I was mad. Really mad. I had an appointment with a client. He asked to reschedule because he said he would be out of the office all day the day we had scheduled to meet. I showed up at the company the day we were scheduled to meet in order to meet with one of his colleagues and out he walks. He’s there. I felt lied to and intentionally blown off. He said nothing. I said nothing. I expected an apology or at least an explanation e-mail or phone call to come from him. I got nothing. In inquiring about
I ran into a professional contact at a local conference last month. She’s an attorney with experience in HR and has provided me with some legal advice related to a consulting project I had last year. I hadn’t seen her in about six months and we have probably interacted two or three times over the last couple of years. We caught up, talking about family and work. Being 38 weeks pregnant at the time, she asked about our growing family. It is always a pleasure talking to her, and I left our conversation being thankful that there are professionals like
In my first “real” job out of college, I had no idea what managing upward was and had no idea how to do it. More importantly, I didn’t know why it was necessary. In hindsight, I got passed over for a job opening in the department that I wanted because I didn’t manage upward, I got more work than any other person in the department thrown on me because I didn’t manage upward, and I ended up being pretty miserable because I didn’t manage upward. In my personal experiences and in coaching middle managers, I’ve learned that the topic of
I used to get so frustrated as a recruiter when I asked the question “What are your weaknesses?” in an interview and I would get the response “I’m a perfectionist.” It seemed to me to be a way to state a “weakness” when in reality striving for perfection, I thought, was a characteristic that is desired in the working world and in fact classified as a strength. I’d turn around and probe the applicant in a way that made them tell me what bad behaviors or results arose because of their perfectionism. Most people just stared at me after asking
We were excited to be featured as guest blogger on the awesome Fistful of Talent this past weekend. Now, we’re sharing this blog with you! — I’m in labor. One nurse is holding one foot; another is holding the other. There’s a doctor in-between my legs, and my husband is at my side. (He was instructed under no uncertain circumstances to go below my knees.) It’s time to push. I, of course, am drugged with an epidural. They have to tell me when to push because I luckily can’t feel a thing. I don’t know the results of my efforts,