When Labels Replace People Every time we define someone by one word, one opinion, or one bad moment, we turn a complicated person into a simple story. This happens often in stressful workplaces. A coworker gets labeled “difficult,” “lazy,” “arrogant,” “negative,” or “incompetent.” Once that label sticks, we start judging everything the person does through
Discernment Is Not the Same as Judgment Read More »
Listen to How You Describe Yourself Pay attention to how you answer when someone asks what you do, what you are proud of, or where you are going. Do you speak with confidence, or immediately make your accomplishments sound smaller? We often say things like, “I’m just trying something,” or “It’s nothing major,” before anyone
Stop Asking for Permission to Be Proud of Yourself Read More »
Vulnerability Is Not Weakness Vulnerability in leadership does not mean crying in every meeting or sharing every detail of your private life. Sometimes it is simply saying, “I made a mistake,” “I don’t know,” or “I need help.” It can also mean being honest when something personal is affecting you at work without sharing all
What Vulnerability Really Means for a Leader Read More »
Activity Is Not the Same as Value One of the biggest career mistakes I can make is assuming people automatically understand the value of my work. Saying, “I manage a team,” only describes an activity. It does not explain what my leadership produces. Do I improve performance, develop employees, solve problems, or reduce turnover? Those
The Work Is Not the Work—The Impact Is Read More »
When Being Capable Creates Too Many Choices Experience can create an unexpected career problem: too many reasonable choices. After years of solving problems, managing people, leading projects, and working across departments, I may qualify for several different roles. That flexibility is valuable, but it can also blur my direction. I can read ten job descriptions
Just Because I Can Do It Does Not Mean I Should Read More »
Workers Are Already Feeling the Fear Artificial intelligence is changing work faster than anyone can confidently predict where it will lead. A 2026 Modern Health survey shows that AI is creating real anxiety in the workplace. Nearly seven in ten employees expect AI-related layoffs within three years, and almost half worry that their own job
AI May Take Some Jobs, but Companies Are Learning What Humans Were Doing Read More »
What Uber’s Layoffs Signal In September 2026, Uber announced about 3,300 job cuts, roughly 10 percent of its workforce. The company said it had too many layers, too much coordination, and too many small teams. It reduced management layers and widened the number of employees reporting to individual managers. The message was clear: companies are
The Manager Title Is Losing Its Armor Read More »
Success Was Always Pointing Up For much of my working life, success meant climbing. Employee became manager, manager became director, and each new title seemed to promise more money, influence, and respect. But advancement and fulfillment are not the same thing. A person can move higher in an organization while moving farther from the life
The Ladder Was Never the Life Read More »
Three Men, One Drug Test Three employees refused the same drug test on the same day and were fired. DeMarkus Hall and Eddie Hughes, who are Black, were not rehired. Their White coworker, Brandon Ramsey, asked to return and was allowed back the very next workday. That difference became central to a race discrimination and
The Rule Is Not Always the Whole Story Read More »
When I First Heard About It When I first heard the phrase “dead peasant insurance,” I thought it sounded made up. The legal term is corporate-owned life insurance, or COLI. Companies have long used these policies to insure executives and other key employees, but some also extended them to large numbers of ordinary workers. That
When Your Employer Takes Out Life Insurance on You Read More »