I am shy and introverted and the thought of going out with the intention of meeting other people, starting conversations with strangers, and making small talk is one of the activities I dread most. I can’t deal with silence (which makes me seem chatty and it is really just the fact I am trying [...]
Thanksgiving is this week, and so I desperately wanted to come up with a Thanksgiving themed post. I considered doing the cliché “things I am thankful for” post, and I even tried mind mapping Thanksgiving ideas. However, nothing really came to me. Then I pondered the question, what do I really like about Thanksgiving? Eating [...]
In 2006, I was part of a team that was presenting to VCs to raise money for our startup, and those meetings were some of the most stressful in my career. I get nervous when I have to present in front of a group, and this is especially true when I’m speaking to really important [...]
Taking Notes One thing that drives me crazy is when people ask me for a meeting, and then arrive at my office, ask me lots of questions (which I patiently answer), and then leave without taking a single note. Inevitably, I will get an email from them a few weeks later asking me about something [...]
Delegating: Are You Ignoring This Key To Success? In this week’s issue of the Technology Leadership Newsletter, a particular article from the Harvard Business Review caught my attention: “More Direct Reports Make Life Easier”. This article was interesting to me because I am little enamored with the concept of non-hierarchical leadership. I love the [...]
No one comes to work to do a bad job; and I would argue that most people want to be exceptional in their roles. For most of us we spend years in school, and then countless hours pursuing additional knowledge and honing our craft (and I know this holds true for anyone who choices a [...]
In preparation for my talk at Seattle Interactive on October 30th this post covers some of my ideas on this topic – I hope you like it! And if you have other ideas or suggestions, leave them in the comments – I am still putting my slides together and could always use more ideas! -kate [...]
Hello there! I was a bit late with my post last week – it has been a little bit crazy in my world; but I am back on schedule today with my Wednesday posts. And this one is one of the better ones I used to have some major procrastination issues and as I have [...]
Delivering Bad News One of the hardest things about being a manager is when you have to tell others something they don’t want to hear. It never gets easier to tell someone they’re not performing up to standards, or to tell a whole team that their project they’ve spent so many hours on is now going [...]
Have you ever worked on a project with other people, really felt like you gave it your all, and then were passed up or received less recognition then you thought you deserved? This happened to me early on in my career. I had been on a project with 5 people, and after the feature shipped [...]