Leadership Companion Blog

One year sober. It feels funny to write those words. GET MY GOAL COMPANION My therapist asked me the other day when I last had a drink and I told her April 15, 2021. She told me how proud she was of me. It caught me off guard, because my sobriety journey this year has been a solo and sometimes isolating one, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to comment on it. In fact, if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have even thought about sharing my story. I wasn’t an alcoholic and never went to a 12-step program, yet I

As we finish the first quarter of 2022, it’s time to check our vision again. I coach a lot of women who don’t love what they’re doing and they come to me to help them figure out how to find their sweet spot.  However, I have one client who absolutely loves what she’s doing.  Her parents longed for her to perform, so she spent her childhood on stage in leotards, tutus and ballet slippers dancing so her parents could be happy.  She never felt like this was a natural fit for her, though.  She’s actually quite shy and much prefers

As we finish the first quarter of 2022, it’s time to check our vision again. Have you had trouble achieving a specific goal you set for yourself at the start of the year? Are you allowing other less important things to get in the way of accomplishing what you really want? Then, it’s time to do a VISION check. Just as it is important to get our eyes checked regularly to assure that we can see clearly; it is equally important to do a VISION check to be certain that our goal is on track. GET MY VISION COMPANION V-vivid

Life consistently presents us with challenges and changes and, at times, this can lead to us feeling stressed. GET MY GOAL COMPANION I was coaching a woman the other day who is from Eastern Europe and current world events are top of mind for her. I noticed she wasn’t her usual energetic self when she came into the room. I asked her how she was and she said she was struggling with how to stay focused on her workload when she felt so stressed for friends and relatives in other parts of the world. By the end of our discussion,

In this day and age we are so inundated with choice and opportunity that you might even say we are spoiled by choice. GET MY GOAL COMPANION Yet, somehow all the choices end up paralyzing us. I was talking to a friend recently and she’s ready to return to the workforce after spending time at home raising her kids. She’s been overwhelmed by all the possibilities for her future and didn’t know where to turn. Instead, she found herself stuck and procrastinating in moving forward. In a world where there is so many options, it is becoming ever more difficult

I had lunch with former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My agency invited Justice Ginsburg to speak at a celebration, which was to be followed by lunch. My position as the Deputy General Counsel not only oversaw the legal department, it was also responsible for managing the event planners, who were responsible for ensuring every aspect of the event ran smoothly. All of the invitations went out like clockwork without any issue.  The invitations included a return card so that the recipient could indicate whether they preferred the chicken or vegetarian entrée for lunch.  GET MY VISION COMPANION One

“And while more White employees see themselves as allies to women of color, they are no more likely than last year to speak out against discrimination, mentor or sponsor women of color, or take other actions to advocate for them.” “Women in the Workplace 2021” GET MY VISION COMPANION This quote from McKinsey & Company’s article “Women in the Workplace 2021” really struck me.  I think that most of us want to see ourselves in a favorable light and wear the label of “Ally” for women of color.  The true test comes, though, when we need to take action.  What

The first Friday in March is National Employee Appreciation Day. GET MY VISION COMPANION I was reading ideas here on how to show appreciation to celebrate the day, and as I read, I was reminded of a time when my client gave me three choices of how to thank my husband, who supported me on the home front while I burned the midnight oil at work. I was in private practice and had spent days, nights and weekends pulling together a motion for summary judgment that would hopefully end the case without going to trial. A couple days after I

Is it possible that the world’s greatest achievers think completely differently from the majority? Do you think the Wright brothers could ever have achieved what they did if they hadn’t believed it could be done? Was Sarah Blakely’s Spanx success a result of I can’t do this? I heard an interview with Blakely recently. She shared that when she was 16, her dad gave her a cassette series called “How to be a No-Limit person” by Wayne Dyer. He wished he had discovered those tapes when he was 16, instead of 40. Blakely listened to those tapes and transformed her

Do you ever catch yourself saying, “My job isn’t so bad” or “I’m being ungrateful”? I read the list of  9 Warning Signs You’re Settling For Less In Your Career in the Forbes article and I’m pretty sure I have said every single one of them during my career.  What can we do when we are settling for less and want more in our career?  I have three steps you can take when you’re ready to stop settling in your career. GET MY GOAL COMPANION I was coaching a client recently who had outgrown her toxic workplace.  She spent two

