A buzz word I'm hearing and seeing a lot these days is "Growth Mindset." In this episode, I define a growth mindset and compare it to a fixed mindset, and give you 10 strategies for developing a growth mindset.

In this episode, I give some definitions of imposter syndrome, what imposter syndrome looks like, and nine strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome.

Here’s the scenario: You’ve been promoted in your current unit. You are now mnaging people who used to be your peers - at least one of whom may have also applied for the promotion. How do yo transition from a colleague to a manager? Here are nine suggstions for leading those you used to work alongside.

Last week, I focused on Verbal Communications Skills to Enhance Promotability; today I’m covering Written Communication Skills - with the same goal in mind. I’m giving you an assessment - questions to ask yourself, as well as specific strategies to improve an area of your written communication skills.

Today, I want to give you strategies to improve your verbal communication skills - specifically, with an eye to enhancing your promotability. I’m giving you an assessment of your verbal communication skills, as well as four areas of communication where people tend to struggle, and strategies to help improve each area.

Body language, or nonverbal communication, can make or break your interview. No matter what is coming out of your mouth, a trained interviewer will pay attention to what you are saying with your facial expressions, arms, posture, and general demeanor. If what you are saying is at odds with your body language, a trained interviewer will believe your body language. The caveat here: Be yourself. Here then, are 11 tips for conveying appropriate body language during a job interview.

Today, I’m diving into 14 reasons why people fail to prepare themselves for a successful attempt at a promotion. For the purposes of this episode, I’m talking specifically about internal promotions – although many, if not all, of these strategies will apply if you are seeking a higher position with a new company.

Today, I want to talk about how to improve your time management and productivity as a key way to increase your chances for promotion. If you’re like many people, you may role your eyes at the term “time management.” If you’re structured and organized, you may think you’ve already mastered time management. If you are unstructured and disorganized, you may think it’s hopeless…a skill beyond your ability to master. Here are my top 12 strategies to improve your time management. In each instance, I’m giving you some of my tips as to how I implement that strategy.

From time to time on this podcast, I will mention a free resource available to you via my website. Today, I thought I would go over all those resources for you. As a reminder, the URL is exclusivecareercoaching.com.

This week, I wanted to give you a peek inside my coaching practice…to pull the curtain back, Wizard of Oz-style. Sure, I mention the various things I do with clients throughout episodes, but I’ve never given you the full tour. Here we go.

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.

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.

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.

Today, I want to delve into the three biggest mistakes I see people making in their attempts to brand themselves – as well as the solution. First, we’ll talk about why personal branding is important, then break down the mistakes I see most often, wrapping up with the solution, accompanied by some examples.

Here’s a fact: for most of us, and the companies in which we work, career development is rarely a priority. There are too many urgent matters to attend to every day…and career planning takes a back seat. So today, we’re talking about what might be holding back your career development — and how to help.

For some of you, you may want help with your goal. For others of you, you may want to make a job or even a career change this year. For still others, you may want to position yourself for success in your current role. These are all great reasons to hire a coach, so I wanted to dedicate an episode to helping you find the right coach for you.

Let me start by saying I’m a planning geek. Goals and strategies excite me, and I love realizing the aggressive goals I set for myself. Today, I’m inviting you to pick an area of your professional life that you would like to see massive change in. We’ll work together to create a plan to make it happen!

A question recently came up about 30/60/90-day plans, so today, I’d like to convey this information to you. These plans are fairly common at the director level and above. There are two possible scenarios for such a plan: When you are in the interviewing phase, and when you are new in the position. We’ll discuss both and break down how to outline and present this plan in a professional environment.

I came across this concept of Ikigai recently – the Japanese answer to a life of purpose. In practice, this concept of Ikigai is a lifestyle, which the Japanese live somewhat instinctively. Today’s podcast is drilling down on this a bit further. I recommend journaling your answers to these questions if you are seeking your professional purpose…thinking about a significant career shift but you aren’t sure to what…looking for your Ikigai.