Workshop Participant and Coaching Client Comments:
- “I wanted to thank you for the enlightening session I had with you. As a journalist, I know that where there are people, there’s a story. But I never looked that way at my family, until you opened my eyes to discover my family’s novel… I’m grateful.” Israeli Journalist
- “I am much more aware of how I place my family role ahead of self. I appreciate that you provided me with action steps in spite of the very limited time we had together. “
- “I’m now able to create alliances and build my team. I can put people in context, be supportive and forward thinking. I get more buy-in; it’s a dynamic I couldn’t have predicted.” Executive, Financial Services
- “I now have the framework to think about my own behaviors, family relationships and their role in my character development. Marjorie’s warmth and inquisitiveness were an important part of the workshop.” Graduate Student, Harvard Kennedy School
- “This is powerful work. I’m willing to take risk and try new strategies. My personal and work life are forever changed.” Corporate Director, Information Technology
- “One of the things I liked about our genogram session was how unthreatening it was. I have continued to reflect upon my own actions in my personal relationships in context. I found the session very helped to further strengthen my family relationships as well as offering insight into the source of aspects of my leadership style.”
- “The leadership community is just now discovering how powerfully family history and dynamics nourish — and sometimes limit — the capacity of men and women to lead others. Dr. Marjorie Blum is one of the nation’s foremost thinkers about this critical area of understanding and managing oneself – in organizations and other systems. As a psychologist with a thriving clinical and coaching practice, she is now offering to share this knowledge with organizations and rising leaders.
Dr. Blum is filling a critical gap, helping to bring the insights of psychological research into leadership practice. I discovered for myself just how helpful she could be to rising leaders when I invited her to work with my students at the Kennedy School; they were so appreciative of and impacted by her work that I have invited her to return — and often.” David Gergen, Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
- “Home is where one starts from,” wrote T. S. Eliot, and it’s definitely where the journey of leadership begins. Marjorie Blum’s idea of using the genogram as a tool for helping leaders develop greater self-understanding–and the resilience and interpersonal skills that flow from it–may be a bit unorthodox, but it is spot-on. I think the visual nature of the genogram sharpens students’ awareness of the multigenerational patterns, roles, and influences that have shaped their family of origin–the home that all leaders start from. Marjorie’s presentations are always splendidly prepared; she explains the key concepts succinctly, and her teaching style encourages participation and entertains at the same time. Each time she has led a workshop here at the Center for Public Leadership, students have given it excellent ratings.” Loren Gary, Associate Director, Leadership Development and Public Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
- “Effective leadership requires an awareness of others as well as depth of knowledge of one’s self. Dr. Blum is a pioneer in leadership development. Self Defined Leadership, using the creation of one’s genogram, provides a unique bridge between the disciplines of Family Psychology and leadership development. She has created a superb training model that has the potential to improve not only professional leadership skills, but personal lives as well.” Sylvia Shellenberger, Ph.D., Co-author Genograms: Assessment and Intervention (WW Norton, 1999), Psychologist and Professor of Family Medicine, Mercer University, Fulbright scholar