Healthy organizations will spend time developing a core set of values that drive the way they work as an organization. It is important to have clarity on values because it provides an anchor for providing feedback when someone has fallen short of the agreed upon expectations. But are work values something that individuals can develop as well? I say yes! You might not think of them as something that you’d put pen to paper, design Read more…
When I work with clients on goal setting, we talk about two different types of professional goals. A lot of organizations now have fairly robust and supportive annual goal setting processes. Each year, managers work with employees to set individual goals aligned with organizational goals, and check in with them on a regular basis to ensure progress toward these goals. These goals are good for the company, and, if done well, they can also be Read more…
I am returning from my Labor Day hiatus with a topic that is a little different this week: the dismissal of women’s pain in healthcare. This weekend I listened to a podcast series called “The Retrievals” that was published in the summer of 2023. Below is a link to the 3-minute trailer. In short, it’s the story of a group of women who went through IVF at the fertility clinic at Yale in 2020 (and Read more…
It’s been a while since I’ve written about what I’m reading. As the summer draws to a close, it seems like a good time to check in on that. Before we get there, however, let’s talk a little bit about the value of reading. I see a lot of posts on LinkedIn: “best business books” and “10 books that are the equivalent to an MBA.” And yes, there is a huge (and obvious) value to Read more…
Earlier this year, I wrote something for the blog that struck a nerve with lots of people. What was the post? Five Signs Your Boss Might be Making You Sick. Turns out there are a lot of toxic bosses out there. I didn’t get a lot of public engagement with the post, but I did get a LOT of private messages, all some variation of: “That really hit home. I didn’t comment or “like” because Read more…
The other day I described my brain as an air popper without the lid on. Or at least with the bowl in the wrong position. (If you haven’t ever had an air popper, watch this, imagine leaving the top of the chute off, and you’ll get a picture of how I was feeling.) My mind was racing, mostly with ideas for work. A new workshop series. Content for the professional learning cohort. A list of Read more…
My book coach says there’s no such thing as writer’s block. There are things that get in your way, there are barriers, for sure. But something about the term “writer’s block” doesn’t work for her. Maybe it’s that it feels unfixable as opposed to digging into WHY you’ve hit a block and removing that barrier to free your words. Regardless of what you call it – I hit a wall a few weeks ago. During Read more…
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 are common threads. What do they say? Change is the only thing you can count on? If ever there was a year to test my 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 what “work” looks like (meetings upon meetings upon meetings). Over the last three weeks, I have had the pleasure of running my first workshop series: 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 that I would have done differently if I could do it again. When I was teaching high school, I was also an assistant coach for Read more…