Adding coaching to a leadership practice is a powerful way to support diversity and inclusion, creativity, autonomy, and leadership development. To do so successfully requires believing in the potential of the team, one’s ability to draw it out, and the idea that there’s always more to learn.

Psychological safety is more of an “I know it when I see it” kind of thing than something you can easily define. It encompasses how we show up and how we respond to countless small moments every day. When in doubt, ask yourself, “Am I being open, self-aware, and intentional?” And try your best.

The trouble with being The Nice Boss or The Good Employee is that, while their intentions might appear wholesome on the surface, their impact can be anything but. Prioritizing 'nice' can lead to toxic positivity, savior complexes, commitment issues, and burnout. It’s possible to stay kind while embracing reality for effective leadership.

Simply declaring you’re good at things can sometimes be tricky. But not being clear on your strengths comes with a cost, not only in self-confidence but in your ability to focus on work that will help you find the kind of success that comes most naturally to you. Discover three ways to uncover your strengths as simple facts that provide evidence that they’re real, are a part of who you are, and deserve to be recognized.

Love them or hate them, it’s almost inevitable you’ll be asked to respond to three basic job interview questions. Here’s how to get ready to answer with confidence.

Job. hunting is not a straightforward endeavor, and it’s not just the logistics, it the feelings. The work we do is a major part of our lives, whether we like it or not. So it’s important to remember that at the center of every choice is you.

If work has you feeling dissatisfied, undervalued, uninspired, or annoyed to the point where you just can’t take it anymore, but quitting isn’t an option, there are a few things you can do to keep your cool until you can make a change.

You’ve decided to leave your job. Congratulations! Now it’s time to face the major undertaking of finding a new one. Job hunting isn’t much fun to start with, and when you’re trying to get out of a bad situation, a negative point of view can make it even harder. But there are some simple things you can do to make it more manageable, show up strong in your interviews to land the gig, and leave your current job with grace.

The truth is there will always be something else to do. Imagine ditching that bossy to-do list and replacing it with a celebration of what you managed to accomplish on your own.

Interviews are usually stressful, totally unnatural exchanges — it’s nearly impossible to perform perfectly. Instead of worrying about having the perfect answer to every possible question, focus on the perfect answers to describe what you bring to the table overall.

Burnout happens when your output exceeds your resources, and that generally means your mental and psychological resources — your energy, insight, compassion, skills. Those resources — and your energy in particular — are finite.

It may feel like your talent, and the skills you worked so hard to hone, are suddenly going to waste when you move into leadership. But your personal experience in developing those skills, and being led, will prove to be even more valuable when you start to see yourself as a guide, just a few steps ahead on the path.

The key not only to autism awareness, but acceptance, is to endeavor to try to understand as best we can.

Empathy isn’t a mindset or characteristic, it’s an exercise in actively seeking to understand other people’s experiences. Included here are tips for people who work with, live with, teach, care for, or love someone with autism who’d like to grow empathy for them.

20 years ago, audience understanding meant learning about and embracing your ideal consumer’s behavior before, during and after the moment they may or may not choose your product or service. With the rise of social media, marketing professionals had to figure out a whole new kind of behavior as they were designing the media for that behavior. Now, marketers need to know all of that and be able to develop even more authentic emotional bonds with consumers relating not only to their products, but the state of the world itself.

Studies show that 20% of businesses no longer exist after the first year, 30% after the second. That’s a lot of baby businesses still plugging away out there. The lessons I learned my first year, things like finding support and figuring out how to manage my time, were such valuable fundamentals, I share them with my clients now. In year two, however, things got a little more nuanced.

There’s official communication and gossip and innuendo and straight talk. And then there’s what we all actually go ahead and do. As a 20-year communications professional, I’ll be the first to say well-composed words don’t matter if what you’re actually doing is bad (or really good! It works both ways). The subtle ways we behave often send the most powerful messages.

Emotional intelligence isn’t the alpha and omega of diversity, equity and inclusion, just one necessary ingredient. If it isn’t a part of your DEI efforts, it should be to create common ground, and break down the individual skills we all need to make progress not just more accessible, but more possible.

I have yet to experience or hear of a review process that wasn’t somehow at least a little messed up, so the most important thing is to remember that what you’re being asked to engage in is not natural, so knowing how to manage it instinctively and doing so perfectly shouldn’t be your expectation. Instead, aim for doing your best with minimal damage if you’re in a bad spot, and forming a closer connection if you’re in a pretty good one.

The departure of these women among the Great Resignation isn’t going to go well for the companies they’re leaving behind. As their fellow volunteer co-leaders of the Employee Resource Groups quit, the ones still there won’t have any energy left to fill the gaps anymore. They are too tired from keeping their families alive and educated and protecting their employees from executive decisions being made on what often seems like a whim. They’ve given so much to everyone else they are finding themselves incapable of rescuing themselves. It is beyond burnout. It’s shutting down. And when they find their way out, they’re not going to go back.