If you’re like most people, you’ve already let your new year’s commitments fall by the wayside. You didn’t want to, yet you’ve given up on those goals. What happened? My guess it’s that you really actually wanted to achieve those goals – you just didn’t know how to set yourself up for success. Do you want to dust off those goals and try again? I’ve got the steps to help you succeed this time. Here they are… GET MY GOAL COMPANION 1. Be specific This may sound obvious but unless you know specifically what you want, how can you achieve

Did you make some new goals for this year and now you’re feeling stuck? If you feel as though you’re caught in life’s quicksand, you have a lot of company. We work, we struggle, we try to do everything we possibly can to move on to a higher level of well-being but it seems like the harder we work, the more stuck we get. If you’re approaching a Category 5 frustration level, you might give this a try… GET MY VISION COMPANION Switch your focus from that really nice – but frustrated – person in the mirror to one or

I’ve been coaching for a few years now, and the biggest thing I’ve learned – both for me and for my clients – is that confidence is the key to it all. There are all kinds of strategies, ways of thinking, patterns of behavior and practical tips for improving your life and feeling better about yourself, but they’re all redundant if the foundation isn’t there. That foundation is the real you – your authentic self. The trick is that it takes confidence to find that and to bring out who you are – here are two keys to real confidence.

Most people are so busy running around trying to arrange their lives to be somewhere. We all want to be somewhere else geographically or financially or in our relationships.  We want to be anywhere but here and anyone but who we are as we’ve been led to believe that if only we can be somewhere or someone else then our lives would work or we would be happy. This escapism acts like a drug that only gives temporary relief to a chronic problem. Apart from wanting to be somewhere or someone else, most people today also live by a philosophy

As I often do at different points throughout the year, I recently spent some time reviewing my personal vision statement for my coaching practice. Reviewing it helps me ensure my work is in total alignment with my vision. Sometimes, I go back to my vision statement when I’m unsure about whether to go for a new opportunity. Doing so helped me turn down an opportunity this year that didn’t align with my vision. During my recent review, it occurred to me that the vision I have for my work is closely related to my personal vision. Having a job that

What are the three keys to self improvement and motivation? 1. INSPIRATION Inspiration is critical to staying motivated and improving oneself. If you are not interested in your work, your motivation level will never be high and you will not be able to sustain interest for very long. Take an honest look at your inspiration level. Are you excited about going to work or is it an obligation? You would be surprised at the number of people who choose a job that looks good on paper, but in reality does not interest them in the least. These individuals will grow

From time to time, each of us will find ourselves in a rut of boredom and disinterest. Maybe you’re feeling this way right now. Do you feel like you’re dragging to the end of 2021, instead of excited to wrap up an amazing year? We seem to lose our zest for life and feel tired, irritable and unmotivated. We want to hide under the covers rather than face the day. Perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed by work, or sad about the pain and suffering in the world, or just bored with the routine of your daily life. You are not alone.

While it can be fun to live without direction in the short-term, in the long-term, human beings are wired to need a purpose and direction. Goals give a sense of direction and purpose to life. 1. To put us in control of our lives It is often easy to let others set our direction for us. We take a job because family or friends point us in that direction and then we follow the dictates of our bosses. We move in other directions because popular culture or the media tells us to do so. The simple truth is that if

During this season of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for all the wonderful people who came across my path this year helping amplify women’s voices and raising women up to higher heights in their careers. Count your blessings From the amazing 4Word volunteers I get to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with each week mentoring high potential business women… To the talented executive coaches in the Chief community who partner with me to create sacred space for women leaders to gather with their board of advisors… To the many group and one-on-one clients who entrust me with their stories, I give thanks! Share Encouraging

I was always a driven child. My parents would agree, though they’d say I drove them nuts with both my strong will and my desire to achieve. I knew my parents sent me to my aunt and uncle’s farm for periods of time during the summer so they could get a little reprieve from me. I think the expectation was that I would learn domestic skills, like sewing and baking, along with my girl cousins. But, let’s be honest. I’m pretty sure my aunt quickly realized that it was better and more peaceful for her to channel my energy to

What if this year we could do something more than wave a flag to support the brave women who have served and are serving? Do you know that a 2016 survey of service women and women veterans showed that 97% of respondents long for an organization dedicated to the issues uniquely facing them as women? These women have much to share and want their stories heard. Thursday, November 11, 2021, is Veterans Day…a day to honor American veterans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Around towns across America, we’ll see flags waving proudly to celebrate and honor veterans. We