RuReady Articles

The RuReady Article Library turns the Adult Readiness Framework into practical, accessible ideas you can use in everyday life. Articles are organized around three interconnected domains: Personal, Professional, and Leadership. Each article is designed to be concise, practical, and useful, giving you something to think about and, when possible, something you can apply immediately.

Explore by Domain

Leadership Domain

Articles about leading yourself, leading others, and improving the organizations you’re part of.

Professional Domain

Articles about creating value, building capability, navigating your career, and developing professionally.

Personal Domain

Articles about taking ownership of your life and developing the knowledge, skills, and attributes needed to live well.

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Coach's Corner

Decision Science and Critical Thinking
I still remember my first Decision-Making “class.” I was sixteen and working at a local grocery store. Back then, the minimum wage was $3.35, and I was earning about $100 per week. My parents sat me down to talk about how I was spending my money. At the time, I put...
Followership and Leading Up
I can still remember when, in one of my early leadership classes, the teacher said, "The first lesson in leadership is followership.” Admittedly, I was a bit confused. I thought to myself, I’ve been following my entire life, first my parents, then my teachers, then my...
How to Make Better Personal Decisions
Early in my career, I noticed how much time, energy, and effort I put into projects at work, but I realized I wasn’t applying the same focus to my personal life. I found this interesting, given that many of the choices in my personal life would have a more lasting...
How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure
I remember, as a young man, contemplating two career paths. I knew that the longer I waited to make this decision, the harder it would be, because changing paths would become increasingly difficult. At that point, I needed to decide sooner rather than later. It felt...
Decision Science and Critical Thinking
I still remember my first Decision-Making “class.” I was sixteen and working at a local grocery store. Back then, the minimum wage was $3.35, and I was earning about $100 per week. My parents sat me down to talk about how I was spending my money. At the time, I put...
Building an Organizational Foundation from the Top Down – System and Processes (8 of 12)
How many of us have a morning routine: coffee, breakfast, getting the kids off to school, etc.?  Anything disrupting our routine can really throw the morning out of balance.  How many of us think about ways to make the morning routine quicker, smoother, or easier? ...
Building an Organizational Foundation from the Top Down – Roles and Responsibilities (7 of 12)
Whose turn is it to take out the trash, change the diaper, or reset the Netflix password?  Roles and responsibilities guide our personal and professional lives, probably more than we would like to admit.  Roles and responsibilities can be a good thing.  Too many of us...
Building an Organizational Foundation from the Top Down – Structure (6 of 12)
Most of us are familiar with organizational charts.  In hierarchical organizations, they help depict who works for whom.  But how often do we stop to analyze the organizational structure in the context of the mission, information management, timeliness of...
Building an Organizational Foundation from the Top Down – Strategy (5 of 12)
The US military defines strategy as an overarching construct outlining a combatant commander’s vision for integrating and synchronizing military activities and operations with the other instruments of national power in order to achieve national strategic objectives. ...