As the school year wraps up, I reflect on the intersection of learning a new skill and encouragement. My daughter is nearing the end of her first year of playing the trumpet for her middle school band. From my perspective, she’s done remarkably well. To hear her tell it though, you’d form a different conclusion….
Personal Effectiveness
How to be Productive When You Work for Someone Else
What’s your favorite day of the work week? I bet you said “Friday,” right? Because it’s the day before the weekend starts. Fair enough. Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week. Why? Because I’ve implemented a time management process that helps me stay focused and get lots of work done. I’ll lay out the…
What Your HR Manager Can (and Can’t) Accomplish with Assessments
“Hey Jennifer, we want to do a team building event with the XYZ personality assessment.” Over the years, this is how many of my conversations with senior leaders have started. Whether it was in my role as a corporate trainer, or as an independent executive coach, the theme was constant: a team leader sees a…
3 Typical Problems First-Time Managers Face—and How to Solve Them
Taking on your first official management role is exciting. It’s also challenging, overwhelming and perplexing. In a webinar with over 900 first-time managers, The Ken Blanchard Companies asked people to list their biggest challenge when they made the leap from individual contributor. David Witt, Program Director for Blanchard, wrote about their responses in this LinkedIn…
New at Making Presentations? Check out these Tips from the Pros
You’ve been asked to make a presentation at a meeting and it’s not something you do every day. If you’re feeling nervous, it’s understandable. Standing up in front of a group of people can be intimidating. You feel judged. It’s especially nerve-wracking if there are people in the audience you want to impress. It’s scary;…