I was in the waiting area of the dealership while my car was getting an oil change. Tony, one of the service reps saw me and asked if I had ...
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Those frequent flyers in the job market already know how this apparently easy question could become quite daunting at times. During an interview coaching, I ask the clients to answer ...
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I have worked within the high tech industry for over a decade and I have always wondered why a large number of the great hires end up disengaged, identified as below ...
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“I don’t have the time to pause and think, my days are filled with back to back meetings. When someone asks me a question, I just tell them what I ...
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“I really like doing my job but I hate politics. When I ask others, everyone says the same thing, they hate politics. If no one likes it then who creates ...
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Growing up, I didn’t think I had much courage. One day I saw this quote saying: Courage is not the absence of fear it is acting despite -- because something is ...
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Anyone familiar with software development knows agile is the way to go when you are developing new software or a product. But when it comes to career what does it ...
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"He doesn’t work well with others.” “He has issues dealing with bad news.” “He is a star performer, but he is lacking executive presence.”  These are some of the typical ...
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I was talking to Andrea, a leader in a big corporate here in the Seattle area. Very smart and hardworking she was, her resume spoke for itself. As a senior ...
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It will be rare to find someone who never heard "coaching" and yet it is one of the most overloaded terms today. Starting from sports coaching, tutoring or mentoring a ...
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[Look for a special discount code inside -Sharmin] Background Story - Last year I attended a global conference in Warsaw with a few hundred International Coach Federation (ICF) leaders from across ...
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Tim is an engineering leader at a local hi-tech company. He is very good at his trade, has a profound understanding of the technology stack, and has decent ideas about ...
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“There’s not enough time.” “Time is running out.” “I wish I had more time.” These are complaints we hear frequently. High-performing, high-achieving professionals often come to me for better time-management ...
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During my corporate career I once attended a class on “how to show up confident”. It had quite a few tips I don’t remember those exactly. But today I remembered ...
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Few years back we went to Zion national park in Utah. We hiked on a mountain in the scorching 80 degree heat. The destination was the “upper pool” a small body ...
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Ego awareness can be a great aid during conflicts. Professional mediator Diane Hamilton talks at Google. Few things I am taking away. Our primitive brain sees conflict as a threat ...
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Today is the 5th anniversary of my post-Microsoft life :). Hard to believe how time flies! It was not just a new career I wanted to pursue; I also wanted ...
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On the first day of my coach training class the instructor gave us a meditation exercise. The purpose was to be ready and present for the session. As someone coming from ...
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If you are a corporate employee, notice the feeling you are having when you read the word “Feedback”. “I have some feedback for you” often creates the same or worse visceral ...
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“Reality is reality, there is no point to sugar coat it “– a friend of mine uttered with a great sigh! I agree and there is more. It reminded me of ...
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“Not enough time”, “Not enough support from others”, “Lack of ideas”, topped the list for my survey question: “What is in your way of having more satisfaction from your career”. All ...
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In the corporate world, people often complain about too many emails. It is a modern-day challenge for sure, however, over the years I have noticed a few underlying causes and possible ...
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A few weeks back I was giving a talk at a big tech company about focusing on the vision. As usual, someone asked this basic question- “I don’t know what ...
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Everyone knows this interview tip: “Don’t bad mouth about your employer”. But interesting enough this happens quite often. I got some clue when I was talking to my client Tom ...
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Too many times companies send employees to trainings to fix the areas of weaknesses, we expect people to be well rounded to be successful. The fact is excellent performers are ...
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[Key point: I have described  how vision focus works as a great parenting tool for me. It not only helps to manage the current situation more gracefully, it gives a ...
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Time management is one of the topmost challenges for professionals. When they come to me, they want a solution to it. To be honest, I don't have a perfect answer ...
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When I ask “What do YOU want” people sometimes get confused.  Common responses are: "Wouldn't that be selfish"? "I always think about others, I put others needs ahead of me, ...
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I often ask this question to my clients and class participants: Describe some occasions from the recent past when you felt excited and fulfilled. The common responses I get are, ...
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“I don’t get it, how do people mix passion with their career? I do love to paint but I can’t even think of taking it as a career and doing it ...
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Last year, an engineer, let me call him Tom, came to me. He looked very tired and unhappy. “Sharmin, I am working long days, late nights, still my manager wants ...
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Common wisdom goes as we do paid work for money and volunteer work to fulfill other needs. Whatever we do, paid or volunteer work requires some commitment from our part ...
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The other day I was talking to an engineer from a big brand name company. I asked her, what is that she likes most in her job. She said when ...
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"Some people have lots of time in their hands", "I could have used the time for something more useful", "Let me check on Facebook/Internet/email quickly before I start doing my ...
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In my recent survey, an amazing 79% of people said that Managing-up/Self-promotion is the most challenging aspect of their work. I didn't expect it at all! I then started thinking about it ...
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Found this recently: Everyone lives at one of three levels in life: Survival, Success, and Significance.  Survival- You are living from week to week, looking forward to the weekends, vacations, ...
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If you are reading this you might be like many of us who suffer from procrastination. But don’t stop there - this is just the tip of the iceberg, the ...
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In January, the common topic of the office kitchen conversation is the New Year’s resolution. Until recently I never actually did much of planning for the year, so when asked ...
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Too many times I hear that you can’t survive without multitasking. Checking emails during a meeting, responding to a door knock while trying to focus on your work seems to ...
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