One of the most important facets of coaching women is ensuring that they understand their true value. It can be very hard for women to acknowledge how to sell their skills, abilities, and achievements because we have been conditioned to not to be aggressive or risk being viewed as unlikeable. However, identifying your own skills and special qualities isn’t always the easiest task either.

“And did you get what you wanted out of life, even so?”

This wonderful quote used in the ‘2016 Commencement Speech’ at Harvard Graduate School of Education, is poetic, poignant and prophetic. Derived from a poem by Raymond Carver, it captures our imagination, in particular as it is one the major questions in life that we all must answer, according to Professor James Ryan, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Watching the NHL Stanley Cup finals, I am marveling at the success of the first-year expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights. But I probably shouldn’t be.

Everyone has those moments when you suddenly ‘get it.’ That light-bulb that goes off when you least expect it to prove you gained inspiration or a solution to something. It’s an exciting feeling when it comes at just the right moment, almost like magic!

First impressions count! In fact, one study shows that interviewers make a determination about hiring a candidate (or not) in the first ninety seconds of the discussion. If you consider this during your next interview, you’ll realize how important the first question is to landing the job!

I’m a firm believer that great teams know their pulse. What do I mean by pulse? At any given moment, a great team can look around and think, “This is a great culture. I know it because of how I’m living out the culture based on clearly defined values and expectations.”