How many times have you delivered something - an email, a report, a simple task that someone offhandedly asked you to do on the way to the bathroom - and not quite gotten it right? Recently, I was working with a colleague who asked me to come up with a different way to present some concepts to our client, and I took that to mean he wanted a visual. I went to Canva and put together a couple of options for attractive visuals and 45 minutes later, when I was done, I learned th

As I mentioned in my recent newsletter (which you are welcome to sign up for here ), many people take time in December to reflect and prepare for the coming new year. Others are crunched with year-end requests, closing the books, or preparing for the onslaught of family visits. Whether you reflect in December or some other time of the year doesn't really make a difference - what matters is that you take the time to look back and find patterns, habits, and, ideally, motivat

The other day, I did some momming worthy of the Golden Globe for Best Parenting in a Comedy Series. My daughter had done something kind of stupid and impulsive and was mortified by her own behavior. My husband and I agreed that punishing her for what she did would just compound her embarrassment and shame, and so we decided to help her process her feelings instead. (And, of course, there was no screen time.) In that moment of parenting, I was intensely focused on the prese

I was talking to a girlfriend of mine the other day, and she mentioned that a guy she was dating was confusing her by praising her too much. "It's weird," she said. "I like it, but after a while it doesn't feel like it's true, or at the very least, that it's not about me." I asked what he was saying, and she said that he was basically just telling her that she was beautiful over and over again. "I'd like that, too," I said, "but I think after a while, if it's not specific,

Many moons ago, I was leading a learning and development team that was part of HR. Our jobs were to get up in front of a room full of skeptical people and share leadership, communication, or interpersonal skills, and so, in my mind, we had to look the part. For as long as I had led them, my team had dressed fairly conservatively (for our industry, at least), and it was never an issue. And then one day, one of my trainers came in wearing something that looked to me like a ba

On a recent business trip, I binge-watched season five of Scandal . I'm not wild about all the acting and the plot twists and turns so much I have whiplash, but the thing that struck me over and over again in the series is how nobody is held accountable for their actions . (Well, that is, unless they get shot. Then there's some accountability.) I won't ruin the plot, but there is a threat that the president will be impeached for doing something bad (that we all know he di

What's that smell in the air? Leaves falling? Pumpkin-spiced everything? The NYC Marathon runners prepping for the big day? No. It's the approach of Appraisal Season. Review Time. Annual Feedback. And if you haven't had good documentation all year, you're going to be feeling the pinch of bias and forgetfulness when it comes to reviewing your employees' performance over the last year. To help with that, here are some valuable tips for reviewing the documentation you've c

Before diving into this post, ask yourself: Where do you need to be more influential? Is it at work, with your manager, stakeholders, or direct reports? Is it at home, with your spouse, partner, or kids? Or is it in your community, with your friends, neighbors, or fellow members of an organization? No matter where you need to be influential, it's important to know who you're trying to influence and what matters to them . You, like my father, may get all jazzed up about

We've all worked with someone who, for reasons we can't understand, just doesn't do the things they're supposed to do. The filing piles...

In every conversation, there is a WHAT and a HOW . The WHAT is the content, or the topics being discussed or decided in the conversation....

I've been working with several leadership teams recently who are struggling with all kinds of challenges, but the number one problem I've...

In her insightful book on women's sexuality,  Come As You Are , Emily Nagoski addresses the complex emotions that can develop between two...

Every year on my birthday, my mother tells me the story of Mrs. Jordan, the babysitter she arranged with to take care of my two-year-old...

You may have heard a lot about having a growth mindset recently. It's good for business! It's good for parenting! It's good for...

I'd like to get this question a lot more than I do. Because if I did, I'd be able to tell people what happens in a coaching session, how...

On my daughter's eighth birthday this summer, I had a revelation. I was chatting with a fellow mom about all the memories we...

What happens to you when you've had a rough day, you sit down to process it with another person, and that person starts jumping in with...

The other day, my older daughter was mad at my younger one because she told her to take her plate to the kitchen. "YOU'RE NOT MY...

I recently facilitated two separate conversations between teammates (at two different organizations) where trust had been broken. I...

I sat down to play a card game with my daughter the other day, and she literally made up the rules as we went along. She was emphatic...