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Gwendolyn Ward Articles

Written by: Gwendolyn Ward

Ageism...Between Truth and Consequences - Click To Read Article
At its lowest common denominator, being employed is about problem solving. You are hired to solve a problem whether it is answering the telephone or programming a computer. Your ability to consistently, effectively, and efficiently solve that problem can often determine your long-term career or industry success. So, if the problem you were hired to solve evolves, it will probably behoove you to evolve with it.

The Angst of Transition: From Your Parent's Home to Your Own - Click To Read Article
When I converse with young college alums, we often discuss the life between their parent’s home and their own. Whether the transition is from their parent’s home or from college to the workplace, our talks about handling the angst in transitioning are engaging. Most of them were told to go to college, major in something they like, and then get the job they would love. Some of them said they fell for it hook, line, and sinker without being prepared for the seeds of discontent. Others said life is what you make it so adjust through the unexpected and learn from it: •One young grad told me that her physician father refused to pay for her education unless she majored in pre-med. She wanted to choose a business major but he said if she majored in pre-med, she would graduate debt free with a new car

Outgrowing Your Distractions: Knowing When To Let Them Go! - Click To Read Article
After this encounter, I realized that some people and some things you outgrow. And when you recognize it, you need to let it go- no explanation needed. That old furniture just doesn’t fit in your new house and bringing it along will just create clutter. Clutter is tricky and subjective. We are all a collection of diverse needs and what appears to be insignificant to one may be significant and motivation to another. What some see as disorder, others may see as creative chaos. Is this a distinction without a difference? Or an attempt to fill a void for what isn’t there? Personally, I prefer order because I believe that clutter (emotional or physical) can prevent you from seeing what is really in your life or maybe what is missing:

The New Year Plan: Are you READY? - Click To Read Article
The New Year means different things to different people. For some, it inspires change for the better, for others it’s just another year, and the rest of us fall somewhere in between. For the inspired, great successes will ensue. For the pseudo-inspired, great intentions will ensue for about 30 days instead of 365. Nevertheless, they TRIED and that counts for something, right? Sometimes our resolution passion masks our tendency to procrastinate. When you couldn’t button your pants in May, hated your job in June, realized you’re missing important family time in July, smoked too much in August, drank too much in September, or recognized you were in an unfulfilling relationship in October…why are you waiting until January 1st to change?

Career Messaging: Are you missing them? - Click To Read Article
Sometimes lessons knock softly and sometimes they break down the door. But in either case, you should ask yourself, what are your results honestly telling you?

Leadership: Is there an app for that? - Click To Read Article
When I accepted my first management position, my new boss told me his secret to managing people was to treat them like whiny children. I asked him if managing people was his thing, and he bluntly said, "No, because I hate dealing with people and their petty issues." Despite his revelation, we had a good relationship because I didn't ask him for leadership advice and he didn't have any to give.

The Unemployed You: Battling Through the Waiting Game (Part Two) - Click To Read Article
No matter how optimistic you are, the longer you are unemployed the greater chance you will run into frustrations, insecurities, disappointments and self-doubt. Since this is part of the journey, the challenge is deciding how much of it to keep on your drive. If you aren’t seeing progress, you may need to change lanes, especially when the familiar lanes aren’t taking you where you need to go. To me a career, like life, isn’t a straight path. It will include detours, exits and hard choices, and sometimes you have to back up to move forward. Suddenly losing your job is a change that can make you feel incomplete, but so does working in a job that isn’t fulfilling. So what do you do in either case? Wait for something to change or change you?

The Unemployed You: Battling Through the Waiting Game (Part One) - Click To Read Article
While my boss was telling me that I was his go-to person, he was also informing me that my position was being downsized. It struck me as funny because my immediate thought was…the go-to person is GONE?

Growing Up: Time only flies when you throw your watch! - Click To Read Article
When I was 16, I wanted to be 18. At 18, I wanted to be 21. To me each age meant I was grown; what I never considered was the growth I needed between them - because maturing is a process that brings along two friends: responsibility and challenges. Every professional or personal challenge I experienced and every lesson I learned was typically about me recognizing and managing the lines in my life: learning when to cross them, when to draw them and when to read between them.

