Office Hours: How to Self-Promote Without Feeling Like a Show-off
Talking yourself up when it’s expected, say, during a job interview, is one thing. But doing it during a team meeting or one-on-one with your boss can feel silly, phony, even slimy. As a result, many women don’t do it—and hold back their careers.
So how do you take credit for your work and feel authentic to yourself? Here, three executive women offer their advice: Read More
Office Hours: How to Own Up to a Mistake at Work
Admitting to a work screw-up is like knowing CPR. You want to be good at it, but not because you’ve had a lot of real-life practice. It’s also like CPR in the sense that the slower you are to act, the worse the outcome is likely to be.
To help you know what to do on the spot, we asked two senior executives—both have seen and heard it all—for their advice on the best way to own up to a mistake. Read More
Office Hours: What to Do When You Get a New Boss
Changes in management can be unsettling, whether they’re part of a major restructuring or due to just one person’s departure. We asked Suzanne Quigley, director of community and corporate responsibility at QVC and PA Conference for Women board member, for her advice on what to do when you get a new boss. Read More
Will You Face Downward Mobility When You Retire?
Many of us picture retirement as a time of ease. By then, the house will be paid off and the nest should be empty. Though there won’t be a paycheck to cover our bills, maintaining our lifestyle will cost less.
The reality, however, is often reduced circumstances. “Our current retirement plans, including 401(k)s and IRAs, have failed,” says Teresa Ghilarducci, economics professor at The New School for Social Research and author of How to Retire with Enough Money and How to Know What Enough Is. “Even the top 10 percent who make more than $100,000 save less than half of what they need.” Read More
5 Mantras for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Do Good
We all know how start-ups have been disrupting business, changing how we shop, bank, dine out, meet up and get around. From sector to sector, technology is removing inefficiencies, and as a result, our lives are more convenient and improved.
Yet one part of the start-up landscape that we don’t often hear about is the social enterprise space: for-profit companies that are using technology to help advance humankind. Read More
Thinking of Joining a Non-Profit Board?
About 20 years ago, when she worked for the Seattle Mariners, Gail Hunter reached out to the YMCA of Greater Seattle about joining its board. “My family had been members forever and it was a big part of my childhood,” says Hunter, now vice president of public affairs and event management for the Golden State Warriors. “I wanted to give back.”
But expanding your network, acquiring new skills or even giving your résumé a boost are all fine reasons for wanting to join a non-profit board, according to Hunter. That is, “as long as you are willing to do the work,” she says. “Organizations need their board members to be committed and active.” Read More
3 Things You Need to Know About Failure
If the thought of your biggest mistakes or failures makes you want to throw up, you’re certainly not alone. That’s how school teacher Jessica Lahey still feels when talking about the first draft of her New York Times best-selling book.
“My editor said it was unpublishable and wanted to bring in a ghost writer,” says Lahey, who wangled a second chance, and after a lot of hard work, redeemed herself—and her writing. Read More
Office Hours: Candid Answers to Your Pressing Career Questions
Two of the most accomplished executives you’ll ever meet, Marian Heard and Margaret McKenna aren’t just founts of business and management wisdom. As female trailblazers who were often the only woman in the room, they are also experts at handling workplace-culture and gender-bias issues. Over the years they’ve shared their experience and advice as mentors to women, and at the most recent Conferences, they fielded questions from attendees in breakout sessions that really got people buzzing.
What attendees especially appreciated were the candor as well as the humor of Heard, former president and CEO of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and CEO of United Ways of New England, and McKenna, former president of Walmart Foundation and president emeritus of Lesley University. Listen for yourself to the podcasts from Philadelphia, Austin and Boston, or read a sampling of their answers, edited for clarity and brevity, below. Afterward, please submit your burning career questions to [email protected] We’ll be publishing answers from Heard, McKenna and other women leaders in future newsletters. Read More