Have you ever wondered when your career is going to take off? Or when you will finally get the recognition you deserve for the work you do? Have you ever wondered why some people are able to generate a lot of attention and accolades for their professional achievements while others don’t? I have theory that a successful career is like a jigsaw puzzle: all the pieces should fall into place at once if you have done the followi...

Sometimes solving problems or dealing with conflicts requires that we flex different “muscles” than the ones we normally use for performing our job, maintaining relationships, or resolving conflicts. Every once in awhile we are faced with confounding situations which require us to adapt ourselves even more creatively. After years of observing others, making my own mistakes, and occasionally doing things the right way I have...

Are you keeping your skills current? The American workforce is more mobile than ever before: the average employee changes jobs every 4.6 years and contract workers, consultants, and part time employees have become commonplace. What this means is that most of us are in a continuous job search broken up by periods of employment rather than the other way around. On the other hand employees who stay with one employer for longer...

I had a great radio interview today by one of my great friends and mentors, Ilyce Glink for her radio show on 750AM in Atlanta (which will air on November 11, 2007). Ilyce and I became friends when she was the WGN TV(Chicago) finance and real estate expert. She was a huge factor in the success of Money Smart Week in the early days when my team and I launched it at the Chicago Fed. Ilyce is a very successful entrepreneur and...

My husband and I will soon be leaving for a much needed vacation. We haven't taken an actual vacation that lasted for more than a couple of days and that didn't involve family or friends for a couple of years. Needless to say we are very excited about our upcoming trip. Which made me think of how important it is to just disconnect once in awhile and rest.It's really hard for me to commit to a vacation. I am very busy with w...

Earlier this week, in my capacity as Vice President of Marketing for BroadPeak Collaborative, I attended the kick-off luncheon for the Chicago Urban League's forward-thinking new project called ProjectNEXT. The last time I felt that much energy and anticipation in a room was when I kicked off Money Smart Week at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago - and it felt great! Under the high-energy and progressive leadership of C...

I recently found out that a guy with whom I graduated high school, Jay Rubenstein, won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (they used to call this a Genius Grant). In addition to being very impressed by Jay's accomplishment it occurred to me that we can all learn something from him. First a little background. I went to high school in a little town (approx 8,000 people) called Cushing, Oklahoma which is known for being the...

I hope that you had a lovely Labor Day weekend, I certainly did. My brother came down from Dallas for a visit for the first few days of the weekend. On Monday, Labor Day, after my brother went home and my husband had gone to the outlet mall to avail himself of the holiday sales, I spent the day watching the Travel Channel. Specifically I watched the Anthony Bourdain "No Reservations" marathon. I had seen a few Anthony B...

2007 Fall rush is over at the University of Texas and all of the sororities and fraternities have given bids to their pledges. There are a lot of excited young men and women at UT right now! But with that excitement comes a little nervousness on the part of the new members. They are wondering what to expect and following are just a few of the concerns they may have: What are the rules? What happens if I break a rule?...

As an alumnae of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, I enjoy supporting the local Chapter at the University of Texas. Alumnae get involved in fall rush (now called recruitment) by attending rush parties in a supporting role. The other day I attended open house, the first day of rush. My job, and that of other alumnae in attendance, was simply to hand out glasses of ice water to the potential new members (also called rushees) when t...