
I was talking to a high school athletics director this week from Trussville, Alabama. He had reached out to discuss a book I’d written 15 years ago. It’s about pressure and why some people excel under it and others don’t. There are five things that people who are good under pressure do, and each one […]
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How Parental Uncertainty Can Help In Uncertain Times
Uncertainty abounds – in the economy, with trade, around jobs. It’s something working parents are acutely aware of. Uncertainty is never a good state to exist in. When you know for sure that something is going to happen – good or bad – you can make a plan and work toward executing it. When one […]
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When There’s No Reason To Say No, Don’t Say It
There’s no get-better-at-work message here. It’s more about listening. And more precisely talking ourselves into listening before we answer when work and parenting calls at the same time. This week my youngest daughter had three days of out-of-school testing. I’m taking her because my schedule is easier to shuffle around, and as long as I […]
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What’s A Lead Dad
I want to clear up a misunderstanding. Very few Lead Dads are stay-at-home dads – or what we call Lead Dads who devote all their time to their families. There are only about 2 million of those dads in America – out of 25 million Lead Dads and 75 million fathers overall. We’ve profiled some […]
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Waiting For A Call That Reaffirmed a Pause
On Monday I had two goals in mind: eat an enormous, filling meal, way more than I’d normally eat for lunch, and do as much work that required focus as I could possibly get done. I had five hours to myself while my wife was having hip surgery at HSS so I went to a […]
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A Dad Joke Is One Thing. But An April Fool’s Prank?
I don’t believe a word anyone says on April Fools’ day. Think of it as a safety measure. By assuming everybody I interact with on April 1st is trying to pull one over on me, I save myself the humiliation of falling victim to a perhaps not-so-merry prankster. I f the cost of this is […]
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How Parents Can Maximize Their Meetings
If we schedule a 25-minute meeting, do we take 5 minutes before the next one to get up from our desk? If we opt for a 45-minute meeting, do we make use of that 15 minutes to stand up, talk to a colleague and even take a walk? Or do we schedule an overlapping meeting […]
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One Nugget To Enjoy Spring Break
I don’t like to scoop myself, but a piece that’s going to run in a month has a nugget for how to think about work when your kids are on vacation that’s helped me this week. Maybe it can help you too. This is our second week of school break the one that comes after […]
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