It’s Risky Business to say WTF - but so worth it.

One of my favorite phrases is WTF (usually not the PG version), and my favorite time to say it is when I’ve been thinking about doing something risky. Typically it’s not as risky as it feels - typically my biggest risks are losing my comfort and pride. But saying WTF has a way of catapulting me into something new and uncertain.

For those of us who remember Risky Business, there’s the famous scene that starts with Joel saying he doesn’t want to make a mistake and jeopardize his future, and then his friend says, “Every now and then, say WTF. WTF gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.” 

I know how Joel feels at the beginning of that scene, don’t you? …Those moments when we are faced with an opportunity that could be a mistake and it feels like we’re putting our future at risk. 

So how do we channel those moments into a...

My oldest daughter is a freshman in high school. She’s tried a variety of sports but despite all my best efforts, she never really cared about any of them. Then recently, she developed an interest in Crew. As in – Rowing. Probably the only sport my husband and I know nothing about. 

She started talking about Crew in 8th grade and 6 months later, we’ve learned what this will mean in time, energy and money. It’s an investment for sure. When I ask her, “Why Crew?” she shrugs her shoulders and says she thinks she’d like it. 

It was a similar experience last year when my middle daughter said she wanted to play electric guitar. She was 11 at the time and this came out of nowhere. When I asked her why she wanted to play, she shrugged her shoulders and said she thought it would be fun.

We see this often with kids: they find something fun to do that’s also meaningful for them and they think, “That would be fun;...

Let’s say you have a brilliant new idea for the business. You tell people about it and they love it. They say they’ll do stuff to help make it happen but then, with all the other day-to-day needs and priorities, very little to nothing actually happens. We’ve all been down this road before. It’s normal. It’s also frustrating.

It begs the question of why some people’s ideas happen and others don’t. Is it because of the quality of the idea? …the urgency of it? …the authority of the person who presents it? Maybe… but we’ve all seen great ideas presented with urgency by a person in authority, and it still doesn’t happen.  

What if how we set the stage is the determining factor to gaining real buy-in?

Setting the stage starts long before you make the big presentation about it. First, you need to strategize who your key players are and then talk with them in a way that they can genuinely get on board with...

I came down with the flu two weeks ago. I’ve been indoors and living on my couch and just discovered that Spring has arrived, which means now all my allergies are kicking in. I feel slow and am unproductive. It’s frustrating. But I’ve had this feeling before, even when I’m not sick. I bet we’ve all had those moments of slow, unproductive, not-quite-ourselves… when our confidence takes a hit and we lose our footing… can’t quite seem to get back to normal. Some of us make it to 30 without experiencing this but none of us get to 40 without a few days or weeks of it.

I call this losing your mojo.

Just for the heck of it, I googled the definition of mojo and found some other definitions… so when I say mojo, to be clear - I don’t mean libido or synthetic marijuana. I mean good luck, charm or skill that seems to come from something magical or supernatural. When we’re doing great at work and in life, it...

When I left my job at the end of 2016, I did so on faith. This is the story of my journey and with it, a formula for taking risks.

The year leading up to my decision to leave was an emotional one. I’d spent an entire career with one company. I loved the company’s mission, my job, my colleagues and our clients so it was unsettling for me – at the beginning of 2016 – to realize that I was really unhappy. I tried to see the light at the end of the tunnel; I talked to the right people about it and got positive feedback, but after many months of trying to see a future for myself there, I just couldn’t. The only thing to do was to leave.

I am not someone who leaves. I don’t quit. So this word, leave – while it brought with it a clarity that I had been seeking – was totally unexpected. It gave me clarity… but no relief. The thought of leaving opened a list of new questions:

Where do I go?  Don’t know.

What do I do? No clue.

The Rolling Stones say, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.” But I think The Stones are wrong. You can totally get the career you want, and in the process, you can also get what you need. But get ready because a career change is almost always a world-rocking experience.

When embarking on a career change, confidence is either built up or knocked out, and truth be told, it’s usually a bit of both along the way. It can be a lonely, confusing time. What will shape your experience along this journey (which can take months or years) is how you approach it and how you manage your mind in the process. If done well, you’ll land where your passion is alive again and your work is a natural expression for you.

Through my own experience and the experiences of people I coach, I have found a few key action items that most help the beginning of a career transition:

Write your dream job. Make it a...