I want like to talk about something near and dear to my heart: Love Languages.
Love Languages come from the popular book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman and are described as how we receive love from others, focusing on the little things that make your heart and soul sing. It’s a topic my friends and I talk about often via text, and over time, I’ve started to become more curious about the love languages of others.
This might actually surprise those of you that know me, because I’m a generally outgoing and funny gal, with a pretty positive attitude even in crappy situations.
But are you ready for a secret? Here goes…
During the course of a typical day, I will think about and plan for horrible scenarios that will likely never, ever happen.
One of our BLUFs (Bottom Line Upfront) in The Army Spouse Handbook states, “Understanding the difference in dress terms can help you be the belle of the ball instead of wearing bell-bottoms to the ball.” Complementing a service member’s uniform is a good guide; e.g. Blue Evening Mess to a Ball would indicate that a female spouse should wear a formal-to-the-floor gown or dressy cocktail dress, while a male spouse should choose a tuxedo or dark dinner jacket. However, how can we tell what to wear to a “dressy business” or “dressy casual” event? They are almost oxymorons.
Last year, I attended a conference in Austin, Texas, that centered on military spouse employment. I discovered that unlike the national unemployment rates of 3-4%, military spouse unemployment was at around 24% (pre-Covid-19 statistics).
Fortunately, the room was filled with bright minds and outside-the-box thinkers that were working hard to find solutions to this problem. I was intrigued by the percentages they shared and concerned about the room filled with women and men that had advanced degrees but could not find a comparable job.
We are nomads. Not livestock-moving nomads (unless of course you count children and pets), but nomads nonetheless.
Dictionary.com defines a nomad as “a member of a people or tribe that has no permanent abode but moves about from place to place.” Sound familiar?
We are certainly a tribe all our own. Regardless of service (Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard), we have common experiences with unique language and customs that seem strange at times to our civilian counterparts. With special customs only we understand, we’re like some unique culture in a world of normal.
love training. I love receiving new information and analyzing how and where to apply this newfound skill set. I’m a life-long learner and thoroughly enjoy facilitating training. One training that I particularly enjoy facilitating is Conflict Management. Leaders with communication skills such as facilitation, mentorship, and resolution are more likely to engage and thrive in managing conflict in their workplaces and at home.
Disagreement and challenge are inevetible and can result in conflict. However, conflict presents advantages of communication growth within organizations; individuals within organizations are shaped by their own values, beliefs, work ethic, perceptions, and behaviors. Possessing and exercising the skills and mindset in order to engage is crucial to conflict management. On the other hand, shying away from conflict allows issues to fester, which can affect the integrity of an organization and impose negativity within individuals
In times of crisis, communication from leadership is crucial to the integrity of the organization and the people in it. Depending in which part of the world you reside, more than likely you have recently been in quarantine for a significant amount of time as we #stayhome in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. Leaders have been called to action and forced to navigate uncharted territories as they adjust to the communication challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we continue to sift through theories and projections for the future, how can leaders sustain momentum as we ask, “How does one lead in quarantine?”
Attention Class of 2020! It’s time to stand up, straighten your mortarboard, and make a new plan.
There is no going back. With each and every new press conference at local, state, and national levels, the light of truth keeps getting brighter, and you can not deny that it is time to embrace what we love to call “The New Normal.”
Before you start to get feisty about my blunt words, let me say this… I am wearing three hats as I write this.
I am a high school teacher, I am a parent of a 2020 senior, and I am an Army spouse who has had her fair share of missed milestones. I am not chastising or shaming anyone—I am just a realist. My hope is that in the aftermath of all this, we raise up a whole class of realists.
Most people around the world are being exposed to information overload on the COVID-19, also known as the Novel Coronavirus. Over the course of four days, my adopted home of northern Italy (where we are currently stationed) has gone from simply hearing about the virus (like everyone else) to being front and center of a news onslaught. Italy now has the third highest rate of outbreaks in the world and an astonishing 200 confirmed cases in those four days. This has everyone in the Veneto and the surrounding regions trying to make sense of what is happening and where to go from here.
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