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Expressing regret or apologizing: A critical component of leadership

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Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world’s leading executive coaches, will release a new book on leadership skills next week. In ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,’ Marshall focuses on interpersonal skills essential to lead people to get ahead in our careers.

In the current issue of the Business Week magazine, Marshall offers previews of two of the twenty critical interpersonal skills he covers in his book: (1) clinging to the past, and, (2) refusing to express regret.

On Refusing To Express Regret

Here are highlights of Marshall’s write-up on apologizing. Read the full article on Business Week magazine’s website.

  • Many of us have difficulty with expressing regret, or apologizing; we think apologizing means we have lost a contest. Refusing to apologize causes as much ill will in the workplace, and at home, as any other interpersonal flaw. [My note: I paraphrased the first sentence.]
  • Apologizing is one of the most powerful and resonant gestures in the human arsenal–almost as powerful as a declaration of love. If love means, “I care about you, and I’m happy about it,” then an apology means, “I hurt you, and I’m sorry about it.” It compels people to move forward into something new and, perhaps, wonderful together.
  • The best thing about apologizing is that it forces everyone to let go of the past. In effect, you are saying: “I can’t change the past. All I can say is I’m sorry for what I did wrong. I’m sorry it hurt you. There’s no excuse and I will try to do better in the future.” That’s tough for even the most cold-hearted to resist.

Making Mistakes is Human Nature

We all err from time to time. Our reaction and follow-up to our errors and missteps reflects greatly on our character. Recognize your slip-ups, express regret and say ‘Sorry.’

Humbly admitting mistakes and apologizing is a critical component of leadership, both in our personal and professional lives. Admission of mistakes and careful distillation of lessons learned, in fact, can strengthen the bond between you and the people around you.

The Commitment Device That Costs Nothing

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Scott Galloway's Daily Anchor: Otto Frank Photograph as Perspective Reset Outside Scott Galloway’s bedroom hangs a photograph. He stops at it for ten seconds every morning and every evening.

The photograph was taken on 3 May 1960 by Arnold Newman, one of the great portrait photographers of the twentieth century. Newman later said it was the saddest image he ever made. The subject is Otto Frank—father of Anne Frank—standing alone in the attic of a narrow canal house in Amsterdam. That attic was the Secret Annex, where Otto, his family, and four others spent more than two years hiding from the Nazis.

The photograph was taken the day the building opened as a museum. It was Otto’s first return since being dragged out sixteen years earlier. Newman couldn’t bring himself to direct the shot. He waited. Otto fell into silence, and the shutter was released.

Otto was the only one of the eight to survive. His wife and both daughters did not. After the war, he spent the rest of his life answering letters from children moved by Anne’s diary. Thousands of them. By hand. For decades. He turned the worst thing that can happen to a person into a sustained act of generosity toward strangers he would never meet.

Galloway, host of the Prof G Pod, describes stopping at the photograph and trying to imagine what was going through Otto’s mind—standing in the room where everything was lost, sixteen years on, still standing. Whatever Galloway is facing that day doesn’t qualify as a problem.

I think about that framing a lot. Not the photograph specifically, but the structure of what Galloway built around it.

Perspective Is Not Inherited; It Must Be Rehearsed

Marcus Aurelius ran Rome at its height. During the Marcomannic Wars, camped on the northern frontier, he sat down every day to write in a private journal. He asked that it be destroyed after his death. It survived because whoever held it last couldn’t follow that instruction. We know it today as Meditations.

It isn’t a book of new ideas. Aurelius already knew what he believed. Meditations is the same few things written over and over: you will die, your problems are small, be useful, stop complaining. The repetition was the whole point. A principle you’ve encountered once isn’t a principle you can access when things go sideways. It has to be worn in.

A photograph instead of a journal, but the same architecture: a fixed moment, a physical anchor, before the noise of the day begins. Neither man was discovering anything. Both were building a structure to stop themselves from forgetting what they already knew.

Success Doesn’t Grant Perspective. It Can Destroy It.

