Welcome to our new Friday Column to give you workplace advice and coaching, “Dear Dana”! Every Friday I’ll be answering your letters outlining the challenges you have dealing with difficult bosses, challenging colleagues and other tough situations at work. Please write in and tell me about a...
Someone recently asked me for my secret to making a good hire and attracting talented employees. I had to admit that I’ve never considered myself particularly skilled at hiring, even though I’ve made some stellar hires - if I do say so myself - so I had to dig deep for some executive coaching...
Innovation so often happens in the unplanned places. This is something of a conundrum for many leaders whose manufacturing B-School heritage tells them that everything should be planned out, documented and accounted for. Innovation – like its sister creativity – cannot be planned, budgeted, shoved into a “retreat” or predicted. It happens in the shower and in the in-between spaces of life and work.
Leading innovation is difficult because you have to risk looking like a fool. But when the great leader looks beneath the surface of the failures innovative playtime produces, they often discover that in those failures are seeds of success. Sometimes it’s a specific idea that results, sometimes it’s just reenergized employees, which can pay back in employee creativity, retention and improved customer service.
Innovation is a personal skill too. Here are three things you can do to create space for innovation in your life.
What if everyone woke up one day and decided to lead from inside their power? We all can. All you have to do is set your intention. And do it.
Watch this great video more for inspiration on your journey.
As you may know by now, I’ve been on a research quest to understand why The Woman Effect is helping organizations and economies succeed when there is significant presence of women in leadership. My fourth (and final for now) finding turned out to be a happy surprise. In our search for leadership...
Over the past few months I’ve been hearing from clients and friends who struggle with a vague sense of dissatisfaction in their lives and careers. In most cases it’s not too tough to ferret out the source of work-life dissatisfaction; we scan our lives and find that we’re happy in life, but we...
The subject of women’s relationship to power is fascinating to me and in discussions with others I find the subject rich and deep for women and men alike. I see powerful women in some very distinct categories viewing power, leadership and success very differently, but but I believe that when we share our understanding of power across these divides, then we will tap into the collective power of WOMAN in our society.
It’s a fact, Ladies. The most fulfilling experience of our lives – nurturing little beings into wonderful adults – is statistically killing our careers. At least that’s what the data says. According to a 2010 study by Michelle Budig and Melissa Hodges of the Social and Demographic Research...
The bigger the organization you work in, the greater the likelihood that you’ll meet your demise in death-by-meeting. What a horrible way to go! And the worst part? All that pain and suffering – and it’s usually a crap shoot as to whether you’ll get through all the items on the agenda.
No. Actually, the worst part is when you end up running those meetings yourself!
Agendas are often useful for thinking through what you want to cover. But – having an agenda does not mean having a meeting worth everyone’s time to attend. How to avoid death-by-meeting when you’re in charge? Agenda or not, take the time to think through your intended outcome for the meeting.
To everyone but us, we were a power breakfast. Meeting early at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington DC, we were strategists behind an international organization representing 160 of the biggest companies and Non Governmental Organization (NGO) nonprofits in the world. The Director, on a trip...
