The Trouble with Success

Given the choice between career success and career failure I’ll likely take success. Heck I’m like anyone else; who do you know who hates succeding?

The trouble with success – one of many – is that most of your learning comes from the bumps of failure, not the sweetness of accomplishment. The biggest derailer in my experience as an executive coach is a lack of smaller mistakes and failure early in someone’s career.… Read the rest

Your Career: How to Make a Comeback

Comebacks, from Carly Fiorina (and Jerry Brown), to Mickey Drexler, Henry Blodget, Martha Stewart, and even Steve Jobs, are in full form and fashion these days. What do all these people tell us? They tell us that you can make mistakes, get sacked, and like the nine-lived cat still return to center stage another day.

Hit a career bump (or mountain) or two?… Read the rest

[Coaching Tips] How to Say Thanks (and When and Why)

The gift fruit basket from Wendy and Richard Yanowitch was over the top, but it was really the simple handwritten card expressing what I had done and their thanks for my behavior that hit the bulls eye. Their thank you letter, as my friend Cathy Madison at Cathedral School for Boys might saw, “was a keeper.”

The next day at the school bus stop Lola’s mom, Charley Zechas, totally out of blue turned to me and said “I like having you at our bus stop.… Read the rest

[High Potential Employees] How Do You Choose the Chosen Few?

The question from my client was common: who do you spend limited resources  for coaching and development of high potential employees? And, even harder, how do you know it’s money well spent?

The  takeaway from working in and around corporations for almost 30 years is that most of the efforts spent on high potential employees – employees who their employer has deemed as having the skills, abilities, and interest to move to more senior positions with the corporation – is a waste.… Read the rest