The Chilly Willy

Kathryn Crawford Saxer A Little Kindness

I can now ride a bike further than I can run. I can say this because I rode the Chilly Hilly, a 33-mile ride around Bainbridge Island, this weekend, which is further than I have ever run. Or ever biked. Seven-year-old Z calls the ride the Chilly Willy, which seemed apt as we were waiting to disembark from the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry at 8:30 on a cold, gray Sunday morning. I expect there were lots of them around me. Before the …

The Art of Bragging

Kathryn Crawford Saxer Career Management

I like it when my coaching clients brag. In fact, I make my clients brag.  I recently asked a client to brag about his work. He squirmed in his chair. “Well, I think I’m okay at…” I jumped down his throat, the poor man. “That’s bragging?” I cried. “Try harder!” He put his head down on the table. “I don’t think I will ever stop worrying about the other shoe dropping,” my client said. “I undermine myself with doubt.” One …

Interview Hypocrite

Kathryn Crawford Saxer Career Management

I was coaching a client recently on prepping for an interview.  I asked him to practice his personal narrative, to answer the question, “So tell me about yourself and why you’re interested in this position.” I drifted for a moment as I listened to his answer. I recently interviewed for an executive coaching gig. And I paused and stumbled over my personal narrative. I even have it written out, a coherent explanation of how a professional coach with an MBA …

Blues Antidote

Kathryn Crawford Saxer Self Care

A friend teased me, saying dismissively, “You think going for a run is the answer to everything.” It’s bugged me ever since, because, well, it’s true. Yesterday I woke up blue. Maybe it was the weather, maybe I was fighting a bug, but I woke up despondent. I had a headache. I wanted to curl up on the couch and watch TV and eat cake. The last thing I wanted to do was go for a run. So I did. …

Chicken Brain

Kathryn Crawford Saxer A Little Kindness

We have a new chicken. It’s complicated being the new chicken. We had a flock of five happy chickens until a raccoon came for a visit one evening. I arrived just in time to see my favorite brown hen, a smart, spry girl, disappear over the back fence in a raccoon’s mouth. I guess she wasn’t smart or spry enough. We lost two more chickens over the course of that bloody weekend. The raccoon enjoyed the intellectual puzzle of the …

Do Not Disterb

Kathryn Crawford Saxer Career Management

On the first day of soccer practice, one of my little charges stubbornly sat on the sideline and wrote across her white T-shirt, with my sharpie: Do Not Disterb She’s seven years old, and I don’t mess with seven-year-olds who write Do Not Disterb across their fronts. I let her be. I’ve been thinking about the parallels between being an effective little-girls’ soccer coach, and an effective personal/professional coach for adults.  I know there’s some really profound connection, but all …