Tag Archives: linda rossetti

People: transition’s holy grail

Posted on February 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

“I think I don’t have the right reference groups for what I want to be doing in my life,” shared a Focus Group participant.  We were discussing the support structures necessary to navigate transition.  Another woman shared, “I think people who have been through it before and for me sometimes it’s people who are actually new to me.”   Wow.  On balance these ladies sought new, more objective supporting casts as they made their way through transition.  Best friends.  Mothers.  Siblings.  Many came up short.  Who constitutes your support structure in transition? Continue reading →

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Adding more….

Posted on February 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

“We’ve arrived at this process in an additive way,” offered an articulate woman at a dinner I attended earlier this week.  We were talking about a key process for a finance organization while perched high above New York’s East River in a gorgeously appointed pre-war apartment. “We started with a good focus but kept adding items as people joined.  Each ‘add’ was in response to an issue raised by a new participant.”  The result?  An unwieldy thirty step process that arguably undermined the original goals.   Have you ever experienced something like this?  Additive.     Continue reading →

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Transition’s Enabler….

Posted on January 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

As you look forward into the New Year have you been considering transition?  Maybe you’re rebounding from a 2013 job loss but you’re questioning if you want to get back into the same thing.  Maybe you’re someone who has prioritized other’s needs over your own and now find yourself ready to re-prioritize.  Maybe you are realizing that you need to regroup because your long sought after career choice isn’t all that you thought it might be.   Whatever the drivers transition simply represents a point in time when we’re faced with a decision: to change or to transition.   Which path will you choose?

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Beginnings…..

Posted on January 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

“What is transition?” asked a woman who was giving me feedback on one of my project’s just prior to the end of last year.  Her question was sincere.  It’s a question that I get often.  It always gives me pause.  Transition.  How would you define it? Continue reading →

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A gift for you this holiday…

Posted on December 19, 2013 | 1 comment

“What will be the fullest expression of your greatness?”  Sounds jarring, doesn’t it?  It isn’t meant to be.  The New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch stated in a Postscript piece eulogizing Nelson Mandela, “It was in the negotiations of apartheid’s end that Mandela’s greatness found its fullest expression.”  The instant I read the sentence I loved it.  Why?  I believe that every person, no exception, has a greatness quotient.   Our toughest work?  Bringing it forth. Continue reading →

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Holiday gifts….

Posted on December 5, 2013 | 4 comments

“What are you getting out of it?” offered a Focus Group participant.  She was describing her rubric, the screening technique that she’d adopted to view her options.  This slant was a new non-negotiable for her, designed specifically for her transition. “There was a time,” she said, “when I was getting divorced.  I had a serious financial situation.  I needed to keep the job.”  Now, years later, she described her quick decision to take a ‘package,’ ending a multi-decade marketing career inside a large employer.   Her adult siblings became thoroughly unglued by her decision.  To her it was an obvious choice.  The only choice.  Does her calculus hold true for you?  What are you getting – or giving this season? Continue reading →

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Options?

Posted on November 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

‘It has a lot to do with how women see their options,’ observed a leader of gender studies at an esteemed Boston university.  She participated as an industry expert in last spring’s Research Jam.  This remark was in response to our discussion about when & why women choose to transition.  Her perspective was incredibly simple.   Do women perceive that they have options?  Some do.  Many others don’t.  In your world what role do options play?  What would happen if you expanded your aperture for options just a bit? Continue reading →

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The Big Picture….

Posted on October 11, 2013 | 2 comments

Have you ever missed an opportunity to transition?   Knew that something wasn’t right but felt it wasn’t the right time to address it?  Or better yet, ignored the signs?  Or maybe you were oblivious to the signs entirely.  If I’m honest I completely missed an opportunity to transition about five years prior to my current one.  It wasn’t so much that I ignored the signs.   I was aware that I needed a change.  What I didn’t get was the enormity of the change required.  I can’t help but wonder if I’m not alone in this borderline clueless category.  Continue reading →

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Marquee Moments….

Posted on June 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

“What are they going to ask me,” queried a former colleague as we were talking about her upcoming job interview.    ‘Marquee projects,’ I responded without even thinking.   She sought a new, expanded role in another company.   When we worked together she led a huge enterprise-wide initiative.   Yes, this was in addition to her day job.  Sound familiar?  Continue reading →

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Transition: Embracing ‘New’

Posted on May 9, 2013 | 1 comment

“That may be good science — but it is bad archaeology,” said anthropologist and archeologist Professor Rosemary Joyce in the Berkeley Blog last June.   She was critiquing reports of archeological findings in Honduras.   It seems that researchers, although not archeologists, used a plane outfitted with LIDAR, a laser detection technology, to map remote portions of the Honduran jungle rumored to house ‘lost cities.’  Joyce publicly maligned the findings.    Was it simply the technology’s newness that upended her?  Continue reading →

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