Works of Coeur d’Alene author offer valuable insight about life, trust and more

Every time Linda Stroh sets out to do something, she has one goal in mind — to help others be better.

Whether it's providing consultation for a business, sharing ideas on aging with grace or exploring the concept of trust, Stroh's compassion and research aims to open worlds for people who need a little advice on how to stress less and take life one day at a time.

She co-authored “Getting Real about Getting Older,” which was released in 2018. She and co-author Karen Brees interviewed 1,000 older Americans to hear their stories, hopes, dreams and fears to try to make some sense of why people struggle with the natural process of aging.

"Part of the reason for writing the book is my co-author and I are getting older," Stroh said Wednesday. "It's geared to people 65 and older. We really wanted to learn and help other people who grapple with getting older about how we might be able to do it better. We wanted to write something for the everyday person. We wanted to use real-life stories from the people we interviewed. We did interviews and group discussions, anyone we could speak to about getting older."

Stroh, 72, said what they found is that aging is similar to adolescence in how much of an impact it has on someone.

"Older people start getting wrinkles and hunching, they have psychological and emotional changes in many ways like adolescence," she said. "They told us that only adolescence had been as emotionally and physically challenging as this stage in life."

Another point of interest in the research for "Getting Real about Getting Older" is the necessity for senior citizens to form new identities as they hit retirement age and beyond.

"Those who age well and do it better than others are those who recognize they have to develop that identity," Stroh said. "That takes some time to do."

Another book Stroh penned, "Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life," takes a look at the element of trust in corporations and businesses. She interviewed more than 300 businesspeople to explore this subject.

"There are so many people who don’t trust each other,” she said. "I found myself wanting to know how they made decisions about who they could and couldn't trust."

Stroh has published more than 100 articles and eight books related to domestic and international organization and human behavior. She is a Loyola University Chicago Faculty Scholar and Emeritus Professor at the Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, and professor/instructor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received her doctorate from Northwestern University’s human development department; she also holds a postdoctoral degree in organizational behavior from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a bachelor's from McGill University and an M.A. from Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec.

Stroh’s research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Fortune, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and Business Week, as well as on CNN, the Oprah and Friends Network and NBC’s Nightly News.

She and high school sweetheart/husband Greg made Coeur d'Alene their home more than a year ago. Originally from the Midwest, they fell in love with North Idaho after discovering it on vacation with friends.

"Every time we came we stayed a little bit longer," she said. "One time we spent a month here and then we ended up buying a home here. The lake, the community, the people are so wonderful."

Stroh's books are available through such retailers as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Info: www.lindastroh.com