Articles

Each one of these articles is a deep dive on a specific topic.



Two Frameworks For Collaboration: Trust and Negotiation

January 16, 2024

We all benefit from healthy collaboration and conflict resolution. In this article, I discuss two of my favorite models for collaboration: trust and negotiation. A trust orientation is ideal for teamwork but is often fragile in a corporate business setting. I describe the reasons for this and advocate for a negotiation-first mindset carefully infused with trust whenever possible.

Bringing Water to the Well: Practical Empathy in Corporate Tech

January 9, 2024

Everyone wants to belong. In a professional setting, that means bringing your full self to work and feeling accepted and supported. This is difficult to achieve in practice because of the tension between human needs and business needs, i.e. corporations are profit-maximizing while people are purpose-maximizing. In this article, I examine the role of empathy in corporate tech and discuss strategies for deploying it for positive impact while avoiding burnout.

Self-Assessments for Emerging Leaders

December 23, 2023

Throughout the course of my personal and professional development journey, I’ve come across various assessment tools. I like them because they provide frameworks through which to build self-understanding and understanding of others, enhancing our teamwork and leadership skills. This article is an overview of the assessment tools that I've found most useful.

What the %#$& Is Going On Here?: Straight Answers From the Organizational Behavior Literature

May 26, 2023

The four-frame model of organizations was developed by Profs. Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal. This model provides multiple lenses through which to understand the inner workings of modern organizations: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic. It is a powerful framework that enables leaders to make more effective, intentional choices.

Stoicism: A Guide for the Good Life

May 20, 2023

Stoicism provides us with practical solutions for handling life’s ups and downs with ease. It does this by emphasizing that “it is not things that upset us, but our judgements about things”, as Epictetus put it. This puts our agency front and center. And encourages us to evaluate pleasures and setbacks in healthy ways that contribute to our experience of eudaimonia, or “the good life”. This article delves into Stoicism and its empowering perspectives.

Strategies for Managing and Transforming Anxiety

February 14, 2023

This article describes the source and function of anxiety in everyday life as well as short- and long-term strategies for addressing unhelpful forms of anxiety. Some methods are coping mechanisms, some are based on habit-forming and mindset change, and others focus on healing underlying traumas and revamping one’s self-concept. I hope these ideas empower you!

What I've Learned as an HSP Meetup Organizer

December 27, 2022

I am the head organizer for a Meetup group called Highly Sensitive Persons – Greater Boston and have been leading it together with other co-organizers since April 2017. It is an affinity group that enables HSPs to explore questions they have about themselves and the world in a psychologically safe space. In this article, I’ll describe what HSP is, how I got involved in the Meetup group, and my biggest take-aways from being a leader in this community. Hope you enjoy the read!

On Leadership in a Corporate Power Hierarchy

December 17, 2022

This article explores the power dynamics within a corporate hierarchy and offers suggestions for aspiring leaders. It takes a very pragmatic view and was inspired by books (cited throughout), conversations with current and former corporate employees across industries and the working age range, and my own development as a leader.