In my line of work (communication), sometimes you get so caught up in the planning and the doing, you skip over the “did it work?” part. Sometimes, that part is built in—if you are communicating on behalf of a political …
Be like Conan (not the barbarian)
My favorite film and television critic recently wrote a piece on Conan O’Brien’s recent departure from late-night television. Specifically, she wrote about his reputation for being a supportive colleague and leader; the number of comedians he helped start their careers, …
Messaging about equity and racial justice
It has taken me a very long time to achieve even glimmers of understanding of how I feel about my own racial/ethnic identity (Korean-American); I now recognize that this will be a lifelong and continuous evolution of thought and feeling …
Going back to the office
Out of the many TED talks/articles that turned into books that then turned into consulting businesses, I think “radical candor” generated some of the funniest stories for me. Radical candor, for the blissfully unaware, was an approach to delivering candid …
Job Skill: Integrity
It is one of those days—weeks, really—where I am feeling sick and tired of the happenings in the world, and particularly, the happenings in the United States. Violence against Asian-Americans, voter suppression, the trial for the murder of George Floyd: …
Expectations: Yours, mine, everyone’s
There’s a part of the working experience that doesn’t get talked about very often, but I think it highlights one of the most important skills that one can learn in a job: managing expectations. Your own, and others. This issue …
Emotional work at work, still hard.
“Emotional labor” was a Hot Topic a few years ago; the term was originally used to describe the work of managing personal feelings in a work context; then it was coined by a sociologist at Berkeley (why is it always …
I want that pony!
My husband, when we were first married, was somewhat….taken aback by what a good shopper I am. Listen, it runs in my family: my mother is an expert when it comes to outlet-shopping, and can comb through overstuffed racks of …
Retrospective: My communications evolution
FIRST IN COMMUNICATIONS (meaning the publishing industry, in 1990), there were printed materials, and there was the telephone, and the fax machine. We had computers, but they were blinking green cursors on black screens. We communicated through the books we …
Clients and consultants: Thoughts
We take a break from the nonstop dumpster fire that is the ongoing news from 2020 to return to some more mundane work topics. Today’s topic: consultants. In thinking about today’s topic, I unearthed a blog post I had written, …
