I used to run a company – about 10 years ago. I worked for bazillion-aires as the CEO, but ended up the ‘doer’ whilst these big dreamers would endlessly throw out ideas. It was exhausting. But I learned so much about leadership and expectations and limitations. I learned quickly how to hire and fire, become […]
Archive | Weekly Survival
Weekly or bi-monthly stories and tips for surviving your work week. We like to find the humor in our irony, and hope you do, too.
What are you doing over there?
When your boss asks you, “So, what are you working on?” or “What are you doing over there?” – implying that he or she sits close by, how does it make you feel? This is something that is such a sore subject for me. It’s right up there on the ingredient list of my Recipe […]
Colleagues Seeking Advice
When a valuable employee approaches you (as an indirect manager) about leaving with no definitive timeline, what do you do? Help them put their exit plan in place? Tell their manager? As an outspoken advocate of freedom (flexibity) at work and employee empowerment, I suppose it’s no wonder why employees have sought my advice on […]
A Journey of Leadership – What does it mean?
When I took a course on Leadership at Harvard, I was like most of my student peers. THRILLED to be going to Boston. ELATED about having the Harvard experience (and on our resumes). EXCITED about the journey of leadership. But many of us were wondering what it really meant to spend a full week with […]
Management Feedback for the Worst Job Ever
When I was 25 or so, I had my worst job ever. I was a corporate trainer (not bad) — it was my job to train people how to use their voicemail. Yeah, really. (’nuff said) As inane as it sounds, training people how to use voicemail systems (“Press 3 to delete your message, then […]
Fierce or Chicken?
How often do you have extremely polite conversations with someone at work about a controversial topic, that then turns into email-war? There are two words that come to mind: chicken shit. I realize that this falls under the “emotional honesty” category of trends in 2011 and 2012. So here I am, calling a spade a […]
When Am I the Mentor?
Do you have someone you look up to, a role model or mentor, who is a woman? Who is it, and why? As a woman in our society, I often look around me and wonder how many female leaders I can count in this country or in the world? Personally, I’d like to step into […]
When is it OK to be an Impostor?
Agent M1’s post about using someone else’s voice (or wanting to) got me wondering… are there times when it IS productive to try to emulate someone else? There are times when I do… In the course of my career/working life/whatever, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked for 2 managers that I really respect, NS […]
Believe in Your…
Ever have one of those days when you are sitting in a brainstorm meeting and suddenly a thought or phrase jumps at you (but you can’t always say it out loud)? Well, the phrase that jumped out at me was “believe in your own b.s.” Confidence reigns at work, and Steve Carrell in “Office” shows […]
A Visioning Exercise for Your Financial Future
Have you ever gone to meet with a financial planner to discuss a plan for financial freedom? I felt as empowered as if I had just finished a triathlon. I finally understand why people are as diligent about financial planning as exercise. This evening my partner and I went to a financial planner to discuss […]
