Our friend, colleague, and fellow author, Barbara Stanny, will be conducting her last Overcoming Underearning workshop in New York City on June 21st.  For over 10 years, Barbara has taught thousands of women to unleash the power and potential within to achieve their financial goals in her powerful workshop: Overcoming Underearning®: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life, based on her books; Secrets of Six Figure Women and Overcoming Underearning®.

This life altering seminar, based on the Inner Work of Wealth, the Outer Work of Wealth and the Higher Work of Wealth, will help you learn how to:

• Identify the five simple steps to increasing your income

• Think bigger about what’s possible for your life

• Understand the signs of underearning

• Uncover the Big Lie you’ve been telling yourself

• Understand the signs of resistance and how to deal with them

• Tailor a specific action plan to your individual situation

This is more than a workshop on finances. You will also leave with the deep knowledge that you have the capacity to realize your potential, live your dreams, become more of who you are meant to be, and make an impact on the world.

To register, visit her website:  http://www.barbarastanny.com/upcoming-events.html#NY0621.

Despite the growing informality in the workplace, the Golden Rule of Management still prevails: He or she who has the gold sets the rules. The degree to which you work within the boundaries established by the boss, and adapt to different bosses, largely determines your ultimate success in the organization.

Here are three secrets for successfully managing up:

1.  The boss wants you to do your job and make his or her job easier. Every reasonable request should be met with a can do attitude.  If you really can’t do it, however, you need to let the boss know in a way that demonstrates you’re seeking a solution to how it can get done, not presenting an obstacle to doing it.

2.  Never embarrass the boss. If you want to disagree, do so in private.  Don’t expect the boss to always take your advice.  And, even if it turns out you were right, never say “I told you so”.

3.  Don’t burden the boss with you personal problems  no matter how patient, enlightened and understanding the boss appears. The best bosses make allowances now and then, but you shouldn’t dwell on your personal problems at work. It will ultimately undermine the perception that you are fit and ready for duty.

TAGS: managing up, managing your boss

This just in from PeachPick newsletter — The National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) recently named its top 50 companies for female executives. NAFE’s top picks have more women CEOs, more women board members, more female corporate executives, more women who report directly to the CEO, and more women as top earners than the typical Fortune 500 company. There’s strong evidence that putting women in positions of power makes for better business: global business consultancy McKinsey reported recently that companies with higher numbers of women at senior levels “are also companies with better organizational and financial performance.” Similarly, the nonprofit group Catalyst reported stronger performance at companies with three or more women on the board-and in 2009, stocks of the 12 Fortune 500 companies with women CEOs rose an average of fifty percent, compared to the benchmark for US stocks, the S&P 500, which rose an average of 25%. Read more about common practices at NAFE’s top 50 picks here.

TAGS: PeachPick, top companies for women

Older people are facing troubling post-recession times, so how do they/we re-think our retirement plans in a healthy and responsible way?

Mary Beth Franklin, my longtime friend who is the editor of the annual and hugely popular Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning Guide says:  “Many older workers in their 50s and 60s are in a precarious position.  For some, the only option is to work longer.”

The truth is lots of older workers are realizing they have to do that.   We’re in what I often call “the age of un-retirement” because so many Baby Boomers are crunching the numbers and realizing that the bottomline doesn’t add up to being able to pay for kicking back and enjoying their golden years.  Many of us will have to recalculate our plans and continue working 9 to 5.

Mary Beth puts a positive spin and mindset on it if that’s the option you’re facing.  She says:  “Working longer is a powerful strategy for several reasons.” 

• It allows you more time to save
• Gives your investments more time to recover
• Decreases the number of years you need to rely on those savings; and
• Boosts your Social Security benefits which are worth more the longer you wait to claim them, up to age 70.

Mary Beth says as difficult as it is for millions of people to save for retirement, transforming those savings so that they provide them a lifetime income could be even more challenging.  “In retirement, individuals should be more concerned about reliability of income than return on investments,” she explained.  “As traditional pensions continue to disappear, Social Security benefits are the only form of guaranteed income that many Americans can count on for the rest of their lives.  Given the important role that Social Security may play in your future, take time to figure out how to maximize your benefits.”

The fact is – delaying collecting retirement benefits means a bigger check for the rest of your life.  Delaying collecting benefits could also possibly boost the amount of survivor’s benefits your spouse will receive after you’re gone. 

IT’S YOUR MONEY SO TAKE IT PERSONALLY ™.  

Mary Beth Franklin is Senior Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine and Editor, Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning Guide.

TAGS: baby boomers, older workers, retirement planning, working longer

If you live in the Los Angeles area, I’d like to invite you to join us for LUNAFEST — a fundraiser for Bloom Again Foundation.  All the proceeds from the event go to providing rapid response financial assistance to working women living at or near the poverty level when they are experiencing medical emergencies.  In the past year Bloom Again, through the generosity of its donors, helped economically vulnerable women to pay their rent, utility bills and supplement lost wages due to illness or accidents. 

LUNAFEST will be held at Warner Bros. studios on Thursday, April 29th from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.  We’ll start with cocktail reception, followed by the screening of short films by and about women.  Seating is limited to the first 200 people who register so I encourage you to go to the Bloom Again website (www.bloomagain.org) to learn more about and register for the event.  Tickets and parking instructions will be mailed in early April.  Bring a friend or two — it promises to be an evening when you can have fun and make a difference.

