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 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
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
Have you ever taken a personality test? I am kinda obsessed with them, especially now that they are freely accessible. I think I probably took my first Myers-Briggs test when I was in college or maybe in my first job. I could never remember the results – mainly because all Read more
I once observed a manager who claimed to subscribe to the philosophy of servant leadership. She had an admirable practice of meeting early-on with new team members about her philosophy and her preferred ways of working. She dropped the term servant leadership into those orientations and into hiring discussions as Read more
Last week I was talking to a colleague about a job lead. In the course of the conversation, he used the term “golden handcuffs” to describe the perks of a job that he otherwise should have left. He said, “the place was a mess and wasn’t using my skills or Read more
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 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 Read more