Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, is tasked with reinvigorating a stagnant company. She must look for every possible lever to boost Yahoo’s innovation. One of her strategies: bring people back to work. Stimulate creativity by bringing people back into direct face-to-face collaboration. No more telecommuting. GASP. Actually, I get the fury. If I were telecommuting, […]
Here’s a great article from HBR that lays out three perspectives on work-life balance: country, corporate, and couple. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/02/work-family_guilt_is_wasted_en.html
Those of you who tend to lead from the ‘grace’ side of the power spectrum, listen up. One of your strengths is probably that you are very accommodating – a real team player. I’ll bet you pitch in whenever needed. I’ll bet you say ‘yes’ when everyone else says ‘no.’ And underneath your helpful […]
A couple of months ago, Harvard Business Review posted a good blog on the impact that fatigue has on our bodies and effectiveness. Fatigue Is Your Enemy – Harvard Business Review But making the case for self-care is relatively easy. Scientists, theologians, psychologists and leadership experts have proven its positive affects again and again. But […]
In her song, “Back to the Middle” India.Arie makes the perfect musical case for integrating grit and grace.
I’ve noticed that leaders often have very interesting notions of what constitutes ‘leadership.’ Some managers view leadership as something that exists outside and apart from them. They think of leaders as only those who make the grand speeches and set sweeping agendas. So, often, when my clients’ jobs don’t require this sort of large-scale thought […]
Forbes has just published its annual list of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women. http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2012/08/22/the-worlds-100-most-powerful-women-2012-this-year-its-all-about-impact/. I applaud these women for their amazing impact and success, and I applaud Forbes for recognizing them. Yet it makes me wonder. Do Forbes’ more traditional criteria for power – “political and economic might” – seem broad enough? These are […]
Early in my career, I managed a law firm. One of our administrative assistants – we’ll call her Liz – was consistently late to work. I knew that Liz had a very difficult home life; she lived in poverty with her mother, and was relied upon to help care for the younger children. Feeling for […]
I recently watched a talk given by Dr. Brene Brown, a renowned social scientist whose work centers on understanding the phenomenon of shame. In her extensive research (over 7,000 people interviewed), she started to notice that a small subset of her subjects stood out as being particularly compassionate, filled with a capacity for natural and […]
“I’m exhausted… like ‘end-of-my-rope’ exhausted. But I feel guilty taking time off.” My clients, especially women, say this to me a lot. It comes from a deeply embedded cultural value that work is good, and non-work is non-good. If you’re running from dawn to midnight, you must matter. If you’re well-rested, then you must be […]