
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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