A baking day today: choc bundt cake, graham crax bars, oatmeal raisin cookies, sour cream almond sugar cookies. The freezer is full. Yum.

I always figure – once I get the cookie sheets out and the oven is hot, I might as well keep baking. This is a lot like my work life.

I don’t always realize when I am doing a lot versus actually overdoing it – like today. Double and quadruple batches of all the cookies. And then I just had to make the bundt cake too for the Dad’s Day cookout.

So, by the time of the cookout, I was almost too tired to enjoy the company and the picnic food.

I do this at work too – get so involved in work that I am not always careful to do enough but not too much.

I am better at that now than I used to be – I take my down time and really kick back. But I am constantly on my guard about this because I realize how much energy overdoing can use up – and how long it can take you to build up the energy stockpile again.

So, for you faithful readers who also may wander into the territory of overdoing work, don’t forget to keep an eye on your work-life balance. Just as you don’t let your food stocks at home get too low, guard your energy stocks at work.

You’ll find yourself more productive, pleasant, and even perceptive….

And the next time my freezer is low on cookies, I’ll remember that I don’t need it chock-a-block full of cookies like it is right now. A couple batches is enough.

Posted via email from sue griffey's posterous

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Mentor: Linda Fogarty, Senior Director, Monitoring, Evaluation and Research, Jhpiego

Another feature of this blog is bringing you advice and perspectives from people who mentor, by answering 3 questions.
Here are Linda Fogarty’s responses.

What are mentees looking for?
They want someone to help them believe in themselves, clarify their strengths and passion and their own professional goals
Helping them understand what their best is and how they can be their best

What 1 piece of advice do you give every mentee you work with?
You need to fight for yourself. Understand your professional value and provide that to others.

Why are you interested in mentoring?
It’s very satisfying to see mentee growth and development and how they transform themselves.

Mentor: Barbara Rawlins, Monitoring and Evaluation Team Leader, Maternal and Child Survival Program

Another feature of this blog is bringing you advice and perspectives from people who mentor, by answering 3 questions.
Here are Barbara Rawlins’ responses:
What are mentees looking for? · Career guidance · Technical advice · Moral support · Advice on how to negotiate politically-sensitive or controversial situation
What 1 piece of advice do you give every mentee you work with? Figure out what they want to do (in the long term) and what steps they can take to get there
Why are you interested in mentoring? To support younger colleagues, especially women, to help attain their career goals

What Kind of Culture do YOU Want to Work in - And How Can You Decide If You Fit?

Most mentees I work with are pursuing a job – whether it’s getting a job or moving to a different job and/or company – and one area that mentees don’t routinely consider is that of a company’s culture. (See resources that describe “company culture” such as https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-company-culture-2062000.) Mentees focus on the job under recruitment and on the organization, but they don’t always take the time to understand the hiring organization’s culture – and the mentee’s fit in different company cultures.
There are many resources on categories of company cultures that provide job-seekers with ways to assess what categories they would best fit in. And these can be also used in an interview situation to determine culture. Organizational Culture Types https://www.ocai-online.com/about-the-Organizational-Culture-Assessment-Instrument-OCAI/Organizational-Culture-Types5 Types of Corporate Culture: Which One Is Your Company? https://blog.enplug.com/corporate-culture9 Types of Org…

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