I remember my first résumé. I think it looked a little random, with lots of sweet-teenager factoids. I included my parent’s address and phone number and typed it on an extra-nice piece of paper. No typos, which took several careful attempts on the typewriter. Luckily, my first employer read between the lines and saw an earnest, light-hearted, social kid. And at seventeen I be...

...it seems like I make a big change. Maybe it’s the embedded high-school-then-undergraduate habit. Maybe it’s temperament or attention span. I like to think of it as aspirational restlessness. Whatever, it’s just happened again. Right on schedule. Four years ago, I launched the SeattleCoach Professional Training Program. Since then, thirty-five spectacular people have finished e...

About “Good Friday”? I guess it depends on what you mean by “Good”. It really is a very big word Since Good Friday is a Christian deal, (and I am one), today is when we think about forgiveness, relationship, having a spiritual way of dealing with our broken places. That’s good. “Good” can be the word you speak softly in a moment of deep contentment. Y...

It’s true. Finding a coach who knows the craft and who “gets” you is key. But that’s not the main ingredient in a great coaching relationship This week I got a letter from one of my favorite clients. Like most of the spectacular human beings I work with, Jane seeks balance, satisfaction and contribution in her remaining decades on the planet. And for her, the focus includ...

You know if I blog twice in one month, something has to be especially compelling. So here goes. (This isn’t all doom and gloom–read all the way through to the end.) I’ve been thinking about this year’s graduates. Here are a few factoids: 1. In 1960, the vast majority of men and women had experienced a major life transition (graduated college, established a career, gotte...

A 13 foot oar hangs from the ceiling in my office on Lake Union. It was used for years in the big racing shells that row past my office, through the Montlake Cut and into Lake Washington. For ten years I rowed these “eights” competitively, and practiced the lessons of this beautiful sport. The old oar in my office reminds me of how those lessons apply today as I coach the men and wom...

My clients demonstrate to me every day that human beings love accomplishment. And that along with accomplishment, we love acknowledgment. In this morning’s Wall Street Journal an article used the Frisbee metaphor to explain that as rules and analysis become more complex and voluminous (in politics, in managing people and goals, in running a business), we become less effective at making great...

I have a new client who inspires me. Michael is one of those twenty-somethings aka “Millennials” whom I wrote about earlier this year. He is a member of that most documented, photographed, bubble-wrapped, awarded and applauded of generations. (So far, that is.) Here’s why Michael inspires me: Through his first seven years out of college, he has worked very hard and learned abou...

“I’m not doing another not-fun job ever!” She says with so much emphasis I laugh out loud. She’s fifty-something, successful, confident and skilled in her craft. A leader in her profession. And like so many of the people I work with, Jennifer is restless and longing to do something different and even more significant with the next couple of decades of her life. I stop l...

In a couple of months a new wave of graduates will be making their entrance. And I’ve been thinking about what kind of coaching would help them. Remember your twenties? If that question made you smile, maybe you lived them like I did: Learned to be on my own and moved about a dozen times; traveled a lot Made some decisions about what I wanted to try on professionally and where I wanted ...