The Roche Report

On the flight home from the UK, I watched 3 episodes of Being Serena and found myself enraptured by it -- not for the production value or story line really, but because I found it fascinating watching her talk about several of the things that I have struggled with myself (and written about on this blog) like traveling for work, how to be the best at what you do while being an awesome parent, when to stop breastfeeding vis a vis your work demands. It's easy to put people like Serena Williams into an "other" category of "she has so much more ... than me so it must be easier for her" (Insert whatever you want into the ... - resources, talent, support, etc.). And yet, as many of us noted based on her recent US Open win, many of it is harder for her. For example, if anyone else was in back to back major finals, they wouldn't debate whether or not the person had come back; in fact, that could be a career achievement for many! She said two things that really reso...

I haven't posted much in the past month because I have I spent the past number of days and weeks working on two very important presentations / efforts. The entire experience has crystallized (or crystallised, because we had to use British English in the presentation, and that, in itself, was an experience) what incredible work that a solid, well-oiled team can do together. My story about this experience starts with the presentation itself. In a former role, I led a deal team, a large part of which was responsible for helping our IBM teams present in a more innovative and engaging way. My task on one of these two efforts presentation was to do just that - figure out how to create a story that both somewhat made sense in terms of what we were presenting, when we were given a list of essentially randomly organized questions to present. Accordingly, when given this challenge to tackle, my first call was to someone who I've done this with a bunch of times (hi Aaron!), who...

My team got into a discussion this week based on an article that someone posted in our slack channel  about caring for aging parents and how it impacts your career. It quickly evolved into a discussion about bringing your whole self to work - and I wanted to share my thoughts on that topic here... ... which is appropriate because that is the very reason that I started this blog. I started this blog because when I started thinking about wanting a family or realized that I was pregnant with Charlie, I realized that there were not many people that I felt that I could relate to at IBM (or in other consulting firms) who had been "in my shoes" so to speak: "young" aspiring executive, young baby, demanding job with travel, husband in a career with similar demands. There are women at IBM who have done some or all of those things, but if I'm being honest, it was hard to find them. When I found out that I was pregnant, I panicked - and started thinking - "ok...

I stopped breastfeeding one whole month ago! (!!!) I have written about my breastfeeding journey before; feeling anxious about talking about it so publicly, yet feeling like it was important because not enough people talk about what it is like to do it. I've written about my frenemy (the dreaded pump) , my advice on traveling while breastfeeding . I've tried to be open and honest, and share my experience - and so felt I should do the same on the end of my breastfeeding experience. It is wonderful. I thought I would be very emotional about this change, and thinking about it was emotional. It was a moment where, even in the most hectic of days, I was with Charlie, or, at the very least, I was dedicated to Charlie. I haven't been especially emotional about any of these milestones; really, I am so excited and love each new phase so much, that I'm ready to move on to the next one. I mean, what's better than her saying "MAMA!"? Well surely, her being abl...

One of my mentors once told me that I would not be able to realize my full potential as a leader until I became a parent (a surprising comment in the politically correct world today; also, to be clear, I had already told him that this was something that I wanted for myself). I've thought a lot about this since I came back to work - and how or whether being a parent has changed who I am and how I approach my job. This has been front of mind for me this week as it has come up often in two articles that I read this week: This article about Goop and how Gwyenth Paltrow purposefully tries to hire working moms (commenting, “That bitch will get things done .”) This article about how pregnancy actually changes your brain matter - so much so that just by looking at brain scans, researchers could accurately sort people into groups of women who had experienced pregnancy and those who had not Among these different but fascinating excerpts, I, again reflected on how or whether I am dif...

I was reading an article in the Atlantic this weekend that basically stated that the advice about "finding your passion" is really awful advice , and laughed out loud when I read the opening: " Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, remembers asking an undergraduate seminar recently, “How many of you are waiting to find your passion?” “Almost all of them raised their hand and got dreamy looks in their eyes,” she told me. They talked about it “like a tidal wave would sweep over them,” he said.  Sploosh. Huzzah! It’s accounting!" I speak to at least one entry-level person at IBM per week in a career or networking conversation - often, 5-6 - and I could wax poetic about this concept. It seems like many of the people that I talk to are waiting to stumble into their passion area and expect that they will go to a consulting project and *poof!* it will appear to them that testing (or requirements gathering, or scrum-mastering, or doing change man...

I wanted to do a little series on my favorite pieces of advice that I have received in my career, and I thought that I would start with one of the pieces of advice that I rely on the most. When discussing mentorship with someone who I ironically consider to be one of my mentors, she said that she didn't really like the idea of having "just one" mentor. Instead, she suggested the idea of curating your own board of directors. The concept is: much like a company needs a range of leaders with different backgrounds to provide strategic direction, each of us needs a range of advisors to help point us in the right direction. Your board of directors may change throughout your career as you have different roles, different needs, different challenges - and as you develop new relationships. Unlike the traditional "mentorship" model where you seek out someone whose career or style you might want to emulate, in your board of directors, you might have people who you work fo...