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Showing posts from October, 2011

The Bermuda Triangle Approaches

There are those who say that the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day are the Bermuda Triangle. It seems appropriate on Diwali to make some plans for this great time of year. Days are shorter, triggering SAD: seasonal affective disorder and getting folks excited about vacations to Key West and places warm and sunny. Now is the time to write down the names of those who inspire our gratitude and to think about how you might thank them this year. It could be as simple as a card, a call, a brief visit to have a cup of tea. It's the thoughtfulness of the interaction that we most remember, rather than the cost or value of the gift. Beyond being the right human thing to do, this is the time to reach out to mentors and your support network so that you make the choices that are most in line with who you want to be. There's a lot more alchohol and free sugar around this time of year. And people can get lonely too: so add a little more dash of thoughtfulness and su

And then, there's family

It's a curious thing that I've never contemplated or covered how we weave our family relationships into our work lives. So allow me a pit stop there. It's complicated. We all say "family comes first." And yet, does it really? Many of us have parents who made sure there was food to eat and shelter. To do that, they had to be absent sometimes during what were critical moments of our lives. Today's career hungry strategist has made the choice to miss even more of those family moments to gain the next promotion, to jostle to the top, to make the mark, to meet the deadline. I'd be inauthentic in saying I have a model sense around balancing this critical work-related challenge. How do you balance being a responsible, kind, supportive and appropriate family member, while honoring work responsibilities and building a successful career? The answer is completely individual, I suppose, and depends on the level of responsibility assumed at work AND at home. Comm