Category Archive

I had a new coaching client in my office the other day. “I hate my job,” she told me as she sat down, barely holding back tears. “I fell into it 10 years ago. I’ve been promoted and I’ve moved around to different companies,” she said, naming a couple of premier Seattle employers. “But I just hate the work and I feel stuck in it.” We talked in detail about what she’s interested in: product management, teaching middle school, UX …

The room was full of software engineers and technologists. I was on stage to talk about confidence and impostor syndrome (both very coachable, by the way). Those engineers were looking at me skeptically. They were ready to eat me alive. “Bring it on,” I thought to myself. I flipped to the first slide of my presentation, projected in large, bold font on the screen behind me: Who am I and how do I have credibility to coach executives in industries …

“I’m thinking about going back to school,” a beloved coaching client told me. Those words always fill me with concern. Going back to school can be a great way to jump in a new direction or break through to the next level in your career. Going back to school can also be a colossal waste of time and money. This is the story of a client who went back to school after a deliberate decision-making process. She didn’t throw money …

I went skiing the other day and talked to old men. The first was lying in the snow. The way he was lying there, struggling to get up, didn’t seem right so I skied over to see if I could help. “This is so embarrassing,” he said as he fell back into the icy snow. He was maybe late-70s, maybe a great skier when he was younger. Something didn’t seem right. “Let me get ski patrol for you,” I suggested. …

Making that career transition is like finding a rabbit hutch. I was recently talking with my lovely neighbor. She had a friend over, a nice person I’ve met once or twice over the years. As the three of us were talking, I happened to mention the bunny drama unfolding in my backyard: I had just rescued a very small baby bunny and was trying to introduce the wee thing to my backyard farmyard. My four giant rabbits were trying to …

I admit it. I was filled with dread. I so regretted registering. I could have had a lovely, quiet day at my office. Instead, I was driving to Bellevue, to the Meydenbauer Center, during rush hour, for at least eight hours of keynote talks, training tracks, networking breaks, and other horrors. I’m fiercely introverted. It’s getting fiercer as I get older. But I had signed up and paid my money and organized childcare: I was going to that conference and …

(I met with Heather as part of a Seattle Times “Career Makeover” series and wrote the following summary of our conversation for the journalist writing the story.) Heather was feeling dated. She was sitting in my office, a Seattle Times Career Makeover subject, and worrying about the eight-year gap in her resume – a gap filled with raising kids, earning her B.A., and working retail to help pay the bills. “I have eight years of intellectual property paralegal experience,” she said, “But …

This is the story I wrote up for the journalist writing the Career Makeover series for The Seattle Times. As a former journalist, I couldn’t just send her notes, I had to write the story, too! At 54, Mike has had a successfully solid career in supply chain management. For three decades, he’s been the guy that figures out how to get the raw materials — across oceans, on time – that manufacturers turn into things that you and I …

“I took a leap of faith this morning,” a favorite coaching client told me. I held my breath. “I took it,” he said. I started dancing around the living room. I’ve been working with this client for the past three months on a career transition. He’d been in corporate marketing for most of his career and wanted to move into nonprofit work.  During his job search, he found a thrilling job at an organization he cares deeply about. His dream …

A favorite coaching client sent me an email: “I’ve just been fired.” I emailed her right back and the email bounced. I called her and listened to the shock and hurt at the other end of the line. I wondered what our next coaching session would be like. It wasn’t what I expected. My client looked radiant when I next saw her. There was a lightness to her step I’d never seen before. She laughed and was spectacular. “I don’t feel …