Recently I saw a powerful TED talk on the risks of procrastination. It brought me back to my early 30’s when I was frustrated at work and didn’t know what to do. I remember thinking that life is not like in the movies, where the lead is struck with a powerful clarity and the courage to […]

It’s Saturday and I know it’s a time for rest, not work. I also know that when we rest, we have a little more time for reflection that can bring clarity. Yesterday I spoke to a former client who shared that our work together didn’t just help her as an executive, it helped her marriage. […]

Happy New Year-ish. On Monday, I wrote about the gap between New Year expectations and sometimes not feeling prepared to meet those expectations. When it’s freezing cold and the holidays have left us tired, the thought of making your next career move can feel like crossing the North Pole – a vast expanse and no clear milestones. […]

Since starting a business I’ve learned techniques from other entrepreneurs that, in hindsight, would have helped me enormously in my corporate career. As we mark a new year there are two bits of wisdom that I am eager to share. First, it’s the second week in January and I feel like a stretchy cartoon superhero. […]

Every year I see people, and work teams, do their annual review by looking at all of the goals they didn’t accomplish in the year and dragging those into the new year. It feels so heavy! What if instead, year end could feel like, “Wheeeee!” I have an annual review that rocks. It makes the […]

The word passion is often used as a holy grail for leaders. The trouble is, what passes for passion is often bad behavior. Taking over, not listening, showing preference for certain employees, ignoring feelings, considering a need for support as weakness, yelling, or too much focus on short-term results. The list is long. And the statistics on […]

Last week I attended a fantastic event at Cosmetic Executive Women focused on Prestige Beauty Branding*. Something that really stood out was when the panelists were asked their views about Amazon, the retail giant they are increasingly forced to work with, whose positioning does not align with their prestige images. It got me thinking about […]

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscape, but in having new eyes.”  ~Marcel Proust Lisa was overwhelmed. From a traditional small town, she had come to New York for a career shift and found the “anything goes” culture jarring. A mom of two, she was having trouble connecting with her colleagues who […]

  In the early days of Clear Strategy, I gained an amazing insight. Half of the clients who were coming to me for job search ended up staying in their jobs and getting promoted. More than once. It turned out their career management problem was not that they needed a new job. They needed leadership […]

Last week eight brave souls signed up for my 30-minute free coaching sessions. Congratulations! It was exciting on so many levels. The first lesson is a “listen up” for job searchers — I sent three sign-up reminders and only had two people register until that third reminder. It’s a huge lesson to all those, including […]