Redefined by Cynthia

We live in a world that celebrates breakthroughs.  The promotion. The new job. The marathon. The book. The transformation. What we rarely celebrate are the thousands of small decisions that made those moments possible. A few weeks ago, my doctor told me my ferritin was low. It wasn't alarming, but it was low enough that it was time to start taking ferrous sulfate. Like most people, my first thought was, "How long before this makes a difference?" The answer wasn't exactly motivating. Weeks. Maybe months. Then I realized I was asking the wrong question. Every time I take that little tablet, something is happening inside my body. My bone marrow receives another shipment of iron. My ferritin stores get another deposit. I don't feel it today, and I probably won't notice it tomorrow. But my future self will. That simple realization made me think about so many other parts of life. Every time I finish a run, I've given my heart another reason to become stronger. E...

You don't need "Chief Communications Officer" in your title to shape how people think, feel, and act. If you lead people, projects, or organizations, communication isn't a supporting skill. It is leadership. Every meeting you facilitate, every email you send, every difficult conversation you avoid, every decision you explain, or fail to explain, sends a message. Even silence communicates. One of the biggest leadership mistakes I see is treating communication as something that happens after the strategy is developed. The plan is finalized, the PowerPoint is polished, and then someone from communications is asked to "get the word out." But that's backwards. Communication isn't something you do after the strategy. It is part of the strategy. In the 20 years of working in healthcare, disaster response, and corporate communications, I've had a front-row seat to leadership at its best and, occasionally, at its worst. I've worked alongside leaders d...

When I wrote Redefined , I spent a lot of time talking about reinvention. Not because I believe we should constantly reinvent ourselves, but because our careers evolve. Our experiences change us. We grow. We learn. We discover new strengths and, sometimes, entirely new purpose. The question is whether our reputation evolves with us.  One of the biggest misconceptions about personal branding is that it's about self-promotion. It isn't. It's about intention. Whether you realize it or not, you're building your personal brand every single day. The only question is whether you're doing it intentionally. Your brand isn't your LinkedIn headline. It isn't your resume. It isn't the photo you carefully selected for your profile. Your personal brand is your reputation. It's what people say after you've left the meeting. It's what comes to mind when someone asks, "Who would be great for this opportunity?" It's the confidence people have in ...

The more we automate hiring, the more valuable human judgment becomes. It sounds counterintuitive, but that's exactly what we're beginning to see. This week, I read Jessica Grose's opinion piece in The New York Times , which describes today's hiring process as an escalating "Spy vs. Spy" showdown. Employers are investing in artificial intelligence to identify the best candidates, while applicants are using many of the same technologies to improve their chances of getting noticed. As each side adapts, the other responds with new tools, creating an endless cycle of detection and circumvention. Her article resonated with me because it captures something many professionals have been experiencing firsthand. Yet as I read it, I couldn't help but think we're asking the wrong question. The real issue isn't whether AI belongs in hiring. It's whether we've mistaken automation for better decision-making. The article highlights a troubling reality. Des...

Last weekend, my daughter, Isabella , and I jumped over the fire and crossed the finish line of the Spartan Race in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. It was my second Spartan. It was her first. I expec ted another race, but I did NOT expect a course like Palmerton. If you've ever done it, you know it's a different kind of challenge. The climbs were relentless. It rained. The barbed wire crawl went uphill. Every obstacle seemed to ask just a little more than I expected. Somewhere during the race, I realized how much it mirrored this season of our lives. For me, it's been a year of change, reinvention, and learning to embrace opportunities I never imagined. For Isabella, it's the beginning of her next chapter as a college graduate, pursuing her dream of becoming a physician. We're standing at different places in life, but we were climbing the same mountain. Sometimes life gives us a harder course than the one we trained for. We don't get to choose the terrain. We don'...

I saw a meme the other day, and it made me laugh. It said:  "All kids who graduated before the use of ChatGPT deserve a Nobel Prize."  Funny? Yeah. A Gen X flex? Absolutely. As someone who spent countless hours in the library researching, writing, revising, and occasionally starting over from scratch when the file got accidentally deleted, I appreciated the humor. But it also made me pause. There was no ChatGPT when I was in school. Writing meant digging through books and articles, interviewing sources, organizing thoughts, and working through multiple drafts until the message finally came together. At the time, it felt tedious. Looking back, I realize those experiences taught me something invaluable: how to think, how to question, how to develop my own point of view, and, when needed, how to create a Plan B. AI can help us work faster, but it cannot replace the process of learning, thinking, and developing expertise. In fact, I believe we're entering an era where one pri...