Here’s the thing that most writing on perspective gets wrong: it assumes the habit becomes unnecessary once you’ve achieved something. That difficulty grants wisdom and success consolidates it. The evidence runs the other way.

The brain adapts to comfort fast. Psychologists call it hedonic adaptation—every improvement gets absorbed, the baseline shifts, and the mind finds new things to be dissatisfied about. The stakes of what counts as a problem don’t shrink as your circumstances improve. They expand, because there’s more to protect. Stress doesn’t go away; it just recalibrates upward to match whatever you now have to lose.

A hard life reminds you constantly of what matters. Comfort just… doesn’t. Quietly, without announcement, the drift happens. By the time you notice, it already has.

This is why Galloway does this because of his success, not despite it. Aurelius commanded the most powerful military in the known world and still felt compelled to write “you have power over your mind, not outside events” in a journal he expected to be burned. That wasn’t performance. It was maintenance—a daily correction against a distortion he knew would keep returning if he stopped correcting for it.

The Anchor Isn’t About Suffering. It’s About Agency.

Most advice about keeping perspective tells you to think about people who have it worse. Count your blessings. Feel grateful by comparison. This is well-intentioned and mostly useless.

Galloway didn’t put a photograph of suffering on his wall. He put a photograph of a specific man making a specific choice. Otto Frank lost everything—and then decided, for the remainder of his life, to respond with generosity rather than bitterness. The letters weren’t an obligation. Nobody required them. They were a chosen act, sustained across decades, in full knowledge of what had been taken. That’s not a misery index. That’s a model for how to behave.

Otto’s loss cannot be undone. Aurelius’s death cannot be negotiated away. Both anchors point at things that simply are—permanent, beyond managing or fixing. Most modern frustration runs on the assumption that every obstacle is temporary, every problem solvable with enough effort. These anchors work because they don’t. Against that, the irritations of a comfortable life fall into something closer to their actual size.

What gets rehearsed isn’t guilt. It’s the reminder that the response to difficulty is always, still, a choice.

Idea for Impact: Design for Discipline When Willpower Isn’t Enough

The photograph isn’t there for inspiration. It’s in Galloway’s path so that perspective isn’t something he gets around to when he remembers—it’s something the structure of his day makes unavoidable. Inspiration is unreliable. It shows up when things are already going well and disappears exactly when you need it. A physical object in a fixed location doesn’t negotiate with your mood.

But there’s something more specific about a photograph versus a quote, and I think it matters. A quote makes an argument. On a bad day, the mind can argue back—discount it, find the exception, decide it doesn’t apply right now. A photograph just exists. It makes no claim. The meaning has to be reconstructed every time you stop in front of it. Which means the practice stays alive rather than becoming wallpaper. Galloway isn’t reading a reminder. He’s doing a small act of interpretation, twice a day, that the image quietly demands of him.

Behavioral economists call this a commitment device: something arranged in a clear-headed moment that keeps future behavior honest without requiring ongoing willpower. The photograph costs nothing. It takes ten seconds. It doesn’t ask for motivation or the right mood or a good week.

It just asks that you stop.

Nudge yourself. Every day.

How to Ask for a Raise—and Negotiate in a Way That Commands Respect

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How to Ask for a Raise---and Negotiate in a Way That Commands Respect Asking for a raise is a professional negotiation, not a personal plea.

The moment you frame it as “I need more money” rather than “Here is why I’m worth more to this organization,” you’ve already lost ground. Leave your mortgage, your tuition bills, and your cost of living out of it entirely. They’re irrelevant to what the market pays for your skills and what value you deliver. Keep the conversation squarely there.

Before you request a meeting, do real research. Use the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook and cross-reference with Glassdoor, Payscale, Salary.com, and LinkedIn Salary Insights, filtered to your specific role, industry, and region. National averages can be misleading. Then build a written record of your contributions since your last review. Be specific: revenue increased, clients won, costs reduced, people developed.”I increased regional sales by 17%” carries weight.”I’ve taken on a lot more responsibility” carries almost none. Quantify everything you can.

