Summer Book Review #25: Meeting at the Crossroads

“I can’t say anything,” said a long-time friend as she shared with me her opinion of a decision facing a mutual friend of ours.    She was catching me up on the news of this friend whom she sees regularly.   Her silence was triggered by an issue related to a child.   The child’s parents disagreed on an educational decision.   You couldn’t possibly say anything?  I was stunned.  Shouldn’t she offer a perspective or talk our friend through some options?  I realize that I’m more confrontational than most…but silence?  Really? Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #24: Smart Women Don’t Retire They Break Free

‘It’s not easy to think about what I really want….for as long as I can remember it’s been achieve, achieve, achieve,’ I said to a friend of mine who joined me for lunch early in my transition.  The concept piqued her interest.  It engaged her.   She’s a financial services entrepreneur.  Her dream had been fashion design.  And yet she found finance and accounting.  A detour?  A revelation? A necessity? Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #23: Odd Girl Out

“I couldn’t get a job,” said my sister-in-law as she was relating her story to a sympathetic audience at a recent family event.   She sent out resumes.  She interviewed.  It didn’t go as she’d planned.  Road block.  Full stop. Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #22: The Way of Transition

“Nancy, Nancy, wake up!  NANCY!” I shouted to rouse my sister who was asleep on a chair-cum-bed in my father’s hospital room.  It was just after 7:00 am on a Sunday morning.  We had dozed off at about 3:00 am.  Cancer.   I’m not sure why I woke up when I did.  His breathing was erratic.  We held his hand.

These moments raced back at me this week Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #18: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling…

I got a terrible feeling as I extended my hand to introduce myself.  We were meeting at a hotel restaurant for breakfast.  It was St.  Louis or Atlanta.  I can’t  remember which.   I was screening him for a senior role on my team during my tenure at a large IT outsourcing company.   I had been coached not to make instant decisions about candidates.  We chatted.    ‘Let the data make the decision,’ I kept repeating to myself.   For some reason I was glad we were in a crowded hotel lobby.   I couldn’t put my finger on this feeling I had.   Ever been there?  Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #17: Basic Black

“Everybody thinks of it as a personal problem and that they have to solve that problem (alone),”  said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute and guest of Diane Rehm’s NPR show this past Monday, “The Ongoing Struggle To Balance Career And Family.”    I was multi-tasking when I happened upon the program.   It made me smile.  Over a year ago I started Novofemina for many reasons.  One of them was that, “no one is talking about transition issues.” Well, here it was on a npr station…next to godliness in my mind. Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #16: Confidence

“Today is just the beginning, it’s where you go from here that matters,” said David McCullough, Jr., a high school english teacher from Wellesley, MA and a faculty commencement speaker.  His words were powerful and more sophisticated than anything I heard at 18.  He went on, “I urge you to do whatever you do for no other reason than you love it and you believe in its importance.”   Mr. McCullough engaged my spirit with his directives…worthwhile whether you stand at commencement or in a transition somewhere post graduation. Continue reading…