Passed Over for Promotion? What to Do in the First Week
In season 3 of Nobody Wants This, Rabbi Eden (played by the brilliant Sarah Silverman) is passed over for a promotion. Her response? Avoiding the man who got the job instead. When he approaches her to ask why she never congratulated him, she drops her quirky demeanor for a moment of vulnerability. She admits that she was actually deeply disappointed because she wanted the promotion herself. And what stung even more was that the board didn’t even consider her or put her name i
Judy Sims
6 min read
When Ambition Is Called Aggressiveness
Back when I was a corporate director in my mid-thirties, a manager colleague joyfully left on a sudden and unexpected maternity leave. Her dream of adopting a baby came true and just like that, she was gone. My boss had no time to plan what came next for her team. When I asked who was going to lead them in her absence, my boss responded with a very indignant, “Well it won’t be you! This isn’t an opportunity for empire building!”. It felt like a slap in the face. I didn’t ask
Judy Sims
5 min read
Suspect Your Boss Is About to Be Fired? Here's What to Do
One of my favourite bosses ever was the woman who promoted me to vice president. She was smart and kind and held her role with integrity. She was still fairly new to her role and had been working on pulling the executive team together so she could point us in a new direction. We had a wonderful offsite where the chemistry started to happen. We had bold, honest conversations. For the first time, we felt like a real team. Unfortunately, her boss felt differently. The next week,
Judy Sims
8 min read
Building Coalitions: The Art of Organizational Influence
When I was 34 years old, I presented a business plan to the C-Suite of the media company I worked for. Up until then, the company had been in the newspaper and book industries. I proposed that we should expand our horizons and launch a gossip magazine. The idea was a bit out there, but I’d worked on the plan for almost a year. It was creative, well-researched, well-designed, expert-scrutinized, and IMHO, well presented. There were tough questions. I could answer them all. The
Judy Sims
6 min read
The September Shift: How to Finish the Year Strong Without the Q4 Scramble
By the second week of September, summer mode has to go. I hate this fact as much as you do, but we all know it to be true. We've all been trucking along with longer lunches, lighter inboxes, a calendar with real white space in it, and a shared understanding around the office that the big stuff can wait until later. Well my friend, later just showed up. And it brought with it roughly sixteen weeks to hit the targets you set way back in June when the year still felt long. The c
Judy Sims
3 min read
Putting Out Fires Feels Like Progress. It's Keeping You Where You Are.
Here’s a sentence I hear from my clients nearly every week: “Of course I want to do more strategic stuff, but I can’t because of the constant little fires I’m forced to put out”. Sound familiar? You end most days genuinely wrung out, having solved a dozen problems. You cleared the urgent emails, you unblocked the stalled project, you smoothed over the thing that was about to blow up in front of leadership, and you did all of it well. On paper it was a productive day. In terms
Judy Sims
5 min read
You're Leaving Your Job. What Will You Be Remembered For?
My client Joanna recently met a man who worked at a company she left more than a decade ago. Joanna had never met this man. But he seemed to know all about Joanna. In fact, he said she was "legendary" in the best sense of the word. Joanna had built a strong team. She solved problems no one wanted to take on. And she did it all with wit and joy and an astounding level of creativity. Joanna was speechless. She had no idea she'd left that kind of legacy. But at the same time, it
Judy Sims
5 min read
Why the Role Went to an Outside Hire (and How to Win it Next Time)
My client Michelle’s boss retired. His direct reports were four highly competent, experienced, get-shit-done kind of women. All four of them delivered. All of their projects landed. All of their targets were hit. Their performance reviews contained words such as “reliable” and “strong” and “exceeds expectations”. All of them applied for his job. Two got interviews. None of them got the job. Instead, an outsider was brought in (also a woman, so this wasn’t a sexism thing). How
Judy Sims
6 min read