So you’re ready to go out there and start your own business as a solo-preneur but not quite sure where to begin. Well, to start, it really is all about who you know. 

If you’re fresh out of school or just starting out, start with building up your street cred. Unlike brands that are selling a product, services are very different because you’re selling yourself. If you have nothing yet, start off with reputable existing businesses or volunteer with one and learn. As you’re building yourself, get testimonials. Measure how successfully you’ve impacted every client. Get feedback and course-correct. Find out from your clients how you’re benefiting them and how you’re not. Take on any project you can, each of them will help you establish more credibility. Partner up with people who know what they’re doing. Learn from other people.

Before you go out on your own, you should have at least 100 solid network leads that you can leverage and at...

Imagine, you check your email to see a message from your boss. It reads; “Hey, do you have time today to chat? I have some feedback to give and things I want to talk to you about.” 

What’s your first reaction?

I can bet it’s along the lines of, “Oh no. Something must be wrong. I must have done something wrong.”

Feedback. Why is it when we approach the subject of feedback, whether it be from a leader’s or employee’s perspective, that it brings us so much stress and anxiety?

Well, the answer goes deeper than you think.

Neurologically, we as human beings have been hardwired to minimize danger and threat from the beginning. It’s what’s allowed us to survive as a species. Within the limbic system of our brain, the amygdala, the one in charge of regulating our emotions, is what kicks in when our body receives a possible threat. When exposed to possible threats, your body stops thinking and starts reacting. Your...

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has unleashed a new reality, a new normal, that most of us are still trying to wrap our heads around. HR leaders have been dealing with disruption and transformation for quite a few years now, but the level of disruption and uncertainty they have been combatting, just over the past four weeks, is unprecedented.

Now, into the third week of self-isolation, the impact of COVID-19 hit me first back in January when it was wreaking havoc in China. With SARS and H1N1, I’d had first-hand experience on pandemic planning and emergency preparedness at hospitals when I worked in healthcare. COVID-19 had all the tell-tale signs.

During the two pandemics I’d encountered in my lifetime, I came at the crises from an HR perspective and had to gear my thinking quickly towards how our workforce was going to be affected. Back then, when we were pandemic planning, we didn’t have work-from-home options. The technology was simply not there. Back then, HR was...