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The company Judith works for, International Institute for Learning (IIL), has just published her third book on the subject. The first, The Power of Acknowledgment in 2006, was written for a general readership while the second, Grateful Leadership, Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results, which came out last year and was co-published with McGraw-Hill, was targeted to the business community. You're Totally Awesome! The Power of Acknowledgment for Kids, recently released, is written with children in mind. It consists of eight true stories with exercises at the end of each chapter.

Judith and husband Bob moved to Palisades almost thirty years ago. “We were living in Yonkers and needed a larger place with the arrival of our daughter, Stefanie. We saw a small ad for a new development on White Oak Road and were one of the first families to move in.” Six years later son Jared was born.

Judith graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New York University in 1970. After a year of teaching she joined CBS-TV where she worked until 1983 writing editorials and handling editorial production. “I grew up there; it was where I really started writing and seeing the power of the written and spoken word.” In 1983, while pregnant with her first child, Judith wrote an article that Working Woman magazine picked up in 1986 called, How NOT to Talk to a Pregnant Business Woman. This led to appearances on Good Morning America and more than 200 radio shows.

Judith is now senior vice president at International Institute for Learning, which she joined in 1992, after several years at WNYC-TV and then managing media clients in her own business. A management consulting and training organization with companies in eighteen countries, IIL trains people to become certified project manager professionals and outstanding leaders, among other skills. Judith travels the world conducting training sessions, giving keynote speeches and lecturing on grateful leadership through acknowledgment. “I have found my mission, my passion and my purpose through my work at IIL,” she says; “I am truly grateful for the rare opportunity I have been given to pursue this.”

Judith is also publisher for allPM.com, a website geared to project managers around the globe. She added book publisher to her job description in 2005 after suggesting to her boss that the company start a publishing division. Her boss agreed and told Judith to develop it. IIL’s first publication was husband Bob’s book, This isn't Excel, it's Magic! Bob is an Excel developer at KPMG, a tax and accounting firm.

“People need to be appreciated and have their work validated,” she says. About eight years ago, several incidents led Judith to realize the power of acknowledging people and their accomplishments. One was when she was having a particularly bad day. Her husband called to see how her day was going, and when he heard “badly,” he asked if there was anything he could do. She answered, “You can write me a love letter!” Taken back, he said, “I don’t do that,” but ten minutes later a three-page love and acknowledgment letter appeared in her email, the first of many to come.

On a trip to Finland to speak to project managers, several people told her that acknowledgment didn’t exist there and that she was wasting her time. “I got up to speak and said I had been told acknowledgment wasn’t part of their culture. I looked out to see 800 heads nodding. I then said I had heard that Finland had one of the highest suicide trates in the world. Again, heads nodding. ‘Don’t you think there may be some connection?’ I asked. Seeing the truth of this, the participants began to acknowledge each other in that very session.”

Wherever Judith goes it doesn’t take long for people to get her message. They soon discover the ripple-down effect when expressing acknowledgment. It takes such a little effort but the rewards are huge. Go to www.Grateful- Leadership.com for more of Judith’s words of wisdom. Her books are available at the Palisades Library.