A Busy Woman:

Are You A Go-to Fixer For Your Team? You Are Not Helping.

Elizabeth was a long-tenured senior officer at a commercial bank. She had a high sense of responsibility. Most of her time was spent fixing problems created by others both at ...
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A Woman -Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Job Searching for a Career Path Change? Act Like a Farmer

A job change is a daunting task. It becomes even more challenging when it involves a discipline, industry, or role change. A common misconception is one can do it by ...
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A connected graph of people.

Idea Dating: Tap Your Network for Clearer Insights

During a recent coaching session, my client Francis had an eye-opening moment. Despite consistently positive performance reviews, he no longer found satisfaction in his current role. When I asked what ...
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Setback - Image by Fábio Luciano Sorg from Pixabay

Overcome Setbacks Using 3A’s : Acknowledge, Analyze and Act

Theresa has been feeling significantly down the last few days. Her manager informed her that she didn't get the promotion this time. He was pretty compassionate while giving her the ...
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Smile face, balloon, job promotion announcement

Sustainable Success: The Multifaceted Journey Beyond Social Media Posts

It is the season of job promotions. I've been getting several such news through LinkedIn posts from my clients. However, these celebratory posts only scratch the surface of their entire ...
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Nick’s Path to Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Meet Nick, a talented young professional in his mid-thirties who holds a managerial position in a corporate. One challenging aspect of his job is that his team members, older than ...
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A woman sitting down with a pensive look

Beyond Success: The Path to Significance

A few months ago, I met Megan, a high-achieving corporate leader in her early forties, happily married with two young kids. Despite her stellar success, she felt like she was ...
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Organization Politics – How We See It Can Change the Meaning

"I like doing my job, but I hate politics. Almost everyone says that they hate politics. If no one likes it, then who creates it in the first place"? My ...
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A Lion

Be Like a Lion: Enhance Leadership Through Pauses and White Spaces

Carol, a Vice President at a communication company, wanted to up her leadership presence. But she didn't know how to create that learning space as she felt overwhelmed by her ...
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Idea generation

Ambiguous Project With Not Enough Guideline? Follow This 5-Step Process.

Myriam is a product manager at a multinational company whose job is to understand current industry trends, anticipate customer needs, design product road maps, and get buy-in from upper management ...
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Redefine Success Through Embracing Imperfection and Cultivating Resilience

The other day, I had a conversation with a woman grappling with her career satisfaction. Despite her impressive credentials, which included a Ph.D. and valuable job experiences, she was not ...
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Authenticity, a bird showing its colors - Image by wasi1370 from Pixabay

Beyond “Fake it Till You Make it”: A More Authentic Approach To Building Confidence

During the early days of my coaching career, when I said, "I am a coach," my facial expression didn't match it. The truth was, I didn't feel confident about my ...
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How a Small-Group Coaching Circle Helped Mid-Level Leaders Thrive

A recent Harvard Business Review article said, "The benefits of small-group coaching come from powerful learning interactions among leaders who aren't on the same team but are roughly equal in ...
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Tearing elephant By ArtTower on Pixabay

Strong Leaders Also Need Psychological Safety

Psychological safety has become a prevalent concept, encompassing the feeling of safety individuals experience when sharing their thoughts and feelings without risking their status. While this is often attributed to ...
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Conflict at work

Intimidating to Inspiring: How A Tech Leader Solved The Approachability Problem

Vlad (not his real name), a seasoned tech leader, received feedback that some team members found him intimidating - hindering them from seeking his guidance. His management urged him to ...
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A man sitting with hands holding this head

5 Strategies To Withstand Turbulent Times

The current economic crisis and the layoffs by major companies created anxiety among workers, even those who have not been directly affected. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's HR Chief wrote about a global ...
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Clock, brain, bulbs

5 Misconceptions That Get In The Way Of Sustainable Success

Over the years, through my coaching work with the tech leaders and executives, I helped them uncover some of their misconceptions and limiting behaviors. Even though they were already successful ...
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An elephant

How Not To Think About An Elephant – A Neuroscience Way To Attain Goals

What if I say, "Do not think about an elephant" - I bet all you will think of is an elephant or several elephants in your mind. Well, it turns ...
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Direct Communication Doesn’t Have To Be Hurtful

Stuart, a mid-level leader at a corporate, came to me as he wanted to be more approachable. "I am very direct, but people take it negatively." I want to influence ...
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Will Smith hits Chris Rock on Oscar Stage

What Can We Learn From Will Smith’s Oscar Debacle

[I originally wrote this after the Oscars last year (March 2022).] Since the Oscars, my newsfeed has been flooded with the news and commentary about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock ...
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What Simone Biles, Jacinda Ardern, and Naomi Osaka Taught Us

Simone Biles, Jacinda Ardern, and Naomi Osaka share a common trait - they all made a courageous decision to quit, to say "no" despite the societal pressure to keep pushing ...
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Two people talking

Do You Dread Giving Feedback? There Is A Better Way.

