I can’t remember the last time I saw a job posting that didn’t list among the skills needed for the role “Able to navigate uncertainty” or “Comfortable dealing with ambiguity.” Given the speed with which the workplace (and the world) is evolving, it’s not a surprise that uncertainty and ambiguity Read more
For the last 8 months, I’ve been working solo. A lot of writing, a lot of thinking, a handful of one-on-one calls each month. In my very first Insights post, I wrote about this transition: redefining what it looks like to be productive and shaking my long held image of Read more
(For the record, image above is NOT the recommended answer to the post title. 😂) I once gave an informal talk to a group of junior colleagues about my personal career path. They asked if I had any regrets. My answer was no, but there is one thing I did Read more
Picture this: The leadership team of a small nonprofit organization is at its annual retreat. The makeup of the leadership team is mostly white, mostly women. These are the senior-most leaders from the organization; all of the people in the room have at least 20 years of professional experience. This Read more
Vulnerability moment: As a Chief of Staff, I floundered. When I was hired by the Interim CEO, things were so unsettled that I had a hard time putting out the dumpster fires long enough to be able to pull the valuables out of the trash. When she left, the next Read more
Can you believe it’s July? I can’t. At my last job, July marked the beginning of the planning year. Annual goals were set for July 1 – June 30. I was responsible for facilitating the goal setting process for the leadership time (and effectively, if done right, for the rest Read more
In his book The Good Enough Job, Simone Stolzoff shares a powerful lesson about defining your identity as more than what you do for work. There’s so much pressure to “love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” There’s a danger in giving work all Read more
When I was a Chief of Staff, I was new to the role and to the organization. I spent a lot of time and energy navigating the newness of the situation, and even without the element of learning it would have been a challenging job. I loved the role itself Read more
Back in April I wrote a series on the importance of feedback. If you weren’t a subscriber yet or want a refresher, you can access the full series here. In the final part of the series, I referred to a framework for providing behavioral feedback – the SBI framework (Situation Read more
I once worked with an organization with a wildly broken and inequitable compensation system. Hiring was driven completely by individual hiring managers, and it was up to them to advocate for whatever salary they felt appropriate. This means that people started at very different starting points depending on their team. Read more