This month I am hobbling around on a walking boot. (Apparently I somehow tore a muscle in the bottom of my foot doing nothing more than walking the dog around the block.) I had plans to travel into NYC multiple times this month, and I was determined not to let the boot impact my plans. My first trip was low-stakes – I went to visit a friend so I didn’t have a set time that Read more…
Earlier this week, I wrote about the Career Roadmap – a visual map of critical inflection points along an emerging or developing career path. As I worked through the pieces of the Career Roadmap with a colleague, we uncovered another early challenge might arise for folks as they are mapping out their journey. “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Ah, the dreaded interview question. I hated that question in my earliest interviews! How Read more…
Last week Almavina Strategic Partners launched our first product – the Virtual Mentor. It is a set of free resources that are anchored in the “Career Roadmap.” But what is the Career Roadmap? I’m glad you asked! A few weeks ago I had lunch with a longtime friend and colleague. We discussed the opportunity for supporting early- mid-career professional women, noting the gap in this kind of support that exists at the organizational level. My Read more…
For the final installment of the feedback series, it’s time to address the hardest kind – behavioral feedback. Giving feedback on another person’s actions or behaviors feels SO personal, and can be really difficult to do well. Especially if one generally likes to avoid conflict, it can feel easier to withhold feedback than to give it. The problem is, tolerance is a slippery slope! And avoiding feedback is not the same as avoiding conflict – Read more…
Feedback is essential when you are doing something risky. Something brave. Something that challenges you. While receiving feedback in those situations can be scary, the absence of feedback in some ways feels much worse. In the first installment of this series, I wrote “anything is better than nothing.” This is the minimum bar. When someone produces work for you or takes a risk in their work, give them something. Anything at all to recognize their Read more…
My writing process is something like this: I think of a topic I feel needs to be discussed, and then I write the subject line/title of the piece before I start writing. Weird? Maybe. I was thinking about this one experience I wanted to share with my readers and came up with today’s title. As soon as I typed it, I thought – “Hmm, that one’s going to require some explanation. Tolerance is usually a Read more…
I’ve been thinking a lot about feedback lately. Behavioral feedback in relationships. Feedback on performance in the job search process. Feedback on work products (in all levels of school and at work). Today I’m kicking off a series on the importance of feedback with two (possibly) obvious statements and one hot take. Obvious statement 1: Anything is better than nothing. In Fall of 2020 I enrolled in a Masters program at Harvard Graduate School of Read more…
Companies invest in their leadership – executive coaching for new CEOs, fellowships and leadership cohorts for their senior leaders, etc. But how do they invest in their younger employees? What would the workplace look like if every employee had a professional coach? If there were more opportunities for mentorship and personal professional development outside of technical management and “getting the work done?” I suppose there’s a concern that if you provide too much development for Read more…
I have a few friends who are looking for jobs right now. A few of my friends – and from the looks of LinkedIn, about 8 million other people! (*not real data! 😉) Whether someone is looking for a new job after 10 years of work, 20 years of work, or longer, I’ve noticed a few themes that come up in our conversations consistently. Today I am sharing my top 4 recommendations for anyone navigating a Read more…
I have a love/hate relationship with Fridays. If I have complete control over my Friday, it’s a great day. I like quiet Fridays, ones that I can use to: On the very best Fridays, I also go to my favorite yoga class. When Fridays used to be booked with back to back calls and meetings, I hated them. I couldn’t manage any of my ideal tasks, and then I just felt behind going into the Read more…