So there I was, slowly sipping my coffee in my favorite local coffee shop – (OK, OK, it was Starbucks which I don’t mind plugging because of their corporate culture, but I’m also a locovore and frequent my neighbor’s café in a show of economic support ) – Back to my story.. There I was sipping my coffee which was clouding my glasses nicely, equal to my foggy head that morning, when suddenly I realized two things in my pumpkin latte-esque’ distraction. One, I needed to slow down on the caffeine as I was on my second cup; and two, I was being stood up! The crisp air wafting of cinnamon coffee and a brisk walk back to my home office removed my slight annoyance. I moved on with my day, but not without having formed a certain judgment in my mind. Once back at my office I connected with my young mentee and while she supplied an excuse for not making our 8 am mentoring meeting, I simply don’t remember what the reason was. It didn’t matter by that time. However, I did have my next focus of practice for our work together. It was: Follow up. No matter [...]

Recently I posted a blog on the “Top 10 Leadership Qualities YOU Can Cultivate” which garnered a few comments from my colleagues and friends, such as, “Deborah, can you give us a little more to go on?” So, yes, is the answer with which I will follow up in this blog and others along the way to provide strategies and observations for each of the Top 10 Qualities. I will start with the first one on “ETHICS”. Be Ethical. I wrote: “This embodies integrity, honesty, authenticity and doing what’s right without thinking twice. The golden rule … “Do unto others…” is the same for business. Period. No more explanation needed.” Here’s the ‘more explanation’ requested, designed to galvanize you into managing this topic well in your career. I suggest you delve deeper into this subject than just showing up for work, taking some classes, signing some papers and knowing you are a good person. There are a number of ‘ethical elements’ at stake here. Let’s consider: Your company or organization’s Business or Work Conduct Policy. Do you know it inside and out? Have you read it lately? What does it say? Usually the topics covered are: conflict of interest, professional [...]

What would you say to me if I told you that by having a senior person engaged in your career you could make up to $25,000 per year more than your colleagues who are not so fortunate to have one? You read that correctly.  Catalyst, a premier research think tank on workplace topics, published its landmark research: “The Promise of Future Leadership – Highly Talented Employees in the Pipeline”, on the basic topic of mentoring. Later, in 2012, Catalyst published: “High Potentials in the Pipeline: Leaders Pay it Forward” covering in detail the effects of mentoring. But the headline that struck everyone in that study, which followed MBA grads from the years from 2008 -2010, stated just that, you can make more money if you have the support of a mentor and a sponsor. I strongly believe in mentoring and coaching, as you would expect. The study and numbers back this belief up in spades, however, looking at any statistic without its’ dressing of footnotes and anecdotes tends to make me ‘squint’ my eyes just a bit to see more clearly. Upon closer look it’s obvious there’s more to that number than meets the open eye. So too thought Catalyst. [...]

You are sitting in your veterinarian’s waiting room expecting to see Ruff in good shape soon and all of a sudden a fantastic idea comes to you! The idea has its roots in something you notice as an ‘unmet need’ in the market place of your expertise – and you are excited! You’ve just covered the top two things that make a startup business go: a really good idea and the energy to get it launched. The last one, however, is what most startup entrepreneurs fail to do. Here’s my top 3 things required for a successful Startup: Have a Great Idea and Develop It – For all startup businesses, a real idea is something that becomes a differentiator for you in the professional services industry. Or it’s a unique collection of services, or seldom offered item in the marketplace or in manufacturing. Like all startups, your idea must be researched which means you are now a marketing expert. If you’re not – get one. This is money well spent up front – and can make or break your success. You can’t do this alone because you are too close to the subject. See ‘Support” below. Assuming you’ve researched the idea [...]

I know this is a touchy career subject, but that’s why I like it. In the interest of full disclosure, I am part of this crowd, the ‘boomers’. Ah, yes, once reigning solid over the workforce at nearly 50% of us representing it in 2000. But the first of us turned 65 in 2011 – now we have waned to half that 50% representation.  Clearly, there’s more value in quality than in quantity and that’s what this group brings to the table. Yes, certain technology skills elude some of us, and some of us have antediluvian management practices; but transferring skills, retraining and most importantly, experience, can make the difference for most of us in this work genre’. So, before the majority of my readers click off, listen up. This could be you at some point, perhaps soon. Employers, this may resonate with you as well. It’s a fact that this generation still has much to offer. This group is necessary and complements the younger workforce, who are in varying degrees of learning curves. There is never a lack of need for experience to produce quality work in business. You know that word, “experience”. It’s the Latin derivation meaning ‘to [...]

You work hard putting in additional hours, oftentimes outside the office. You may be putting in overtime from your home, or in the doctor’s waiting room, or on the road in airports, hotel rooms and sometimes late into the night. So, why can’t you gain approval to work outside the office during normal work hours? There are many times or days where you don’t need to connect with the team or be in the office to do your job, right? Is this about location or productivity? What happens when your office or cube is just too noisy to concentrate for some tasks? Or, you have to be across town to meet a client and you end up spending more time getting back to the office instead of driving a shorter distance to home to finish that report on time. Instead, you experience the “dreaded office tentacles”, those nagging strings lashed to your feet, thus requiring you to work from the office – time and distance requirements wasting your productivity. “Flex Space” is when work is performed where the employee happens to be located during normal, designated work hours; any place where they are connected to, but outside the company office. [...]