Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
The last two weeks have been teaching me a lesson I’ve resisted for most of my life: acceptance can sometimes get you further—and faster—than force. I’m not a naturally patient person. When something slows me down, my instinct is to push harder, fix it quickly, or work around it. But this time? My body had other plans. ...
A few weeks ago, my friend and colleague—let’s call him Andy—came to me completely overwhelmed. He’s been raising the same flag to his manager for the past six months: he and his team are under-resourced and overworked. His manager listens, nods, but nothing changes. No extra hands. No realistic reprioritization. Just more piling on. ...
It’s been two weeks since I officially said farewell to full-time work. You would think I’d be living the dream right now — waking up whenever I want, traveling the world, feeling nothing but freedom. After all, I worked 28 years for this. And yet, reality looks a little different.
The weirdest part? I’m actually having trouble sleeping. I use to sleep soundly for at least 7-8 hours. Now I find myself waking up at 5 or 6 am, thinking. It’s like my brain is floating around, searching for a new anchor now that the old one — work — is gone. Yes, financial freedom means I can have vocational freedom now – work with who I want, how I want, and on what I want. But what is that? I have some ideas but nothing concrete. Freedom sounds amazing in theory, but in practice? It’s a lot. ...
After two weeks of traveling, attending conferences, and meeting with my boss in person for the last time, I received my year-end review—solid performance, full bonus payout, no surprises. But the bigger conversation was about what’s next.
Since I had turned down an offer to lead Risk & Control for digital, the writing was on the wall. My boss, Sam, even fought to keep me, but the decision was made. They needed my salary to fund that role, and my work was too far ahead of their priorities. Plus, as Sam put it, I was “too expensive” to be redirected elsewhere. (Guess I negotiated well five years ago!) ...
A lot happened last week, leaving me with a tough decision. I received an unexpected invite from my big boss (let’s call him Richard) for a one-on-one meeting at 8:30 AM on Tuesday. The invite simply stated that he wanted to discuss “upcoming opportunities.”
Unsure of what it meant, I reached out to my immediate manager (let’s call him Sam) to see if he had any insights. Sam speculated that it was likely about me helping out with some risk-related work we had discussed plus some Chief of Staff responsibilities. ...
We’ve all been there—staring at our screen, replaying a mistake we made at work, feeling that pit in our stomach. It happens to the best of us. Just recently, I found myself in this exact situation.
I had an important meeting with my big boss, and I knew I needed to be concise. My leader had even advised me to focus on just one row of a particular slide, but for some reason—maybe pride in my work, maybe just being half-asleep on a Monday morning—I explained all six rows in detail. ...
I continue to be in awe of my older daughter, Isabel, as she tackles the challenges of recovering from her ACL surgery. This past week marked her return to school, which brought a whole new set of hurdles. With one leg locked in a straight brace and unable to bear weight, her determination has been nothing short of inspiring. ...