Mar 29
0

Quitting vs Letting Go: The Enemies List

By | Executive Coaching | 3 Comments

Five years ago I walked out of my corner office and my role as CEO in an information services company to start a new work life. The reasons were many, some push, some pull, but they’re not important now. What is important is to acknowledge that the transition came with as many lessons about my own personal foibles as it did about starting and running a small business. I found admitting the business mistakes was far easier than admitting the hard truths about my own strengths and weaknesses; after all, I used to have people to take care of “my” accounting and “my” IT and “my” marketing. It was natural and easy to admit that I needed to learn how to…

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Mar 15
0

Lazy Brains

By | Executive Coaching, Leadership, Management | No Comments

The corporate acquisition had barely been finalized when the divisional CEO – my boss – called to discuss moving one of the operating units from the new company into the company I ran. “Kathi,” he argued, “it makes perfect sense. Most of their clients are media companies, like your clients. But their profits have been slowly and steadily declining over the past few years. I think this move could energize the employees and benefit the products they offer by reexamining them from a syndicated research mindset. Think about it. But I firmly believe it is the right move.” I was new. I had much to learn about the business I was running and I needed to give him an answer quickly….

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Mar 01
3

Bias vs. Behavior: What Explains Gender Differences at Work?

By | Executive Coaching, Gender issues in work, Leadership, Management | 3 Comments

The Harvard Business Review published a fascinating article last fall that hasn’t, in my opinion, received enough media attention: “A Study Used Sensors to Show That Men and Women are Treated Differently at Work.” S. Turban, L. Freeman. And B. Waber, October 23, 2017. Citing data that reports women are underrepresented in the C-suite, receive lower salaries and are less likely to get that first promotion to manager, they set out to investigate the question: do women and men act all that differently at work and, therefore, do behavioral differences drive these sorts of career outcomes? They used a large, multi-national business strategy firm to do their research. In this company, women made up 35-40% of the entry-level workforce but a…

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