In April, I became a contributor to a knowledge base that I respect and consult daily. I'm so proud and excited to share this article on a topic that's at the heart of Penney Leadership: how to build an intentional career path that is unique, enjoyable, and adaptive to change.

Here’s a link to the article and the behind the scenes story of the process (read: dreams and doubts) that can go into a career achievement like this…

As a career coach, I’ve learned that the driver for every reason is one of two things: (1) Purpose: moving towards something you want. (2) Fear: preventing or avoiding something you don’t want. Here’s how to figure out what’s driving you…

Seven years ago, I made the leap from traditional employment to running my own business. From the outside, you might be tempted to make up a story about how brave and confident I was to make this leap. But it definitely didn't feel that way at the time.

Seven years ago, when Penney Leadership launched, I set off in my little solo spacecraft. I exited my home planet on Nonprofit and began my journey across the vast solar system.

Even as I start my seventh year as a fully-fledged business owner, the pressure is on to get to a certain place. I actively resist it every day, and remind myself that I'm right on time. Where I am is developmentally appropriate.

Thanksgiving is this week, and while the prospect of gathering around a table with family can be warm and cozy, it can also be a lot.
Because getting together means catching up, and catching up means answering questions about our lives.

Many of us feel the discomfort of uncertainty in our work, daily.
There's a word that describes the state of insecurity we feel around employment and income: precarity.

Understanding and talking about your unique, marketable skill set with clarity and confidence is essential to successfully navigating your professional path. But what if no one has taught you how to do this?

I’ve been driving for 22 years and it’s become second nature. I’ve been navigating my career for almost as long and it still doesn’t feel effortless. Maybe this is something you recognize too?

Take a moment to step back from the given version of American success (grow forward & up!) and ask yourself: What truly feels like success to me?

Gentle encouragement to rediscover what lights you up.

“Professional Development” is a big umbrella. Let’s take a look underneath it in order to understand different types of learning and how they might serve you.

Sometimes people ask what it means when we say that we work with mission-driven professionals. It may not be what you think.

Here's what you need to know in order to truly understand psychological safety and what it means for you at work.

Being strategic means having a filter to assess opportunities for the right fit. Before I say yes to anything these days, I turn to my “Strategy Screener,” which lays out a set of questions that help me understand if this opportunity is something I can merely fit in or if it’s the right fit.

Our culture normalizes overextension, even though it’s anything but normal. Your margins are the border around your capacity. Just like on your resume, they leave blank space to breathe. You need that space in order to absorb things that come up in the moment, adapt plans, or to renew and sustain yourself.

The scrappy culture of nonprofits shaped my worldview not only at work, but in life. Now, as my own boss, I am trying to shift my habits and model what it looks like to operate beyond the bare minimum. I don't want to be scrappy. I want to have resources that match the challenges our business is taking on, and I think you, as my clients, want that, too.

We hear from clients all the time who are teetering on the edge of a choice, wanting to take the “right” path (whatever that means!) and worried about potential regrets down the road. Today, we’re hearing from Penney Leadership Coach Jessica Crowley on what it means to make a career decision with confidence.

I'm psyching myself up to attend my first in-person conference in three years. Conferences are nerve-racking. Networking, especially now, is intimidating. ​Will I remember how to talk to people? Are we going to shake hands? What do I say about myself? Couldn't I just stand in a corner and scroll Instagram instead?

While I'm preparing to walk by myself into a room full of people I've never met before, I've had a weird and wonderful realization: Some of the most meaningful and treasured relationships in my life came about as a result of...attending a professional conference?!

So today, I wanted to share six simple ways for how you, too, can make meaningful connections at a conference.

The process of working with recruiters in a job search has always been mystifying to me. Since I came up through the nonprofit sector, the only recruiters we interacted with were looking for executive director level positions. They seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of us, except when they asked a few performative questions about what we (the lowly staff) were looking for in a leader.

But as I've worked with clients at all different levels and in all different sectors, I've learned a thing or two about how you can leverage recruiters as a helpful tool to identify and land an aligned position.

Here’s what I want you to know about the role recruiters can play in your job search…