Understand your total compensation picture before you walk in. Salary, bonus, equity, and flexibility all factor into whether you’re genuinely underpaid or simply underpaid on one dimension. Know the difference before you make an argument based on the wrong one.

Timing matters more than most people realize. Ask after a visible win, not before one. Ask during your company’s budget planning season, not after budgets are locked. Don’t ask when your manager is firefighting or when the company just closed a difficult quarter. The same request lands very differently depending on when it arrives, and arriving at the wrong moment can set your case back by months.

Request a dedicated meeting. Don’t ambush your manager at the end of a performance review or raise it casually in the hallway. Say: “I’d like to schedule some time to discuss my compensation and where I’m headed here. Could we find 30 minutes in the next couple of weeks?” This gives them time to prepare and signals that you’re approaching it seriously.

One thing most employees don’t account for: your manager is often not the final decision-maker. Raises frequently require approval from HR or a director, meaning your manager may genuinely want to help you but needs material to make the case in a room you won’t be in. Make it easy for them. Bring a one-page written summary of your market research and key contributions that they can circulate. You’re not just persuading your manager; you’re equipping them to persuade others.

Lead with Evidence, Not Feeling

In the meeting, open by anchoring on contribution, not need: “I’ve really valued the work I’ve been doing here, and I want to make sure my compensation reflects what I’ve been contributing. I’ve put together some notes on the market data and on what I’ve delivered, and I’d like to walk you through them.” Present your numbers, then let them respond first if you can. If they name a figure first, that sets the floor. If you name 6% first and they had planned 8%, you’ve cost yourself 2% with no way to recover it. If pressed to go first, anchor high. If your target is $72,000, open at $77,000. Negotiation tends to move toward the middle, so where you start matters.

If the answer is no, stay calm. A composed response carries more weight than an emotional one. Say: “I understand. Can I ask what would need to be true, in my performance or in the company’s situation, for us to revisit this?” Then stop talking. What they say next tells you whether a raise is genuinely possible here or whether you’re being managed toward complacency. If they give you specific, measurable criteria, write them down and confirm them in a follow-up email. A commitment that lives only in conversation is easy to forget, or to reinterpret later.

If they stall, give it one week. Then come back with: “I wanted to follow up. It seemed like you may have felt my request was off base, and I’d like to understand if there’s something I’m missing about how this gets decided.” That’s not confrontational, but it signals you’re not going to let it disappear quietly.

If the answer is “not now due to budget,” lock in a specific date to revisit. A commitment to “come back to this later” without a date attached isn’t a commitment. If salary is genuinely off the table for now, shift to non-cash compensation and think carefully about what actually has lasting value. A title change compounds over time: it raises your market rate in every future negotiation, at this company and elsewhere. A professional development budget benefits your employer as much as it benefits you, and framing it that way makes it an easier yes. An accelerated review cycle, moving your next formal review from twelve months to three, is an underused option that most employees never think to ask for.

More Than a Number: Recognition and What It Signals

If you get a raise but it’s smaller than you hoped, accept it graciously in the moment. Thank your manager, then establish the next milestone: “I really appreciate this. I’d like to make sure I’m on track to get to where I’m aiming. Can we agree on what that path looks like and check in at my next review?” You’re not conceding; you’re keeping the conversation alive with a specific next step attached.

It’s worth naming something that doesn’t get said enough. Many people, particularly women and those from cultures where direct self-advocacy is less normalized, feel genuine anxiety about these conversations, not just discomfort but a real fear of being seen as ungrateful or overreaching. That fear is understandable. Research also shows that women who negotiate assertively are penalized more often than men for identical behavior, while those who don’t negotiate leave significant money on the table over the course of a career. Knowing this doesn’t make the conversation easy, but it does reframe the stakes. The risk of asking is real but manageable. The cost of never asking compounds quietly for years.

If you have reason to believe a colleague in the same role is being paid significantly more, especially along gender or racial lines, that’s a different conversation with different stakes and potentially different legal protections. It warrants a separate discussion, and possibly a direct conversation with HR, rather than folding it into a general raise negotiation.

