I dread the end of the year. There are endless office parties and niceties that, although technically optional, feel mandatory. For example, I am invited to my department’s holiday party, the company-wide holiday party, and another product team’s holiday party. Both my team’s and my product team’s parties require that I bring a $25 grab bag gift. In addition, one coworker is collecting donations of...

The holidays can be an enjoyable time—but not for everyone. Some of us suffer from the blues, whether it's because we can't celebrate with family or have a hard time adjusting to the colder, shorter days. Perhaps being around family brings back old dynamics that make you feel bad. Perhaps you don’t have any family or live too far away to be with them. Or maybe it’s the cold weather and the shorter...

Whether you’re 25 years old, 40, or 55, career change is possible when you apply a combination of strategy and perseverance. The first thing you need to do it to recognize that career change is usually an incremental process. You probably won’t go from finance to public relations or from engineering to nonprofit management in one leap. You’ll need to patiently complete a number of steps, as described be...

Last month, I had the great honor of speaking at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, an inspiring conference that attracts over 10,000 attendees from around the world. I gave two presentations, one on Finding Brave To Reach Your Highest Potential, for a breakfast event sponsored by Accenture for 150 senior women in pharma, biotech and medical technology. And the other was a panel discussion exploring the topic of Get Uns...

Staying too long in a role can have extremely negative ramifications for a person’s mental health and marketability. If that’s so, you may be asking, what then is too long and how do you know? What can be done about it? Is it necessary to jump ship? All of these are valid questions and require careful consideration. Before taking any drastic measures, it’s probably time to reassess your own goals and have...

In my work as a business and workforce consultant, I’ve observed that in times of change and uncertainty, some organizations stop spending money – and especially money that goes to employee training and development. However, given the future work trends of cross-functional teaming, workforce-wide digital fluency, and an emphasis on uniquely human skills, this may be a short-sighted approach. Let’s look at...

Emoji can be useful to make workplace communication friendlier and less abrupt. When used in moderation and in the right context, it can bring people closer together. If you spend any time on social media, you have seen your share of emoji—those little pictures of yellow smiling faces, cups of coffee, and soccer balls. (The older term, “emoticon,” refers to the ones that are done with typographical imag...

Are you a Quester? Could you become one? What are Questers anyway? Questers are redefining the way we look at lifelong career, personal, and spiritual growth. Questers are described in the award-winning, Questers Dare to Change Your Job and Life. Like many of us, Questers will probably spend a third to half of their adult lives working or thinking about work. But unlike many people at crucial points in their careers,...

I came across an article recently that had a unique take on the kinds of career advice that is typically given to women. The main concept of the article is that women are being sold on the idea that it is up to them to change workplace culture and to make the workplace more encouraging and nurturing to the women who occupy it, and that this is a form of gaslighting. Gaslighting, in case you’re unaware, is a form of ma...

In the past 13 years of coaching and training professional women around the globe, I’ve seen firsthand that thousands of women have spent years building careers they thought would make them happy, only to wake up and realize they are very far from where they want to be, without a clue as to what’s in the way. Thousands are expending great amounts of energy hiding the fact that they’re scared, sad and de...