Managers, Stress, and “Vagus.”
Nope, I did not spell that incorrectly. It’s time to take care of ourselves! Stress in the American workforce is a mental health crisis. As managers, we have people at work who depend on us, and that means to take care of them, we must take care of ourselves first. According to the American Psychological […]
Eight steps for hiring the best candidate and one Golden Rule.
The hiring process can be a daunting proposition for many managers. It is easy to focus on the dread of filling in the gaps when an employee leaves, knowing that you will have to take on an increased workload and manage many more people. However, filling that gap is an opportunity that I now take […]
What is, “The Power of Venn?”
My father was a mathematician, a professor of mathematics, a department chair, and a logician who solved algorithms. But this apple fell far from that tree. I have never been gifted in mathematics, but I have always been fascinated by the visual dynamism of mathematics. Venn diagrams have become a component of my personal and […]
Why should you ask for permission to fail?
Leaders bear a heavy burden to produce results. For a leader, managing risk in a risk-averse work environment can be a tricky proposition. So how does innovation affect results and how does risk affect innovation? Most managers and leaders avoid mid to higher-level risk propositions because it makes them vulnerable and fearful of failure or […]
A note from my younger self, with edits by my older self.
When I was recently cleaning out my emails, I found a note from June 2011 from my younger professional self. It must have been during the time of David Letterman as it is a top ten list that I created and used in a presentation about career development. Top Ten Tips for Managing Your Career […]
How do you get managerial experience without direct line management?
The number one question rising professionals ask me is: how exactly do I qualify for a role to manage people if every job I see reads managerial experience required and I don’t have any experience managing? For many independent contributors, the road to promotion is through managing others; however, managerial positions tend to require and […]
Most likely to ask powerful questions.
The tag line “Inquisitive Leader” might seem presumptuous so let me put it into context. One of my defining attributes as identified by my leadership team and many of their team members is my ability to ask probing questions. This past fall, I received a package in the mail and upon opening it I found […]
In my own words.
My life as a black a professional has required me to divorce myself from parts of who I am, and this point of societal inflection has provided me with the opportunity for pause and self-reflection. It has taken me much longer than I expected to compose my thoughts about where we find ourselves in the […]
