My first boss was an 18-year-old manager at a shop called Suzy Shier. Shawna was smart, observant, and a great coach. But most importantly, she was a master communicator. I always knew exactly what was expected of me and she didn’t hesitate to give praise or performance improvement suggestions. Fifteen-year-old me had no idea how good I had it. Since then, I've had a succession of astoundingly poor communicators. One said "no" to anything slightly risky, but without an explan

Do you suck at truly disconnecting while on vacation? Yeah, me too. Does this sound familiar? You've finally booked the time off, the flights are paid for, and the out-of-office is on. But somewhere in the back of your mind, a quieter plan is already running: how many times a day you'll "just quickly check" your inbox from a beach chair, a hotel lobby, a rental car. Maybe you'll leave the Slack notifications on, just in case something comes up. Oh, and that meeting your boss

My client Amanda delivers. Something's about to blow up? Amanda will handle it. And she'll do it without complaint. Her team runs smoothly. Her stakeholders not only trust her, but flat out couldn't live without her. She gets results. She steps up. She solves problems. All with an unflappability that makes it look like she was born to do her job. And that's the problem. She's too good at her job. And it's costing her. This is the Capable Executor profile. It's one of the most

I have blonde hair, big eyes, and big boobs. There’s a lot of privilege that comes with being a WASPy woman, but there’s also a considerable downside. When people first meet me, they often assume I’m stupid. It’s happened since I first stepped into a corporate office as a 25-year-old marketing analyst. Of course, the man who started the same week as me didn’t start at the same place as me. He was at “seems sharp, let’s see what he does.” He got the benefit of the doubt before