Publications

As Bill Gates says—everybody needs a coach. In fact, the need and demand for it have increased during the pandemic. Coaching involves the belief that the client has the answers to their own problems within them. The coach is not a subject matter expert, but rather focuses on helping clients unlock their own potential. In coaching, clients find their own solutions by answering in-depth, individualized questions posed by their coach. The questions help clients identify different perspectives and solutions to an issue.

It is every job seeker’s worst nightmare. You are interviewing for your ideal position and like Murphy’s Law, everything that can go wrong goes wrong. There are countless interview faux pas: you arrive late to the interview; your cell phone rings; you were tongue-tied or babbled while answering a critical question or mispronounced the interviewer’s name. Mistakes happen but you can attempt to avoid most blunders.

After being very accomplished and well established in her career, Sheryl Sandberg became a public figure by publishing Lean In:  Women, Work and the Will to Lead (“Lean In”).  Ms. Sandberg theorizes that women hold themselves back from reaching high power positions because of gender bias, lack of self-confidence, and the difficult choices women must make when balancing family and career.  Throughout her book, Ms. Sandberg encourages women to “lean in” to their professional lives.  In fact, the “book makes the case for leaning in, for being ambitious in any pursuit.”[i]  I contend that both women and men should apply some of the principles set forth in Ms. Sandberg’s book Lean In to their job search.

As the holidays approached, I wanted to shed some unwanted weight and start the New Year as a New Me.  Like most tasks, I looked for a quick and easy way to drop the pounds.  After a failed search for a magic weight-loss pill on the Internet and at the drug store, I finally spoke with personal trainers at my local gym who told me that there was no easy fix to my big problem:  I needed to follow a weight loss plan, which required limited calories, exercise, and discipline.

In Melissa Nelson v. James H. Knights DDS, P.C. and James Knight,[1] the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that “a female employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction.”[2]  Putting aside the questionable legal theory of the opinion, this appalling decision threatens the progress women have made over the last few decades.