Latest Post
The Leadership Vacuum: What to Do When Your Ship Has No Captain
Throughout my 25-year career, I’ve witnessed quite a few leadership vacuums. It’s what happens when a team lacks clear, accountable leadership or chain of command. Sometimes it’s a physical absence where leadership unexpectedly resigns or retreats with poor succession planning in place. But sometimes, it’s a much slower burn where leadership might technically be present,…
How to Engage Your Workforce During the Great Resignation
2021 has shown us that the Great Resignation is real. Some companies are convinced that a return to “normalcy” will occur in the new year; others are completely panicked that the Great Resignation reflects the realities of a new normal. In the midst of such an exodus, how can you convince employees to stay? Sometimes…
5 Steps to Rebound From Failure
Everyone fails. I surely do each and every day. Failure is an inevitable part of life that even the most successful people experience. Walt Disney, for example, was fired from an animation job because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After his termination, he later drove an animation studio into bankruptcy. Oprah Winfrey…
The Cost of Leadership
Many professionals aspire to be a CEO, C-Suite executive, or a top leader within an organization because those roles have the opportunity to make an impact, drive strategy, approve decisions, and support the career aspirations of their staff. In full transparency, these were all reasons why I wanted to be a leader early in my…
They’ve Got “It!” The Importance of Presence
Have you ever met someone who owns the room the minute they walk into it? This person has the unique ability to draw people in and have others carefully listen to every word they say. Presence is useful for building personal connections and business successes. It is often cited as the difference between landing a…
Creating a Collaborative Environment for Your Cross-Functional Team
Cultivating an environment where every voice is heard — what I’ll refer to as a collaborative environment — is crucial to managing productive cross-functional teams. Even if you’ve done the work to foster a collaborative environment, as more companies shift to remote or hybrid models, it’s easy to let teams fall back into isolated silos. As leaders, it becomes our responsibility to ensure effective communication and collaboration are possible in the workplace, regardless of what the workplace looks like.
Looking Past Titles — Tips on Using Specific Language to Broaden Your Job Search and Improve Your Resume
Language, and all of its nuances, is important. It’s how we communicate big ideas and concepts, describe ourselves and our goals, and connect with each other — sometimes, even through a simple sheet of paper, the resume. Anyone who has ever created or read a resume knows there’s limited space to make your case, so every word matters. In some ways, the resume is to a poem what the interview is to a novel. It’s not a place to expound, but rather, to choose your words carefully; remember, sometimes what you don’t say is just as important as what you do. Using specific language (or lack thereof!), can enhance the perception of your expertise and, in turn, broaden your job search.