In April, I was working with an HR Executive whose team had spent the last year researching and developing a new set of corporate values. The team was excited to finally present the values to leadership. This was supposed to be their moment. But when the day came. Crickets. No compliments. No objections. Just…nothing. Why? Because no one on the team could answer this one simple question: What are these values for? And sadly, this isn't the first time I've heard this story. The Real Cost of...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
If we were sitting across from each other right now, steaming mugs of coffee in hand, I’d probably start by saying, “Wow, 2024 really did a number on us, huh?” I don’t know about you, but between my daughter’s hip surgery, growing my business, and the aftermath of the election results, I’m already side-eyeing 2025 like, “Can we take it slow this time?” “ Resilience can’t be built in the midst of chaos. It’s built in the pauses—in those moments of reflection, recalibration, and most often joy....
8 months ago • 1 min read
Four years ago, a Technical Senior Manager gave me some unexpected feedback: “Yvonne, you say ‘I’ too much. You should work on saying 'we' more, and focusing on teamwork." At first, I was taken aback. For women in technology—or anyone navigating male-dominated spaces—where community and team building skills are often essential for our survival, surface-level feedback such as this can evoke intense feelings of self-doubt. You start to question whether your work contributions are truly valued...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read
The other day, my three-year-old asked me, "What's your favorite animal?" As much as I wanted to say: “Unicorns!” 🦄 (because who doesn’t love a little magic?), I surprisingly blurted out: “The Chameleon.”🦎Why a chameleon?It’s not just because they can change colors to blend into their surroundings, although that’s definitely cool 😎. It's because they are intrinsically designed to adapt to their tree-dwelling habitat. And I've done a LOT of adapting in my life."Yvonne, I Need You to Tone It...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Have you ever tried to lead a conversation about diversity or workplace equity, only for someone to say, “Why are we even talking about this?” I have. While still in Corporate, I had scheduled a meeting with our team's new People Partner responsible for Inclusion & Diversity. I was excited to share my strategy, goals, and the wins I had achieved before he came on board. But as I started talking, he interrupted me and said, “Honestly, nobody cares.” 😞 Yep. Nobody cares. For the last...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read