I just had a conversation with my colleagues about brand development, and we are in the throes of defining who we are, what we stand for, and what we are offering to our community. This is not an easy task, especially when doing it for yourself. However, I made a statement that “branding is so […]
Author Archive | Agent M1
Breaking Old Patterns
I love my rituals. I love waking up with – much of the time – one or two kids piled on top of me or next to me. My poor husband is either pushed to the very edge or already up so he doesn’t have to suffer from muscle cramps. My mornings were mostly consistent […]
What Would She Do Without Chocolate Chips?
Now that I’m an unemployed mom, the reward is two-fold. I can wear my most comfortable sweat pants (I love Patagonia!) AND I can pace the kitchen and grab gobs of chocolate chips. In fact, they are best when mixed with plain cheerios for salt and crunch. Talk about creative coping! The risk is that […]
Is It Who you Know or What you Know at 18?
I suppose at 40, I can say that career success is a combination of who I know and what I know. But at 18, can networking really help? At coffee with a friend, she mentioned how she was mentoring her niece and somewhat surprised that she lacked any sense of structure around goal setting and […]
What We Can Learn From Pop Culture
If there is one thing that pop culture has taught me, it’s that the one-liner quips on T.V. can often be ridden with deep and relatable meaning. I was watching Glee, (shocking, I know) and there was a line that resonated immediately with the pain of being dumped by my employer. “Let me give you […]
The American Dream – Freedom or Bondage?
Today I had a moment I’m not proud of. I was talking to accounts payable at my former employer about my final pay stubs so I knew what my final 401K amount was and whether the company match was vested (it wasn’t) or whether vacation was paid out (it wasn’t), and I was feeling choked […]
Femme in -ism
I wonder if it’s time we rebrand or rename “feminism”? There has been a lot written about what feminism means to today’s working professionals spanning 20’s to 40’s. Recently on NPR I was listening to a woman talking about what it’s means to her – that by saying you are a feminist, you are simply […]
Truth and Lies in Leadership
Remember that catchy title – Truth and Lies in Advertising? Well, it felt appropriate tonight when I was thinking about a comment my executive coach made last week. Agent M, he said, it’s hard to fathom, but politics rank as the first or second most important part of doing a good job. Ugh. So that’s […]
Learning to Focus
Okay, I’m back on the subject of meditation. I was watching an interview of Peter Bregman talking about meditation and how much clarity it brings for him in his day. He meditates 2 times per day, up to 20 minutes per time. It’s not that I don’t have time to do that, it’s more that […]
Zappos CEO – Happiness Means Firing?
By Agent M1 on December 7, 2012 in Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Weekly Survival, Work Life Balance
Now Tony Hsieh, he’s a CEO who has nailed happiness. He has preached how to ensure employees are happy at work, and why it’s important to create a culture of happiness for employee productivity and company success. He’s received a lot of attention over his book. And yet… I just saw a blog post where he […]
