How do you stay current with popular culture references and changes in language? If you’re in a leadership position and have accumulated more than four decades of life experience, chances are that your younger team members might from time to time confound you with an unfamiliar phrase. Take for example, the term “struggle bus” which…
Personal Effectiveness
Zen of Jen: Who are You Really Talking To?
Ever read any self-help books? If so, you’re most likely familiar with the term “self-talk” which, as its name suggests, is the act of talking to oneself. There’s negative self-talk (“I’m such an idiot – why did I do that?”) and positive self-talk (“I am excellent at giving professional presentations”). Personally, I’ve done my share…
Living Up to the Promise of a Leadership Title
Are the leaders in your organization living up to their titles? Yes, yes, I know. The organizational title is a dinosaur. But the reality is that very few organizations have learned to operate without the hierarchy. So, for those companies that still rely on titles, most employees have expectations about how people in senior management…
Creating the Perfect Resume – Word Choice Matters
When you write a resume, word choice matters. This probably doesn’t surprise you, but maybe some of the words you’re not supposed to include will come as a surprise. The folks at ZipRecruiter shared this infographic with me. It highlights analysis they’ve done on over three million resumes and cover letters in their database. They’ve…
Leadership Decision-Making – Both Science and Art
Making effective decisions is a vital leadership competency. There are many decision-making models that can help create a structure for determining an outcome. But just because you have a systematic model doesn’t mean you’ll choose the best outcome. You need the “art” of decisions as well: the human brain’s unique capacity to imagine, predict and…