3 Steps to Landing Your First Job: Advice for Recent Grads
As we head into graduation season, most grads-to-be are feeling a mixture of anticipation and anxiety as they prepare to launch into the real world. But there’s a percentage who likely have another emotion blended in: panic. If you are graduating this spring and still job hunting, it can seem as though everyone else has […]
The Rise of Fancy Friday: Why Experiences at Work Matter
In today’s “pictures or it didn’t happen” world, millennials are all about experiences. In fact, three-quarters of young people would choose to spend their money on an experience rather than buying something, according to a study by Eventbrite and Harris. That doesn’t seem surprising when you consider other data we know about millennials – that […]
How to Recover from a Major Work Fail
It happens to everyone. Without fail. The #workfail. In a recent post on soft skills, I shared why it’s so important to own up to a mistake at work. In my experience, other people remember how you handle a mistake, not the fact that you messed up. ‘Fessing up fast, resisting finger-pointing, and fixing your […]
Your Favorite Productivity Trick Is Actually Slowing You Down
I bet I know what you’re doing right now. You’re reading this post, singing along to the “Hamilton” soundtrack and composing a text on your phone. If you’re a level 5 multitasker, you may also be chopping up a salad for dinner or running on the treadmill, too. You’re a productivity ninja, right? Here’s the […]
Millennial Turnover: Why Employee Retention Is No Longer Realistic
The proverbial retirement-after-40-years-with-a-gold-watch-and-pension are as passé as, well, a gold watch — or any watch, really, that doesn’t track your vitals and read your texts. Another relic? The very idea of lifelong employment at one organization. Instead, today there is an overriding belief that if you stay too long at one company, people will wonder […]
The Not-So-Secret Skills Every Young Professional Needs
Lately, I’ve been hearing a common theme from managers of millennials. They’re hiring you for your record of strong performance, and you deliver. But two little words are holding you back: soft skills. Most professional newbies are unaware of a paradigm shift that happens when you segue from school to the workplace. Your whole life […]
Why Day One Matters
As companies look to the spring hiring season, many leaders are focused on how to attract the best and brightest millennials. If you’re planning to bring on new hires, it’s important to think past the moment the offer is accepted and seriously consider what the first few days and weeks on the job will look […]
5 Must-Know Tips for Working with Your Friends
We often think about workplace relationships in terms of buzzword-y concepts like “mentor” or “networking.” But most of us realize our work squad should also include workplace friends — someone you can grab lunch with or commiserate over a work fail. I’ve met some great friends at work through the course of my career, particularly in […]
Confessions of a Gen X Manager
Lately at speaking events I’ve been hearing some complaints from Millennials about their Gen X bosses. Because Gen Xers are only a few years older than Millennials, the younger group is often surprised that members of the older cohort — my contemporaries — aren’t always as supportive and attentive as millennials might want or expect. […]
What’s Your Word of the Year? Here are Five Words to Get You Started.
Many professionals I know choose a “word of the year” that becomes their mantra and focus for 12 months. My personal word for 2016? “Simplify.” To incorporate this concept into my life, I’ve been reading books like Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and — of course — Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic […]