Advice to the Millennial Newbie Who Should Be Planning for the Coup

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | No Comments

I had the occasion recently to talk with a young woman who had just started a new job. The money was great and the commute was ideal but she wasn’t happy. She wasn’t busy enough. Her new manager was literally a new manager and didn’t know how to manage. The other women in the small department were set in their ways, resistant to the digital tools that had recently been introduced (with which she was familiar and loved) and just friendly enough to keep them from being described as rude. As we talked, she described the slights and bad communication she had endured in the past month and I could only hear all the opportunities that would allow her to flex…

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The Curmudgeonly Crone Offers You a List: The 10 Most Important Reasons I Don’t Usually Include a List

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | One Comment

I’ve been writing these essays for nine months now and, over that time, my audience has slowly and steadily built.  I emphasize slowly.  It is not without pangs of jealousy and waves of self-doubt that I have extended my sincere congratulations to Millennial friends who, after a few blogs posts were picked up by the Huffington Post, parlayed that into a million+ followers and from there signed a book deal.  I am happy for them.  I am. People who love me and wish me well have suggested kindly and in a truly helpful manner that I should include a list in my essays, a way to turn my thoughts into easy action for my readers.  Just as kindly I have thanked…

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Why Do Hamsters Eat Their Young?

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | No Comments

I’ve been writing for the past few months about the need for leaders and aspiring leaders to look inward and develop a self-understanding of our own strengths, weakness and the psychological places where we are stuck.  Until we do so I don’t believe we can utilize the full potential of our own agency in our organizations or in the world.  For me this is a core value.  I have power, I make decisions and those decisions have consequences. This appreciation and the concomitant humility that accompanies it came from a life-shaping experience that happened when I was in the sixth grade. The Christmas holidays were approaching. (And in my town we did call it the Christmas holidays). I was a good…

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“Enthusiasm” and “Charisma” Are NOT Greek to Effective Leaders

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | 3 Comments

I have just returned home from my first trip to Greece, during which I was mesmerized by tours of the ancient sites on the Acropolis and in Olympia, finding it fascinating to imagine life there 2500 years ago. It was history made real for me. That’s why we travel, right? It’s about learning something new, having our minds widened and our experiences grow. One of the things I learned on this trip was the etymology of the word “enthusiasm.” It comes from ancient Greek and derives from en (“in”) + theos (“god”) and means possessed by the spirit of the gods. This meaning evolved into the relatively negative connotation of over the top religious fervor until the 1700’s. Of course now…

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How Do We Make Sense of Equal Pay Day? Unequal Pay is NOT a Deliberate Plot Against Women

By | Executive Coaching, Gender issues in work, Leadership, Management | No Comments

I am writing this essay on Equal Pay Day, the day in the year that symbolizes how far into the new year women must work to make what men did in the prior year. I am all for equal pay for equal work, but the gender salary gap is a complex, multi-dimensional problem that is not easily solved. I’ve touched on the difficulty women have in asking for more money in another essay (The Crone in the Corner Office: “Money Makes the World Go Around,” August 25, 2016). There is much research that documents that we women often start out with lower salaries because we have a harder time than men do in asking for money at the outset of a…

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What Do Our Professional Organizations Do?

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

A few weeks ago I had the occasion to speak to a man to whom I used to report.  He had read one of my essays and sent me a note and we used the occasion to schedule a catch-up call.  He had always been one of my very favorite people; he was smart and savvy about business while at the same time he was well read and knowing, quick to acknowledge that life was complex and about much more than the bottom line.  Moreover, he was the shining example of gender blind management.  He hired, promoted and critiqued his male and female direct reports with equally exacting standards. It was sheer delight to speak with him! Our conversation bounced from…

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You Look Tired. Are You Ok?

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

A professional woman whom I coach had been invited to give a short presentation to another department by that department’s head, another professional women with executive and professional degrees.  After finishing what she felt was a well-received talk, she sat down in the audience, a few rows in front of the department head.  When the meeting was over, the department head approached my client, telling her, “I noticed how tired you seemed while you were sitting there.  Are you ok?” This is organizational politics at its very worst!  Let me be very clear: if anyone at work (unless they are your very best friend and close confidant) tells you that you look tired, they are insulting you, attempting to undermine your…

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Old Age and Treachery

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | One Comment

I usually end these essays with a quote rather than begin with one but today I am inspired!  I have spent the last hour on the elliptical machine, running to nowhere, watching the women’s semi-final matches at the Australian Open, where the oldest woman to reach the semi’s of a Grand Slam, Venus Williams, 36, will play her “baby” sister, Serena, 35, for the championship title.  To get there she beat the future of U.S. women’s tennis, Coco VandeWeghe, heir to generations of athletic talent and one of the hardest hitters in the game at the ripe old age of 25. Now, I am a huge Serena fan and I have become a Coco fan watching this tournament.  But I “ran”…

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