I’m leaning heavily on an article from cnbc.com by Claire Hughes Johnson entitled “I was VP at Google for 10 years. Here’s the No. 1 skill I looked for at job interviews—very few people had it.” What is this important, yet rare, quality? Self-awareness. Today, we delve into how interviewers check for self-awareness, how to recognize if you’re lacking in self-awareness, and how to build self-awareness.

I found this article from Heidi K. Gardner, Ph.D., who has discovered through more than a decade of teaching and research at Harvard’s business and law schools that people who figured out how to collaborate across teams gained a major competitive edge over those who did not. Dr. Gardner also discovered just how rare collaboration skills are. Today, we’re going to break down exactly what collaboration is, why it’s so important in today’s workforce, and outline the five aspects of being an exceptional collaborator.

This week, I want to talk about how to focus on the right things at work, using Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants. Let’s think about the Four Quadrants as a tool to manage our ACTIVITIES better — so we are focusing on the right things to get the results we are held accountable for achieving. My challenge for you in this area is this: After listening to this episode, decide to make a small — but significant shift — in one of the quadrants. A shift that will yield substantial results in terms of your productivity.

I talked in episode #268 about leading through a reduction in force — today I want to talk about the signs that your company might be about to do a RIF — and how to be prepared. We’ll discuss ARFO, some signs to look out for, and the red flags that tell you to look somewhere else immediately.

Once again, I am pulling from the book Leading with Emotional Intelligence by Reldan Nadler. In his book, Nadler talks about “The Perfection Loop” — the fact that success-driven people often set unrealistic goals that set them up for failure or frustration. Today, we’ll break down why people set unrealistic goals, the six stages of the Perfection Loop, some indicators that you’re in one, and how to counter it.

Today, we’re talking about leading through a Reduction in Force, or RIF. This episode isn’t just for people who have managerial duties, but also people who lead by influence.

A RIF period at a company is trying for everyone but it also provides a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership and empathy.

Transitioning from managing yourself to managing others — is this the route for you?

For those becoming first-time managers, there is a learning curve, with the biggest change being a shift to begin thinking about others. Let’s talk about the differences when moving from an individual contributor to a manager, issues that can arise and what to do to help, and how to set yourself up for success.

One of my all-time favorite leadership books – certainly the one with the most sticky tabs in it – is Reldan Nadler’s Leading with Emotional Intelligence. I’ve used this resource for other episodes of the podcast, and today I want to talk about tools for building your self-confidence — specifically, Being on Your Side rather than Being on Your Case. Or, as I like to call it, having your own back. While we’re specifically talking about your relationship with yourself in this episode, understand the consequences of that relationship to all the other relationships in your life. If you lead people, you will likely treat them as you treat yourself.

I have been re-reading the book Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work, by David Rock. One of his concepts jumped out at me, and I wanted to share it with you. Brain science tells us that, when we focus on a behavior we wish to change, we are actually cementing the neural pathway that was created when we began repeating that behavior in the first place. Once a neural pathway is created in our brain, it will always be there. The challenge is not to remove that pathway – we can’t – but rather create a new neural pathway through our thinking and beliefs. Today, we’ll walk through some examples and discuss how we can do this to improve our professional persona.

In this weirdest-of-all-possible-weird employment climates, a number of clients and prospects have reached out to ask about the need for additional education or credentials. I want to talk about this today in a way that, hopefully, will make it obvious for you to know the answer for yourself.

Here’s the bad news: You can’t change anyone but yourself. Here’s the best news ever: You can’t change anyone but yourself. I don’t know about you, but when I’m about to have a difficult conversation with someone, I tend to imagine all kinds of worst-case scenarios. As a result, I often avoided having those difficult conversations…which meant the situation and my feelings continued to fester. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can prepare yourself for these difficult conversations to maximize your chances for success.

A LOT is written about how to be a great leader. In today’s podcast, I wanted to distill this information down to the top 10 things you MUST know to be a successful leader.

Today, I’m sharing my 12 top career management tips for 2022. For this episode, I pulled information from Workitdaily.com and monstergulf.com.

The holidays are a time for family, rest, good food…a time to unplug from the hustle and grind that, for many of us, defines our work life the rest of the year. In the midst of that family time and relaxation, you have an opportunity to reflect and journal on your professional life. Review 2021 and set intentions for 2022. Here are six simple ways to help your career during the holidays.

This week's guest is Adriel Lubarsky of Riveterworks.com - an online community for job seekers. We talk about how to make the most of your unemployment, both personally and professionally.