Today I am reflecting on my life and the lives of my daughters – what our lives are like today and what they will be like tomorrow. Today, March 8 is the 106th International Women’s Day, a day celebrating women’s achievements around the world. There are some reasons to celebrate. And yet, women and […]
The Straight and Narrow
By Agent N1 on March 3, 2015 in Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Tip of the Day, Weekly Survival, Work Life Balance
Sometimes, the way forward is clear. Sometimes it is not. The only advice I can give is to follow your compass. This means following your own values, even if it means you have to rewrite the script or define new rules for your tribe or wait for a different path to show its way. Have […]
The Negation of Why
By Agent N1 on February 10, 2015 in Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Tip of the Day, Unplugged Letters, Weekly Survival, Work Life Balance
There’s a lot of hype these days about the need for a purpose, that to achieve we have to have a why. And it’s true. Having a mission does give us motivation. Knowing the why helps us inspire our teams. Developing a purpose provides the roadmap. I recently read a passage, however, in a novel: […]
Dirty Little Secret to Getting Ahead
As someone who meets all types of people, from different shapes and sizes to different values and sets of standards, there is one secret that is not universally understood. I call it a dirty little secret to get ahead. It entails “who you know” being “cunning”, and perhaps an air of “entitlement”. And it’s simple. […]
No Certainty in our Future
If there is one thing that we can count on for certain, it’s the past. And even though we understand the life/death/life cycle of human nature, our future can be uncertain in so many ways. Leaving us with a sense of fear, foreboding, doubt. It’s not an “if” question, it’s “when”. And then, how will […]
More on Life Balance
I love being on a plane. I’m not talking about going someplace. I mean actually sitting inside in the airplane. I especially love those long haul flights leaving in the mid-morning, when I’m wide-awake and well rested. Being on a plane gives me guilt-free time to do nothing that is “obligatory” (particularly if I’m traveling […]
Questions Open the Way for Doubt
Have you ever had a colleague who wouldn’t answer questions? Or met someone who would go to incredible lengths to avoid “giving anything away”? Someone who avidly avoided responding to queries about their views or ways of doing things? I have come across this in quite a few professional settings, particularly in the more dysfunctional […]
Authenticity
I was recently asked to take on a consulting assignment in which, had I accepted, I would not have felt authentic and about which I would have been anxious and stressed (and frankly, for which I was not entirely qualified). Luckily, I am blessed with choice. I don’t (from an economic point of view) have […]
Being a Gentle Opportunist
When I think of human capital, I don’t necessarily focus on people or networks as currency. I first ask – how can I help this person? What gifts or talents do they have, and perhaps don’t even realize they have? How can we bring out their best to produce the best results for a particular […]
Job Interviews
Do you remember your last job interview? Did you research the company and cram to determine the straight-A answers for the questions they were likely to ask? Were you nervous? After the interview, did you worry about whether or not they approved of you or the answers you gave? A friend of mine went through […]
