In 1999, I walked away from a Fortune 100 job, post-cancer, with no plan—just the need to start over. What I found wasn’t just a new role. It was a lifeline.

“Swooping and pooping” might sound funny—until you’ve lived through it. When leaders disrupt progress with last-minute input and no accountability, it erodes trust and kills momentum. This post breaks down how to lead without overstepping—and why intentional space is the secret to high-performing teams.

Gen X did everything right—we built careers, adapted to change, and reinvented ourselves when life demanded it. And yet, we’re told we don’t fit. Explores the quiet cost of being experienced in a market that rewards straight lines over survival.

Discernment is one of the most undervalued leadership skills. It’s quiet. It’s slow. And it doesn’t show up well on dashboards. But the leaders who cultivate it build trust, consistency, and teams that thrive on clarity—not chaos.

Most leaders don’t realize when control takes over—until trust breaks down. In this honest reflection, I unpack how my own patterns of perfectionism, fear, and stress impacted my leadership—and how letting go changed everything.

Parenting today means doing the invisible work no one sees—and no one will do for you. Adolescence isn’t just a show about a broken boy. It’s a warning about the systems that are failing all of us.

Most feedback conversations fail before they even start. Leaders either soften the truth to spare feelings (Ruinous Empathy) or deliver it too harshly (Obnoxious Aggression). But the best leaders practice Radical Candor—challenging directly while caring personally.

Success at 50 looks different than it did at 30—and that’s a good thing. It’s no longer about hustling harder but about leveraging experience, wisdom, and resilience to define success on your own terms.

Tech loves to preach meritocracy—the idea that the best ideas win and the hardest-working people rise to the top. But if that were true, leadership in tech would look very different.

Every time my life has fallen apart—through cancer, layoffs, reinvention—I’ve learned the same truth: no one is coming to save me. No one ever was. That’s not a sad realization. It’s power.

After months of silence and rejection, you start believing you should be grateful for anything. That’s the quiet lie long-term unemployment tells you—and I believed it too.

My father, Ed Tiernan, wasn’t just my dad—he was my greatest mentor. On what would have been his 88th birthday, I reflect on the lessons he taught me about integrity, resilience, and love through his words, his actions, and the values that shaped my life and career.

When hiring managers scan a resume, the first thing they see isn’t your skills or your leadership. They see your company names. If you’ve built your career at smaller companies, you start every interview at a deficit.

This International Women’s Day, I’m not here to celebrate resilience. I’m here to ask: What if women didn’t have to be resilient just to belong?

Too many talented people are waiting for permission to lead — when the real work of leadership starts the moment you stop asking.

After 15 months of job searching, even the smallest flicker of hope — one email, one human actually reading my resume — feels enormous. This is what job search really looks like now.

When my CEO demanded a scapegoat, I refused. “If he wants a head on a pike, it’ll be mine.” Leadership is about responsibility, not fear.

The best product doesn’t always win—the best marketing does. Two brands, two strategies, one clear winner. The difference? Emotion beats logic every time.

Leadership isn’t just about influence—it’s about responsibility. My son’s behavior in class set the wrong example, and owning his mistake publicly was the real lesson. The same applies in business.

Leadership built on fear isn’t leadership at all. A new federal mandate forcing employees to justify their work—or be considered resigned—is a dangerous precedent. This power-driven approach is creeping into corporate America, too.