Insights

Understand Transferrable Skills I am always surprised to hear people say, “But I can’t do that job; I don’t know Powerpoint (or Photoshop or how to write a business plan). When you want to transition, you need to look for more general skills that can be used across disciplines. And, you need to understand what […]

Get Support The same week that I took my first coaching course, I hired a coach. A lot of us underestimate our need for support, or think that we are weak for needing it. This is simply not true. One of the first things my coach told me was, “Get a group of friends who […]

Keep the Faith It’s amazing. Very likely, most of us are high-achieving people. And yet it is so easy to get into the thinking that if we leave our job, we will be a nobody. What I have actually seen, again and again with my clients and with my own transitions, is that our sense […]

Put Your Hypotheses to the Test – In Increments There is a term at the coaching program I followed*, “Forward the action, deepen the learning.”If you really want to figure out what’s next, try some things out.I don’t mean taking a course, though that can be a part of it.I mean actually do it.So many […]

I love reading Tony Schwartz’s blogs. Not just because his tools and techniques are great, but because he has a very human approach. He advocates that the myth of the 24-hour a day super hero employee is just that, a myth…

Last month I was asked by the Columbia Business School Alumni Office to share my thoughts on career transition. As a coach who has personally transitioned twice, I have learned a few things. This entry is the first of several tips: While an absolute majority of Columbia Business School alumni work in consulting and finance […]

For years I’ve been reading and hearing about happiness and positive psychology. But there was always something that didn’t make sense. I mean, where are these people jumping up and down like Tom Cruise on Oprah right after he met Katie Holmes? And, how can so many studies say that people with children are less […]

This weekend I wasn’t quite glued to the TV, but I did find myself spending a couple of languid hours enjoying the re-runs of the royal wedding. Like many people, I love the rituals of wedding and royalty. But, giving it some thought this morning I realized that what drew me in was more than […]

A friend shared this speech by Elizabeth Coleman, president of Bennington College, which to me carries the game changing perspective shift of the sort that John F. Kennedy presented in his 1961 inauguration speech. I’m sure that the points of view around this article will be rich and varied. From the coaching point of view, […]

A friend sent me this article on Obliquity, a new book by John Kay of the Oxford Business School. The article suggests that having a focus other than happiness actually gives us much more access to happiness. It also suggests that taking good care of your customers, rather than focusing on profits, is a much […]