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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 and stakeholders. So naturally, all these require her to start with very little information and mainly with a vague concept. “Dealing with ambiguity” is her everyday norm at work. So even though she is usually good at delivering such projects, it initially takes a toll on her. “I get overwhelmed, I lose sleep, I procrastinate, then I get stressed out from the pressing and looming asks hanging over my head,” were her words when I talked to her last week.…
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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 fulfilled. As she inquired about my own career transition, I shared an article I had written. To my surprise, she responded, “You were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time!” Her interpretation couldn’t be further from the truth. But it made me realize how often we perceive others’ lives as easier than our own. One of the reasons could be the prevailing culture of constant showcasing of our accomplishments and accolades, fearing that acknowledging our…
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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 experience and position, and the process can generate leadership development impacts that exceed what’s possible in one-on-one coaching.” Building upon this idea, last June, we launched the Tech Leads Coaching Circle for mid-level leaders and seasoned professionals in the tech industry to foster a supportive and collaborative learning environment. We were pleased to see that our initial cohort included a diverse range of professionals, including a few staff-level senior engineers, an engineering manager, a product manager, and a business leader with international experience, all bringing unique perspectives and expertise to…
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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 in their careers, they accelerated their success more sustainably when they recognized and overcame such patterns. I have summarised the five main ones here. Misconception 1: Starting with Others’ Expectations We often start with what is expected of us and then comply with those – giving our time and talent in exchange for money, status, and validation. This mindset works for jobs mainly requiring manual labor and physical presence at the worksite. However, as knowledge workers and leaders, we must…
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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 out that’s just how our brains work. When we tell ourselves not to do something, our brains don’t know what to do with that information. So instead of ignoring what we’re trying to avoid, our minds focus on it even more. There’s a name for this phenomenon: Ironic mental control. Our brains have two systems for controlling our thoughts and behaviors. The first system directs our attention and actions toward our goals, while the second system monitors us for errors.…
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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 delivering those workshops has been very fulfilling and meaningful for me. As I reflected, it hit me that I envisioned something like this about 8-9 years ago, and that vision is a reality now! Even though I delivered many webinars and workshops over the years, that original vision is still a powerful reminder. But, very rarely, we think of a goal like that. Especially during the beginning of the year, goals and resolutions are hyper-focus for many of us. The…
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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 to humility – it contradicts our values, yet managing up is essential for reward and recognition. Over the years, I learned that it might feel more altruistic if we see it as helping our managers and others do their job better. When I became a manager for the first time at a large corporation, I got a new team from another division. Since it was close to the annual review time, their previous manager prepared their performance data for me to submit…
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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 Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery while making a case for mastery and continuous improvement over those milestones we revere so greatly. Recently Stacy Abrams gave us a masterclass on turning failure into powerful learning. After her highly contested, narrow-margin defeat in the 2018 gubernatorial race, she focused on organizing at the grassroots level. Two years later, it resulted in Joe Biden’s historic win in Georgia. Abrams captured the process in her book (After the loss) “I’ve made myself…
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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 was exceptionally nice for a Seattle morning; the temperature was mild, and the sky was clear with the golden rays of sun sparkling on 84th avenue, my usual walking route. After a small talk, I asked Katherine how she was doing at the new job she had started recently. “I am not there yet; I need to start making some boundaries for all my responsibilities, my work, my children, my parents…” she started. My question just hit the center of…
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How To Think Of Your Career Growth, Agile or Waterfall?
Anyone familiar with software development knows agile is the way to go when developing new software or a product. But when it comes to a career, what does it mean? I didn’t think about it until that moment when I was in the middle of a coaching session with a senior technology leader of a Fortune 500 company. Let’s call him Peter. Peter was planning a transition, leaving his corporate VP job and starting doing something on his own in about a two-year timeframe. But he was getting frustrated that he didn’t know what it would be, and he couldn’t make any progress because he didn’t know “it.” It sounded…
