When I was practicing law at a large international law firm, every time a female attorney in the office announced she was pregnant, other female colleagues would always ask: “What are you going to do after the baby is born?” What they meant by that question was: Are you going to quit? Are you going…
The lack of confidence is the number one thing that I see in high-achieving professional women that holds them back in their careers and their lives. It’s not knowing when to speak up at meetings, second-guessing your own decisions, not trusting yourself and your capacity to make good decisions. Confidence has been studied and written…
Every single one of my clients comes to me because she wants something different than she currently has. Some want to advance in their current jobs and they need help developing the confidence to do that, but many come to me because they want to find a new job. So they are often surprised when…
We have, as a cultural, pretty much accepted that being a mom comes with an emotion that we now call “mom guilt.” Mom guilt seems to affect nearly all moms, but it’s particularly common in working moms. So what is “mom guilt” really? Guilt, like any emotion, is just a vibration in our bodies that…
The real reason why any of us procrastinate is because of our thoughts. Positive thoughts drive productive action and negative thoughts drive inaction or unproductive action (such as reaching for a pint of ice cream). Trying to change your actions without examining your thoughts is like trying to get a broken car to go without…
What’s Your Mindset? One of the most impactful books I’ve ever read is Mindset by Carol Dweck. I recommend that you buy and read it immediately. What does mindset mean? I like to define it as a collection of thoughts and beliefs that determine what you believe is possible and how the world works. As I’ve discussed…
First, The Bad News: What You Don’t Control When you’re feeling stuck in your career and you’re trying to make a change, it can feel like you’re at the mercy of circumstances outside your control. Examples of external circumstances that you don’t control include: Which companies are hiring How many positions are available Who else…
When you’re figuring out what to do next, you are probably telling yourself “I don’t know” a lot. As in, I don’t know the answer, I don’t know what I want, I’ve tried “everything” and I just don’t know what to do. And it sounds reasonable because almost everybody says things like this. The problem…
There are two reasons that most people get confused about what to do next in their careers. The first is lack of information. This usually comes from not having investigated either your own internal desires or some external possibility, such as a new employer, industry, or field that you’d like to consider. When I coach…
One of the main reasons that career decisions can be so hard once you’re a mom is that it can seem like you’re limited by your external circumstances. My clients often feel economically or geographically constrained by their mortgage, kids, spouse, etc., and they get stuck in the rut of thinking that those circumstances are…
