“What if you did nothing for twenty-four hours?” said my friend Marla as I related to her an incident that had me close to coming undone. Her calm advice couldn’t have been more foreign to me at that moment. I was in a leadership role that I believed compelled me to act. To address. To solve. To direct. What was this ‘stand down’ approach? Could it possibly work? Continue reading…
Transition: Crafting an approach
“I wasn’t interested in leading a double life,” said AJ a former colleague of mine who co-founded Infuse, a not-for-profit entrepreneurship program for inner-city high school students in Silicon Valley. Her dual risk arose because she works as a program manager at Infinera, a publicly traded optical networking company. It’s easy to get inspired when speaking with AJ. She is a bundle of energy and passion. Aside from being enthused about her work at Infuse I’m fascinated by her dual dilemma ‘approach.’ Continue reading…
Valentine’s Day and Transition: A Common Link
It hit me yesterday as I was fielding a call from a former colleague who happens to be in transition. She was reeling from what sounded to me as a normal twist in a job pursuit cycle. Maybe you’ve seen this movie too. You finally find a target company or role that is perfect for you but the cavernous void created by online recruiting puts obstacles in your way. My friend’s plight was amplified by a heaping tablespoon of self-criticism. Even if it wasn’t Valentine’s Day one might suggest that there were two answers for her; networking and chocolate. Continue reading…
Transition Triumphs?
“I’ve been reading your blog and thinking ‘ugh’ all this transition stuff,” said Victoria Taylor, CEO and founder of Victoria Gourmet, lamenting that transition would be ahead of her again sometime. Victoria’s remarks made me wonder, ‘Can we ever triumph over transition?’ Continue reading…
Analogy: a powerful transition tool
Last weekend I attended a training session for volunteers for a local youth group. A wide cross-section of folks attended. One gentleman, a youth minister from a local church named Sal, spoke at length. Sal shared — as only you can share on folding chairs in the basement of a school on a Sunday morning — a story that I found surprisingly powerful. Continue reading…
Transitions & Negative People…..
“She is living her dream,” said my daughter in summary of a friend we visited over Columbus Day Weekend 2010. If I had tried I couldn’t have figured out how to get that message across so simply and completely to my children. Continue reading…
Must we all be entrepreneurs?
This week I was thinking about how to define “transition.” It brought to mind one of my favorite movie scenes of all time, a scene from the Dead Poets Society. In it Robin Williams plays a high school English teacher, Professor Keating. At one point he has each child walk to the front of the classroom and stand on top of his desk – looking out at the class. It is a powerful moment that allows the kids to see that one can get great energy by taking the time to use another lens to look at something familiar. Continue reading…
What’s your Agenda?
” I wasted a lot of time,” confided a long-time friend as she described the years that she had not worked outside the home. She and I were having a conversation about her decision to return to work. At the time she had three high school aged children. The dialogue stayed with me.
A recent conversation got me thinking about this ‘wasted time’ exchange. A friend was out and about with a visible kick to her step. Continue reading…
Summer Book Review Finale: Learnings?
An incident struck me yesterday morning. I was walking with two neighbors at the crack of dawn — as I do regularly. We were discussing an issue that hit a chord with one of my compatriots. She physically changed as the conversation ensued. Her body tensed and she began to shake ever so slightly. Needless to say she was very keyed up. She was struggling with anyone – it didn’t matter whom – who couldn’t see this topic the way she did. From my view she seemed absolutely CLOSED to anything anyone else had to say.
It was a powerful juxtaposition to my summer – a summer that opened me up to scores of new thinking about women’s transition issues. Continue reading…
Summer Book Review #13: A Gift from the Sea
I happened upon a cool website yesterday: the Marine Biology Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The piece that caught my eye was a story about a professor from UCSF who has started a web series called iBio; a series of free video lectures and vignettes by the world’s best biologists. There was one story that spoke to my Novofemina side. Continue reading…