Career

Avoiding the “Jaded Fed” Syndrome

We all know them – the long (or short) term career bureaucrat, counting down the days (months, decades) to retirement, seething in negativity and boredom. These employees contribute to poor public perception, engage in bristly customer service and their negativity can bring others down with them, creating a toxic work environment. Here are some tipsRead… Read more »

New Year’s Resolutions: Let’s Be SMART (or CLEAR)

Hello! Let me be the first (or more likely, the 181st) person to welcome you to a new year! Let’s just all agree that 2015 is going to be a good one despite the crushing disappointment of not having hoverboards like Back to the Future II promised us, okay? As we all get back toRead… Read more »

Know Your Limitations and Live Within Them – Part 1

Originally posted on Salient Federal Solutions The best way to crush personal motivation is to set goals that are too big or unachievable. The result is frustration and little ambition to move on further if (and all too often when) you don’t reach them. A personal life philosophy of mine is to know my limitationsRead… Read more »

Tap Into Your Daily Productive Rhythm

Most of us approach our work days incredibly inefficiently, then wonder why we’ve accomplished so little by the end of it. Along with constant interruptions, inefficient scheduling may be a big culprit. The fact is that all time is not created equal. You may set aside two hours to work on a specific project, butRead… Read more »

10 Tips for Leadership

Have no illusions: being a good leader takes work. Even if you are a “born leader” you must continually work and learn to remain at the top of your game. The below tips are not intended to be a cure-all for poor leadership or an unwillingness to learn, but a starting point for aspiring goodRead… Read more »

Succeeding as a Young Woman on the Hill

Through GovFem, we want to highlight the challenges women face in government. We also want to highlight the women who are tackling those issues everyday. To start us off, I sat down with Ellen Schrantz who works as counsel in the House of Representatives. Ellen is kicking off our spotlight series for two reasons. FirstRead… Read more »