Retirement thoughts…

You can plan for it, dream about it and try to visualize it, but there’s no way to tell for sure what retirement will be like for you until after you’ve actually pulled the trigger and left the job. As you contemplate this major life change, remember to prepare for these potential retirement surprises.

Many retirees keep on doing what they’ve always been doing, except they don’t go to work. There’s more time for shopping, doing home repairs, seeing friends and playing golf. But after a while it begins to sink in that time is a precious resource. People begin to reflect on their lives, start to say no to activities they really don’t want to do and consciously focus on the important, more purposeful things in their lives.

Eventually the fantasy of never again having to punch a time clock or rush to the commuter train gives way to the … Read More

Career Coach?

A career coach can help you create a personalized plan to achieve the goals of your working life. While not qualified to intervene in significant mental, emotional, or psychological issues, they can provide unbiased perspectives on your unique career situation, identify key challenges, and help create realistic solutions for moving forward. While there is no right or wrong time to ask for guidance, many coaches say that they are more effective the earlier clients engage. Career coaching is best used as prevention from finding oneself in an unfulfilling career, but it is also possible to use coaching to level up from an existing professional situation or to take action to change your direction even if you are 15–25 years into your career.

Here are a few signs that you may want to look into getting a coach.

MALAISE
Apathy and anxiety are signs you could use a coach. If you are … Read More

Professional Meetings

Office fads come and go, but one thing remains constant: meetings, which can be as much a part of work culture as voicemail and microwaved lunches. Even in this digital age, meetings remain the go to way of handling everything from brainstorming ways to make busy times fun to personnel announcements. The average finance leader reported spending 24% of their time in a meeting. But roughly one fifth of that time was considered unproductive

With the advancements in technology and emergence of remote meetings, there are sometimes more meetings on the calendar than needed. If meetings become stale and unnecessary, they can hurt productivity and impact morale. No one wants that.

Here’s how to make meetings more useful for everyone.

Rethink the event
Think about all the meetings you schedule or attend, are they all necessary? Some weekly check ins may exist because they have always been held and not because … Read More