Lead Dad 101

What Does A Taylor Swift Video, NBC Sports and Raleigh Real Estate Have in Common? Clayton Collins
Sometimes the career fits the moment in life. Or so it’s been for Clayton Collins, our Lead Dad of the Week from Raleigh, N.C. A few years ago, he and his wife Danielle decided to move to North Carolina. Her job working for Prosek, a top communications and marketing firm, and his move into commercial […]
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Uncross Your Arrows and Fly Together
I read an illustrated Op-Ed in The New York Times this weekend that had the provocative title “I Quit the Patriarchy and Rescued My Marriage.” Its solution was spot on. I end many talks with the call to OH! It stands for Openness and Honesty. At home, at work, with your spouse, with your manager, […]
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How To Start a Company and Fatherhood At The Same Time : Andy Ogburn
If not now, when? That was Andy Ogburn’s philosophy when, shortly after his son Felix was born, he left his inhouse creative job to launch his own media production company, Party Practice. Crazy? Like a fox. His wife has a job she loves working for a recycling company and tapping into her passion for building […]
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How To Make a Tough Choice: Say It Aloud
Do I support my wife and her business at her work dinner? Or do I go to an event to talk to a group of senior female executives about how to get their husbands to be more supportive? Once I put it that way the decision was obvious. But it started off as one of […]
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Your Kids Might Tell You What You’ve Been Thinking All Along: Jamie Hopkins
As a son Jamie Hopkins had a shock that every father fears. He went to school one day and came home to learn that his dad had died, in a construction accident. “My dad was gone at my age,” said Jamie, about to turn 40. “I think about that a lot. I think about how […]
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Parents Can Advocate for Reading As A Civil Right
What if we reframed children learning to read as a civil right? Would that change how schools teach our children, particularly the 1.6 million kids in the U.S. with dyslexia? On Friday, I went to the premiere of the documentary “Left Behind”. The documentary follows a group of mothers of dyslexic kids in New York […]
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Learning What Can Wait Until Night Time – Tony Cotrupe
Realizing what parts of your work need to be when people are awake and what parts can be done when they’re asleep is one route to being a super-involved working dad. “What I do has two parts,” said Tony Cotrupe, who once worked “8 zillion hours a week for J.P. Morgan Chase” and now runs […]
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How To Encourage Companies To Give Equal Parental Leave
Companies that do not have equal leave policies are implicitly discriminating against their female employees. Companies that don’t train managers – who rose through the ranks in a different work culture – to message leave policies positively are holding back men and women. Here’s how to change this.
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How a Life Sprinter Changed His View – Jay Acunzo
Being a life sprinter can have tremendous career benefits but the best way to get through the mud of life with kids may just be to trudge through it. That realization has allowed Jay Acunzo, who advises executives on how to be better speakers and was once the ultimate life sprinter, to change how he […]
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I Gave Up Complaining. Here’s A Better Strategy
This is my dog, Annie. She works with me most days. At night, she sleeps in my daughter’s room. She doesn’t ever complain. What she does[…]
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Honesty With Yourself Goes a Long Way – Michael Iammarino
“It’s a whole mixed bowl of good, hard, sometimes poor parenting,” admits Michael Iammarino, our Lead Dad of the Week from Kansas City[…]
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What’s Worth Waiting For – and What Isn’t?
At the holidays, there’s good waiting and there’s bad waiting. If you’re a kid who celebrates Christmas, waiting for Santa is good waiting. If your stove stopped working right after you pulled out the Thanksgiving turkey and the appliance repair guy keeps ordering parts that don’t actually repair it, and if he never shows up […]
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