“Cover Bands Don’t Change the World”

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership | 2 Comments

The rest of that wonderful quote, which closes the Accidental Creative podcast, is “you need to find your unique voice if you want to thrive.” The Crone in the Corner Office is one year old this week. When I started writing I made a commitment to myself that I would complete fifty blog posts and post one each week (allowing for a vacation with My Most Wonderful Husband). The first nine were torture, but I knew they would be. Each, less than 1000 words, was created over hours, and often included tears, laugh-out-loud memories and the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby. I had nine in my back pocket before I posted the first, preparing beforehand for the writer’s…

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Career Leaps of Faith

By | Executive Coaching | One Comment

Changing careers at any age requires a leap of faith. Sometimes we do it because we are bored or frustrated or reaching for a dream. Sometimes we do it because we have to – industries are fluid, technological changes happen rapidly, not allowing for anyone to ably predict their career path very far ahead. Our careers, our very selves, have to shuffle and dance and change all the time and few of us do that easily. Why is change so hard? How do we overcome our fear and inertia and make the changes necessary for reinvention at every stage of our lives? So many potential clients come to me saying that they want to change their careers but don’t know what…

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“Gee, Lt. Columbo, That’s the First Time Anybody Has Liked Me For My Body Instead of My Mind.”

By | Executive Coaching, Gender issues in work, Leadership, Management | 2 Comments

That line was uttered by the14-year old genius Caroline in the 1977 Columbo episode Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder. Lt. Columbo had just told Caroline that she was not only the smartest young girl he had ever met, but she was pretty too. Caroline was the youngest member of the Sigma Society, a club for geniuses and she helped solve the murder. Of course, 1977 was the early days of “our” wave of feminism and those of us who were just barely adults then laughed at the irony of that line. We were two years past the International Women’s Year (1975) and we knew there was much work to be done but we were confident in our success. Fast-forward forty years….

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“I Hate Working for Women,” She Said.

By | Executive Coaching, Gender issues in work, Leadership, Management | One Comment

The woman sat across from me over breakfast in a local diner. I had asked her to meet me before work to discuss what had happened at a corporate event last week: she drank too much and told a client that I was ruining the company. I thought about this conversation the entire weekend. I wanted to be firm but caring. If this woman had a drinking problem, the company would provide the support she needed. However, I would be clear that her behavior was inappropriate and could not, would not be tolerated! I started my well-practiced speech when she interrupted me with, “I hate working for women. At least with men you know where you stand. I’ve never had a…

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The Incredible Disappearing Woman

By | Gender issues in work | One Comment

My husband and I recently had dinner with my freshman year college roommate and her husband. It was one of those conversations that combines walking down memory lane balanced with catching up. Seemingly out of nowhere my husband asked my roommate if she had changed her name when she got married. She did. I didn’t. He then said, “I’m always interested in why someone would change their name. When women do so it’s almost like they disappear.” I was speechless with his willingness to express his feminism and equal rights support until he went on to say, “Doing genealogy research is made so much harder when women change their names. I’m able to get much deeper into my family’s history using…

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