Career Growing Pains: Some Grow UP and Some Grow Old - Click To Read Article
Transitioning from where you are to where you need to go isn’t easy; it requires you to become connected to the cause and effect of your actions, and to own them by taking responsibility. To engage in something successfully, especially in a competition or fight, you must have the ability to take a punch and respond with a counter punch (meaningful reaction)-and remain standing. You aren’t engaged if you just take the punches, without bothering to move, change or get out the way. To think that you are engaged when you are making little effort while expecting big results, finding excuses for staying where you are, blaming someone else, or just being blind to the lesson of cause and effect-only makes you bitter instead of better.

Networking: Hate to miss it, but I really don’t want to go! - Click To Read Article
Networking is touted as the best resource for professional success and personal growth. Whether you are looking for a job, professional development, business opportunities or shared-interest socializing, networking is said to be the key. But like any other key, it doesn’t work unless it clicks. What clicks for an intellectually curious introvert like me are organized interactions that engage through knowledge (real problem solving) and sincerity. In other words, if you want to engage me, your pitch must make sense. You can’t sell me dog food if I don’t have a dog.

The Accidental Manager: In some train wrecks you may be the train! - Click To Read Article
Many management promotions are one dimensional, prompted by seniority, non management performance or a recommendation. This is problematic, because great engineers don’t always make a great engineering manager; leading is a very different skill set. When people are placed in management positions haphazardly, it can create a collision between reality and ego. The result is a wreck of denial, manifesting as toxic behaviors: micro-managing, controlling, passive aggressiveness, chaos, bullying, poor judgments and constantly deflecting issues to Human Resources to avoid responsibility.

Bullies At Work: Exceeding Corporate Limits - Click To Read Article
Most bullies are scared of confrontation, which is why they typically hide behind their position or size for intimidation. Simply put, they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. It’s like a fix and, like any other addict, they crave the high. Workplace bullying is a multi-level permission fix requiring weakening consent. Bullies deflect their weaknesses with superficial strength by exploiting working relationships, the bullied person struggles with setting and maintaining boundaries, and the companies allows it when they fail to implement a standard conduct policy for employees, regardless of position or expertise.

Painfully Employed: They got it bad and that aint good - Click To Read Article
When I was 13, I heard my great aunt say that she purchased an expensive car because she hated her job and needed an incentive to stay. Years later, when I struggled with my own discontent and watched others struggles with theirs, her words resonated with me. I may have been gainfully employed at the time, but I felt painfully employed. During my struggle, I vacillated between excitement, swinking (not quite swimming, not quite sinking) and painful employment: excited with any new opportunities, swinking when they didn't fulfill my expectations, and painfully employed when I became too comfortable being uncomfortable. Three words, "comfortable being uncomfortable," and one quote, "if you don't know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favorable," summed up my painful employment.

Giving Advice: Come again when you can't stay so long! - Click To Read Article
Whether you are the giver or receiver of advice, timing appears to be more critical than the truth; this is the principle behind the quote, "The truth out of season bears no fruit." Unfortunately, most of us didn't get the memo about how to tell advice time. I remember the first time I had to fly, I asked my cousin, an experienced flyer, for advice. He said, "Get a window seat because if it's your time to go, at least you will see it coming." His advice wasn't elegant or comforting, but I took it-and thousands of flown miles later, I still remember it as the ugly truth.

Exiting Gracefully: It’s Complicated! - Click To Read Article
Learning the art of exiting gracefully is challenging because Emotions supersede Intellect and Ego beats the crap out of Common Sense. This is why break-ups are hard and, unfortunately in some cases, filled with bad things like strife and tacky drama coupled with collateral damage-all for the sake of SOMEONE needing to “be right.” In the worst workplace situations, the "being right" need commonly manifests itself in ungraceful exits. We see this when people: •Submit their notice and then go on a ‘negativity campaign’ about anything and everyone •Submit their notice and make a concerted effort not to work another day for two weeks •Not submit a notice and not return or send an email stating yesterday was their last day •Commit acts of violence that we see in the news headlines

Career Bliss: Happily Ever Now What? - Click To Read Article
Trying to find the ideal job is like trying to find the ideal mate. Mr. Right may sound good on paper but off of it, his issues coupled with yours may overflow a newsstand. So what do you do? 1) Decide quickly based on the first few meetings that "he's just not that into you" or vice versa and keep looking OR 2) Date him to determine if the good outweighs the bad. If it does, make the most of it. If it doesn't, leave a bit wiser OR 3) Settle into an unsatisfying relationship because you feel it is safer than searching for someone else, or identifying what you want and pursuing it. So you redirect your discontent by focusing on your mate's issues, to avoid focusing on your own...believing that "treading water" in a bad relationship is favorable than swimming towards something better.





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