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!

I wanted to revisit a topic I covered way back in episode #82 on how to answer the “Tell me about yourself” interview question. Because the “tell me about yourself” question is asked first if it is asked at all, it holds considerable weight in the interviewer’s mind. It also gives you the opportunity to start the interview off on the best possible foot. Today, I wanted to go over how I coach my clients to answer this question.

My guest today is Dr. Amy Mednick, a New York City psychiatrist who specializes in the overlap between the humanities in neuroscience. Today, Amy and I talk about Zoom fatigue — what is it, why is it so prevalent, and the warning signs you want to pay attention to. We also talk about how to make Zoom meetings more humanizing if you are in charge.

This week, I have a return guest — Robert Jordan. Robert is CEO of Interim Execs, which matches interim, project, and fractional executives with opportunities. Today, we’re talking about the role of an interim executive — and who is the right fit for these types of opportunities. Robert shares the characteristics he looks for in interim executives and how you can best present yourself for these roles.

Each year since the inception of this podcast in 2017, I have done a Five Unusual Things to Be Thankful For episode during Thanksgiving week. The purpose is two-fold: to get you thinking about the things in your life that you could look at differently – and to show gratitude for those things that maybe didn’t feel so good at the time they were happening.

Not all job searches should look alike — and the important thing is that you launch the type of job search that makes the most sense for you. Today, we’re breaking down passive and active job searching, and how to split up your time based on the time and urgency of your job search.

Okay…I’m determined not to get mushy here, but I do want to take a moment to congratulate myself on the exciting accomplishment of releasing 250 podcast episodes. Today, we’ll cover the story of how I got started in podcasting, challenging my beliefs of scarcity, and I’ll give you four tips for doing the same for yourself.

I have recently finished Jen Sincero’s book, You Are a Badass. One of the chapters in the book is on “The Almighty Decision,” and I wanted to dive into this topic for this episode. We’ll talk about the process of decision-making, what stands in your way, and Sincero’s tips on this topic.

This week my guest is Marcelle Yeager of Career Valet, and we’re talking about navigating remote work. Our focus is on managing and being managed in “the new world order” with in-office, remote, and hybrid employees all working together. We also cover how to ensure you are setting yourself up for success as a remote worker — and how, if you are a manager, you can set your employees up for success in a remote environment.

Our guest today is Katrina McGhee, and we are diving into the idea of taking a career break. NOT a run-away-as-fast-as-you-can because you hate your job, but a planned, strategic break with goals. Katrina tells us her career break story and how she has coached more than 50 clients to have successful career breaks. We also delve into how to successfully “re-enter” your career after your break.

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.

Today, we’re talking about the basics of networking. This is especially for those of you who a) avoid networking like a root canal, b) describe your networking skills as “terrible;” and c) those of you who think networking is not necessary to land your dream job or advance your career. Here’s a quote I used on a previous podcast: “The opposite of networking is NOT working.”

You have connections on LinkedIn – LinkedIn calls these 1st-level connections. The people you are already connected with. Each of your connections has connections – LinkedIn calls these 2nd-level connections. Why would you want to do this? Because it significantly expands your network. And, because these people are connected to someone you may know, you can reach out to your mutual connection and ask them to introduce you. So, today, I’ll be explaining this technique so you can leverage your connections’ connections.

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.

Today’s episode is on how to ask for interview feedback. I hear from you about your frustration in not getting feedback from your job interviews. Without concrete information, you are left to make assumptions – and for some of you, that means you beat yourself up for your “failure.” The message I intend for you to hear in this episode is this: Waiting until after you’ve been eliminated as a candidate is too late to ask for feedback.

Let’s face it: we’re navigating uncharted waters when it comes to the job search these days. So much has changed, and we’re seeing clients struggle to be successful in their job search.

Presenting this information in a Problem/Solution format, today we’ll cover what’s tripping up job seekers up and my recommendations for how to address each issue.

Each leadership style has its strengths, although some are seen as more desirable. It’s important to understand and harness the strengths of your leadership style so you can communicate effectively and motivate your team. That’s why this week we are diving into the 9 leadership styles and how to use the strengths of each to boost your leadership skills and, in doing so, helping your team succeed.

The usual cadence of hiring is this: The biggest push of the year occurs mid-January through March; the second-biggest push occurs after Labor Day until early- to mid-November. So let’s go with there being one more chance to get hired in 2022. This episode will help you get in good job-searching shape for if you’ve been searching for a while, or even if you just started looking, by providing some active job search options you can throw into your search strategy.

This week, I’m talking about the stages of group development — what is necessary (and inevitable) for a team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results. This work is based on the research of Bruce Tuckman from 1965, who hypothesized that, along with these factors, interpersonal relationships would create an effective group function.

A difficult employee is a term used to describe a person who acts in a careless, unprofessional, or irresponsible manner in the workplace. It is easy to get into a victim/villain mode with a difficult employee—thinking that they are intentionally doing the things they are doing to “get you” as the boss. This type of thinking puts you as the supervisor in a helpless, disempowering position with the difficult employee having power over you. So, how do we manage difficult employees? Let’s talk about it.