Isolation?

My greatest fear in entering a transition was isolation.  Now,  a few months into this, let me say that I had it all wrong.

I left a full-time role in Spring 2010.  My boss often joked in public, “you can work any 60 hours you’d like.”  He believed his approach was both enlightened and funny.

In the past year I’ve embarked on a transition to redefine my work-self.  I put myself in Bucket #5 in my post “Women’s Transitions: a process…” I have more non-negotiables this time.  My work-self has to be integrated into my parenting self.  I have children in first grade  and kindergarten.   It also has to adhere to my idealistic self:  I believe everyone can change the world.  I thrive on ideas and people…

So here is my 180 on isolation…. Continue reading…

Women’s Transitions? a process……

Celebrating Women’s Transitions!?  What are “women’s transitions” anyway?  Before getting into today’s post…please look for our RSS Feed link on our site.   I keep tweaking…all feedback is welcome!

I have to tell you a story before getting underway — it guides how I approach today’s challenge.  It starts with  a guy, whose name I’ll change to Stewart.  Stewart is an executive at Iron Mountain, an S&P 500 corporation.   For the past four years I had the great pleasure of serving as Iron Mountain’s head of Human Resources and Administration.  Stewart was a super, über “corporate guy.”   I was usually entertained by his calculated moves.  He was a corporate chess player “extraordinaire” –   Ever met anyone like this?

Anyway Stewart got me one day.  I didn’t even see it coming.  He agreed with me in a private very-critical “pre-meeting” on a topic.  Then he set me up in front of the CEO in a more public meeting by changing his position 180 degrees.  I should have seen it coming — I was just too exhausted to see it that day.

In spite of this craziness Stewart used a positioning on occasion which I thought was masterful.  It went simply…”let’s start with where we agree.”

So, on transitions, let’s start with where we agree: Continue reading…

VIEW FROM THE DELI COUNTER: WOMEN & PERFECTION

This post will clearly be grouped in the quirky “observations” from my transition category.  But first, heartfelt thanks to all of you for the wonderful outpouring of comments and ideas around this launch.  The volume of emails that I’ve received has been enormous.  You’ve given me incredible ideas on how to take Novofemina forward.   More on that in the weeks ahead.  For now, I thought I’d share a chuckle…and an observation. Continue reading…

What does NovoFemina Mean?

Novofemina.com is a blog about professional and personal transition issues in women’s lives.  Novofemina is derived from Latin words meaning “women’s renewal.”  It’s constructed from two latin words; novo and femina.  Novo’s latin definition is “to make new; to renew; to change; to re-invent.”  Femina is the latin word for “woman.” Continue reading…