My daughter is learning to drive and I found myself in the passenger seat this morning gripping the armrest as we approached in traffic a tricky, double-lane, 100-degree curve.

My daughter is working through the very natural tendency to have too much confidence in situations with hidden danger and not enough confidence and decisiveness in the situations that require her to go for it. It’s easy to get it mixed up. Instead of caution, you drive too fast when more thought, preparation or awareness o…

Professional Investing

When it comes to your personal development and professional development, long experience tells me that results come from when you consistently invest in yourself and your career. To not invest in yourself is like floating down a fast river without a paddle, map or knowledge of what’s around the next bend. Things may go fine for a while, but at some point, you’re going to realize you made a giant mistake. To avoid such unforeseen disaster in your career, you need to invest i…

Lessons in How to Manage Your Career & Personal Impact from My Dad

My Dad, David Christie, passed away peacefully on Sunday after a long but dignified journey with Alzheimer’s. Reflecting on his life and career, four themes occur to me that serve as valuable reminders for our professional and personal lives. My Dad started his career with the Royal Bank 3 days after completing high school and retired with the bank 43 years later. Here’s what comes to mind as being key lessons from his life.

Old fa…

How Well Do You Know Your Industry?

One of the valuable skills I learned during my years in the executive search industry was industry mapping.

I would receive an assignment for let's say a VP Logistics in a 3rd party supply chain company and over the course of a couple of weeks I would create a document that mapped the names and locations of the key players in the industry, their relative sizes, the names and titles in each company of the people related to the job and even try and figure out the …

Many professionals and executives have made a significant step in their career or even changed the trajectory of their career thanks to riding a wave. While it can happen accidentally, paying attention to your environment can significantly increase the likelihood of catching your next industry wave. Learn how to ride a career wave.

What is an Industry Wave?

Nothing more than a ripple far from shore, a wave slowly begins to pick up energy and size. The art of surfing is to spot the right wave, catc…

Prepare For Success

Are you interested in more control over your professional journey? Want to unlock your career potential? Could you use more resilience in the face of events that impact your career? In part 1 of Key Career Moments, we looked at the 4 Key Events that Determine Your Future:

• Transactions: Job interviews, performance reviews, negotiations, signing a big client

• Forks in the road: Decision points about this or that opportunity and different directions

• Encounters: Exposure and learning …