About: Loriana

I was brought up to be fiercely independent – not needing to rely on anyone or anything. I think many people can relate to this because it is part of our culture of independence in America. Around 2010, JP Thompson – a student of mine, showed me how wrong my thinking had been and that […]

In my office, I used to have a framed picture of an empty hammock on the beach with this quote at the bottom: The art of doing nothing is really something. I purchased it because I love beaches and hammocks without really thinking about the words written. I recall one day thinking, “When other managers […]

I recently interviewed Hallie Thompson, who is about to receive her PhD in Plant Sciences and currently running for U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri, about her #1 strength, Woo. Gallup defines this strength as “loving the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over, deriving satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a […]

I heard a persistent knock on our home door one Sunday. When I answered, I had to adjust my gaze down about 3 feet to find the visitor. Little Caleb greeted me with a “Hi! What’s going on?” and continued to banter with me for about 10 minutes, sharing tales of adventure — including breaking […]

Thanks to Alex Sommer, Employment Branding Specialist at Nestle Purina North America, for contributing this article.  In 2016, I started graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis – Loriana was my very first professor for a Building High Performance Work Teams class. She knows well that you can’t possibly build high-performing teams until you […]