Giving feedback is a regular part of a manager's job responsibility, but most are uncomfortable. David Rock and his colleagues from the NeuroLeadership Institute wrote in this article, “Typical feedback ...
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Smiley face on a sidewalk

A Smile is a Leadership Tool

I recently had a coaching session with a tech leader who expressed a strong desire to enhance his approachability. While he was committed to delivering high-quality products, he was aware ...
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Clock, brain, bulbs

Three Strategies That Reduced Stress for a Busy Executive

Sheela, a senior executive at a renowned Fortune 500 company, sought my coaching services to improve her quality of life. She said her demanding job was taking a toll on ...
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Set goals

Goal Setting Is Not Just A New Year Thing

My January was quite busy with returning from vacation (an international trip) and giving back-to-back corporate workshops. So the schedule was a bit tight, but the process of designing and ...
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Holiday, Gingerbread house

This Holiday, Build Resilience Through Family Stories and Connections

It's the season. Despite the job losses, economic downturns, and everything else,  holidays are in the air. This season reminds us to connect with what is important that we often ...
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Why Self-Promotion is Hard, And What To Do About It?

Recently, a friend and I talked about something she was anxious about. Ultimately, she felt much more relaxed and confident and said, "Thank you, Sharmin, you are so good." I ...
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Let's Get Real Podcast cover

My Podcast Interview: Resilience Inside and Out

Earlier this month, a fellow leadership coach, Nina Simonds invited me to her podcast, Let's Get Real. Nina started this series in 2020 because, as she wrote, "I love having ...
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Does Meditation, Journaling Feel Like a Burden? Try Micro habits

A senior leader at a big tech, Tim, spent a week at a meditation retreat. When I asked how he was applying it, he said he didn’t have time. As ...
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Super hero employee

From High Achiever to a Leader: It’s a Mindset Shift

Stephan was a VP of a Fortune 200 company. He was one of the top performers and indispensable for high stake projects. As a result, he was stretched thin; and ...
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Feeling Stuck? Look into Your Fears

Are you feeling stuck in your job? Are you having a lack of motivation? Are you feeling like quiet quitting? It must be hard to carry on like that. On ...
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A man working with a laptop

Being an Introvert is not a Weakness to Fix

Have you ever heard of extroverts having to develop to become quieter? Probably not too often. But if you are an introvert, there are tons of feedback for you to ...
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Self-Promotion Doesn’t Have to Be Selfish

A couple of years ago, I ran a survey among tech professionals, and it came out that "Managing up/Self-promotion" was the top concern. I was not too surprised. Talking about ourselves seems opposite ...
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Conflict at work

What Causes Conflicts In Teams

No one wakes up thinking, "I will ruin the day; I will be ineffective today." But even when everyone on the team is a decent person - stress, conflicts, and ...
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Finding A More Enjoyable Career: It Could Be Easier Than You Think

The other day I talked to an engineer from a big brand-name company. I asked her what is that she liked most about her job. She said when she knows ...
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Two men are talking in a business setting

A Tale Of A Coaching Session

In corporate, coaching means helping someone do their job by giving them advice. Some examples are "have you considered XYZ?" and "If I were you, I would do it this ...
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The False Dichotomy Between Success and Failure – They Are Not Opposite of Each Other

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Author and Harvard professor Sarah Lewis mentioned this famous Churchill quote in her book The Rise: Creativity, the ...
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Remote and Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay: How Are You Catching Up?

Even five years ago, calling into a meeting was not very encouraged. But this Covid19 pandemic suddenly turned the culture upside down. Nowadays, organizations are having difficulty bringing people back ...
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Super Mom Katherine’s Time Management Dilemma

On my way to walk this morning, I saw my neighbor Katherine in her signature pink sweatshirt. Both of us were glad to have company for the walk. The weather ...
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Children, foster greater understanding

Conversations To Foster Greater Understanding

Recently this post by an organizational psychologist at Wharton, Adam Grant, went viral on LinkedIn. He said: The clearest sign of intellectual chemistry isn't agreeing with someone. It's enjoying your ...
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