Well-respected leadership coach, Marshall Goldsmith, in his best-selling book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” states, “The higher you go the more the problems are behavioral.” I agree. The challenges of many of my high-level executive coaching clients is not that they don’t have the smarts, the knowledge, or the drive to succeed, it’s their controlling behavior that prevents them, their people, and the organization from reaching full potential. [Read more…]
The Value of Work
Work doesn’t provide just the means of acquiring the basic necessities of life, though that is critical. It enhances the soul and the brain.
When I refer to work, I include all types of employment — salaried, commissioned, hourly, permanent, temporary, and freelance. I also add volunteering; military service, and last but not least, children. For play is the work of children. [Read more…]
Workplace Housework is Women’s Work: How Volunteering, Mentoring, and Always Saying “Yes” Can Hurt Your Career
Early in my corporate career a tragedy occurred. An intern was brutally murdered. The victim of a hate crime — gay bashing. I will never forget this shocking, sad, event.
The impact on me was also astonishing, particularly with hindsight.
I had been called to my boss’s office and told the horrific news. He then informed me, “I want you to handle this and speak with the Junior staff.” Before I could even consider the magnitude of the order or admit my ineptitude for such a role, I found myself walking into a room to face six interns who I now had to tell what had happen to their friend and try to support them. You can only imagine their shock, grief, and anger. We must have talked for hours. [Read more…]
Received a Poor Performance Review
End of year is performance review time. The process can take months but the actual delivery is often swift and blunt. What happens when the news is negative, a poor performance review, or not what you expected?
A less than stellar review can sometimes be the best thing that will ever happen to your career. It forces you to reassess your performance, goals, and aspirations. You wouldn’t be the first person to make a major change for the better in performance or location because of a negative review. [Read more…]
How to Complain to Your Boss About Workplace Issues
When I was a senior leader, I was fond of saying to my direct reports and their staff, “They don’t pay me to hear good news, tell me what’s wrong.” I expected, in fact encouraged, people to tell me what was deficient, complain about workplace issues, not only so I could addressed it, also because I didn’t want to hear it first from my boss. [Read more…]
Are You Trustworthy as a Leader and Employee?
I recently read an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review by a professor at Northeastern University. Professor David DeSteno has performed research and written on the topic of trustworthiness. In his HBR article “Who Can You Trust?” he gives examples and applies his findings to situations where organizations are making deals with vendors or partners. In turn, I am attempting to apply his [Read more…]
Do People Hate Work and the Workplace?
There has been considerable buzz about an article that appeared in the New York Times. It has the provocative title, “Why You Hate Work.” It followed on the coattails of recent Harvard Business Review covers touting “A Great Place to Work” and “Work vs. Life: Forget about Balance — You Have to Make Choices.” The question is, why now and what can we do to straighten the course? [Read more…]
Humanizing Your Workplace
The statistics speak. Most people spend more time at work than in any other activity; more than hours with their family, eating, sleeping, or interacting with friends. That said, wouldn’t it seem logical that we would spend an hour and some effort making our workplace as conducive to the job at hand and our temperament and personality? But no, we have the biggest and the best TVs, golf clubs, cars, whatever, while our office furniture, cubicle, office vehicle is less than pristine, barely functional, and probably downright ugly. [Read more…]
Passed Over for a Promotion: Career Management Steps Before You Quit or Stay
You just heard the news — you were passed over for the big promotion. Now what should you do?
Here are some simple steps that might ease the frustration, give you some insight and help you plan your next career move. [Read more…]
Do Women Lack Ambition?
Have you recently observed the steam coming out of the ears of a few women over forty? Not sure what’s up and what started it all? Let me clue you in. It’s a reaction to a just published McKinsey & Company report in conjunction (some would say cahoots) with The Wall Street Journal. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit I am a WSJ subscriber and have been quoted by the publication a number of times. The title of the research is “Women in the Economy — a Blueprint for Change.” Staff writer Joanne Lublin was the one to give us a hint of what was to become a special section of the newspaper on April 11 of this year. She called her piece, “Coaching Urged for Women.” [Read more…]
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