TAGS: Bloom Again Foundation, LUNAFEST, Women living at or near the poverty level

This won’t cost you anything but a few minutes of your time.  Pepsi is having a contest to award money to the top 10 nonprofit organizations that have registered with their Refresh Project.  Our Bloom Again Foundation (www.bloomagain.org) is currently #12.  If we win, the money will go toward the expenses for the April 29th fundraiser we’ve been talking about. 

Please click on the link below and vote for Bloom Again.  Then forward it to a few friends and ask them to do the same.   We’ll let you know if we win.  Thanks for lending a hand! 

http://www.refresheverything.com/bloomagainfoundation

TAGS: Bloom Again Foundation, Pepsi Refresh Contest

   In the past, we’ve talked about the importance of personal branding — creating an image and reputation of which you are proud and for which you are known.  As we’ve witnessed in the past few weeks, the Toyoya brand has taken a hit due to mechanical problems.  And now Congress is launching an investigation — one that I personally think is a waste of time and money.  Our legislators can’t get their own acts together to pass a health care bill (or much of anything else for that matter), but they’re eager to go after and, most likely, punish a well-respected brand. 

But I diverge.  I don’t know if you’ve seen Toyota’s latest commercial — the one in which they say they realize they’ve let consumers down and are taking action to correct to their mistakes.  Kudos to Toyota — the commercial hits just the right tone, admits its failures, and without groveling apologizes for not meeting their typically high standards.  The straight-talk elicited a certain degree of sympathy from me.  It’s a good lesson for all of our brands. 

None of us is perfect and we’re bound to make mistakes.  Particularly in a corporate climate where most of us are doing more with less.  The next time this happens to you, think about Toyota and follow these simple principles for getting your brand back on track:

• Own up to what went wrong.  We even saw President Obama do this recently with regard to the attempted Christmas airline bombing.  He said, “In the end, the buck stops with me.”  Human nature often causes people to want to point the finger everywhere except where it belongs.  When you’ve made a mistake, overlooked an important detail, or in some other way erred, say so. 
• Avoid explanations.  The Toyota ad doesn’t attempt to explain what happened, it focuses on the future — and that’s what you should do to.  Rather than explain away mistakes, talk about what you plan to do to correct them and ensure they don’t happen twice. 
• Analyze faulty systems.  To ensure you don’t repeat the mistake, do a thorough analysis of why it happened in the first place.  You can bet the folks at Toyota are doing just that right now. 
• Reiterate your brand values.  If you’re typically known for prompt response time and something fell through the cracks causing it to be late, make it clear that you continue to value quick turn around and that this is what you’ll be striving for in the future.  By saying it out loud you create the scenario for others to actually see the behavior you want them to see and remember.

TAGS: Congress, corporate faux pas, personal branding, Toyota, Toyota commercial

At Thanksgiving dinner this week, parents and other relatives are bound to ask their Gen Y children, “How’s that job search coming along?”

While some people fear this question, I encourage job seekers to embrace it. Why not use your family’s interest as an opportunity? If you’re comfortable asking your loved ones for help, there are several ways you can enlist their support — appropriately — in your job search efforts.

Listen to some tips on this topic in my new podcast.

TAGS: Generation Y, Job Search

Thanks to those of you who shared your experiences with office romances.  For those of you who didn’t read my post from last Wednesday (11/18) you might want to check it out. 

So the end of the story is this, in the midst of the difficulties, Carol was recruited away by another company for a fantastic job with an even larger salary than she would have received with the promotion.  She is now living with the man who she was dating at her previous company and both are thrilled with how it turned out.  It looks like marriage might be in the cards for them.

Both E.D. and Donlyn nailed it — my recommendation was that she find another job.  The office romance was not going to help her career and she didn’t want to give up the relationship.  Another example of how when you vote with your feet you often wind up better off than waiting out a difficult situation.  More importantly, beware of romantic involvements with co-workers.

TAGS: dating co-workers, dating in the workplace, Office romances

A coaching colleague recently consulted with me about an interesting case that may apply to you.  Her client  (let’s call her Carol) works in a male-dominated industry and has worked hard to get the respect and recognition she deserves.  Soon after starting a relationship with a man in a position senior to her, a promotional opportunity became available.  Carol was considered a strong candidate for the job and had high hopes of snagging it. 

Her office romance became public knowledge when she and the man attended an office party together.  They had nothing to hide — she didn’t report to him and both were single.  But suddenly she was no longer the lead candidate for the promotion.  The company could legitimately find plenty of reasons to promote someone else, but it was clear her relationship played into the equation.  Her coach told her that the company might assume that there was a conflict of interest or that she didn’t really “need” the promotion if the relationship turned into marriage. 

Carol felt betrayed by the company and thought that it was unfair that her personal life played a part in the decision.  Whether it did or not, Carol left herself in a vulnerable position given the fact that she was one of the few women in management at this company and was dating one of the executives.

We all know that people meet their ultimate spouses in the workplace, but it’s not without a price.  I’m sure some considerations (legal or not) here included:

• Could Carol be trusted with confidential information?
• Would Carol ultimately marry the man and go off to have children leaving the company in need of senior manager?
• Was Carol taking her career seriously or was she just out to find a spouse?
• Would other managers and be candid with Carol knowing she and this executive were in a relationship?

You get the picture.  There’s nothing wrong with dating someone from the office, but it can negatively impact your career opportunities.  We all have to live our values and follow our hearts, but if we’re serious about our careers we also have to consider the ramifications of our choices — particularly if we are in senior positions. 

Before I tell you the end of the story, tell me what YOU think.  What should Carol do?  What would YOU do?  After I hear from you I’ll tell you what happened.

TAGS: dating co-workers, dating in the workplace, Office romances