We haven’t figured out why but lately my daughter (she is four) has been asking a lot of questions about death.  Why do people die? When will I die? What happens when you die? You know, the pleasant easy-to-answer questions. My husband thinks that our gold fish dying a few weeks ago might have sparked this curiosity and he might be right. Regardless, we’re now trying to figure out how much and how to tell her, how to not make stuff up, to explain things in a way she can understand but not get freaked out at the same time.

Basically, we’re trying to decide whether to lie or tell the truth, and if we tell the truth, how do we color it so that it’s not completely horrible. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been going to a lot of meetings recently, more than usual. Most of them I really enjoy and while too many meetings in one day means staying up too late to get work done, I am realizing just how much I enjoy human interaction as part of my job.

This is going to sound like narcissistic bragging — which I don’t mean it to be — but I do really well in first meetings and interviews. It’s always come easily to me and while I’d like to take some credit, I attribute most of this innate skill to my dad, from whom I got my communication skills, my ability to read people quickly and relate to them, and you know, have presence or whatever you want to call it. (On the flip-side, I’ve never figured out who to have a great phone meeting, which probably has something to do with my phone phobia.)

So for whatever my personal experience of dozens of interviews and hundreds of important meetings is worth, here are my 3 easy tips to help you ace your interview or shine in a meeting: Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago I had a lunch meeting with a business contact, a guy. (Yes, I think his gender is relevant.) We talked about a few issues I needed his help with and when our lunch arrived he said something that startled me:

“You know, you talk like a guy. If I didn’t know you were a woman, I’d think I was working with a man.”

I think he saw the puzzled look in my eyes after he said this because he went on to clarify that in his experience, few women are as direct as I was in our interactions. He told me that he works in an office with many women and he is not used to dealing with someone like me.

I honestly don’t know if I should have been offended, flattered, or something entirely different. Read the rest of this entry »