Individuals

Change has been on my mind a lot. Maybe it’s the fall leaves. Maybe I’m ready for a change! The thing about change is that we want it, but we resist it. Or kick it down the road. It’s normal to fear change and that fear shows up in all kinds of ways. My take […]

This week I got a Harvard Business Review email that tickled me because it’s exactly what I’ve been saying for years! “Throughout history, people had little need to manage their careers — they were born into their stations in life or, in the recent past, they relied on their companies to chart their career paths. […]

This spring I worked with a team that had seen impressive growth over an 18-month period. But you wouldn’t have known it by how they presented themselves. They were exhausted. They were experiencing low-level conflict and tension. They complained that if things kept going this way, they were expecting significant employee turnover. Despite their success, […]

One of the things I hear consistently from clients is, “We’re working on clarifying roles and responsibilities.” And while that’s important, it’s not the whole issue. Take my recent visit to Dunkin Donuts. When I asked for more milk in my coffee, the woman said, “How many milks?”  ”Huh? Just the one?” I thought to […]

Camping in Vermont this past August, my family and I discovered a beaver living just 100 feet down-river from our site. On day two we named him George because he swam in very close to our dock to smell and listen to us. Not long after, he smacked his tail and dove underwater. I shifted from […]

When I was in business school, a fellow student in my strategy class always had the response the professor was looking for.  It was especially impressive because the professor was notorious for assigning 60+ pages of dense reading per class. After the third class, I asked him how he did it. He said, “Pay attention. […]

Ramping Up There’s a feeling in the air that I love towards the end of August. The city has more people again, and there is a palpable anticipation. It makes me want to run to the stationery store and load up on notebooks and bubble gum smelling Hello Kitty erasers, and cut and fold paper […]

I just ended a four-week grand jury duty. Yes, every afternoon for four weeks. It was a challenge to say the least. But what I love about jury duty is the sitting around waiting, and talking and connecting to New Yorkers you don’t get to talk to every day. It’s the best. It opens up […]

During my Career Confidence course this summer, one participant said that what she liked most was having clear and concise steps to follow —  to figure out the kind of job she wants, how to talk about herself to the people who can help her get promoted or a new job lead, and what to say to […]

Four Secrets to Getting Your Employees to Take Initiative…So You Can Get Your Work Done Since 2009, I’ve worked on a team training thousands of mid-career professionals in public speaking.  Each year we hear comments like, “I’m an introvert, so I don’t think I’ll ever be a strong speaker,” and “I’d love to have charisma […]