My most durable piece of advice here isn’t about what to say in the room. It’s about what you do in the months and years before you ever sit down. Managers who are easiest to persuade are the ones who already know, in specific detail, what you contribute. Build that record continuously. Send a brief monthly note to your manager summarizing your wins, not a formal document, just a few sentences in an email. Have conversations, well before you need a raise, about what raise-worthy performance looks like in their eyes. Invest in relationships with people beyond your direct manager who influence how compensation decisions get made. When you finally make the ask, it should feel like the natural conclusion of a story that’s already been told.

How to Handle an Employee’s Request for a Raise

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How to Handle an Employee's Raise Request: Evidence, Honesty, and Authority That Retain Talent When an employee comes to you asking for more money, how you handle the conversation will shape your reputation as a manager and determine whether you keep your best people. Resist the impulse to feel put on the spot. A direct, well-prepared employee who advocates for their own compensation is doing exactly what confident, high-performing people do. Treat it accordingly.

That said, if these requests consistently catch you off guard, that’s a signal worth taking seriously. Managers who audit market salaries and review team compensation regularly, ideally once every year or two, don’t get ambushed. Their employees don’t need to initiate the conversation because the manager has already had it. If you’re reactive rather than proactive on compensation, the problem didn’t start with this employee walking into your office.

When the request comes, don’t respond in the moment. Say: “I appreciate you bringing this to me directly. I want to give it the serious consideration it deserves. Can we meet again in the next week or two after I’ve had a chance to look at where things stand?” Then do the actual work.

Evidence First, Instinct Second

Start by separating the person from the position. Write down what this role actually entails, its scope, key deliverables, and decision-making authority, before you look at any numbers. This keeps the evaluation honest and prevents personal feelings about the individual, positive or negative, from distorting the analysis.

Then research the market. Use Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and Salary.com, and check your industry’s trade association salary surveys, pulling both national and regional data. Make sure what you’re looking at is current. The labor market shifts faster than most managers track, and fields in high demand can move significantly within 12 to 18 months. Cross-reference with what you’ve seen in your own recent recruiting. You have real-time data on what candidates are asking for. Use it.

Assess the employee’s contributions using documented performance rather than general impressions. Then ask yourself the question most managers avoid: if this person left tomorrow, what would it realistically cost to replace them? Recruiting fees, lost productivity during the gap, onboarding time, and institutional knowledge walk out the door with them. The total typically runs 50 to 200 percent of annual salary. That number should inform how hard you’re willing to work to retain them, and it changes the calculus considerably.

Know What the Role Is Worth, Then Offer a Real Path Forward

When you reconvene, open by acknowledging the employee’s initiative: “I appreciate that you brought this to me directly.” Then be honest about what your research found.

If the market data and their performance support a raise, say so and act on it. Don’t make them fight for what the evidence already justifies. Managers who delay on a deserved raise, or who grant less than warranted out of inertia, tend to lose their best people within 12 to 18 months. Those employees leave having concluded the organization isn’t fair, and they’re usually right.

If the data shows their current pay is fair but there’s room to grow, be honest and specific: “The market range for a project manager at this level in the Tampa Bay area runs from $78,000 to $95,000. You’re currently at $74,000, which puts you just below that range. That said, I hear you, and I want to work with you on a path to the higher end.” Then build a plan together, with specific measurable goals the employee helps define and a committed date to revisit. Put it in writing. A verbal commitment with no documentation is easy for either party to quietly walk away from.

If the employee is leveraging a competing offer and you’re genuinely open to letting them go, be straightforward: “I’ve looked carefully at what I can offer, and I’m not in a position to match what you’ve described. I’d rather be honest with you than make commitments I can’t keep. I genuinely wish you well and I’m happy to be a strong reference.” Competing offers are frequently inflated by one-time signing bonuses that don’t reflect actual base compensation. An employee who is actively shopping and using an outside offer as leverage may have loyalty that’s already conditional, and a bidding war tends to delay rather than resolve that.

When budget is the genuine obstacle, say so plainly: “Our salary budget is locked until October. What I can commit to is making sure you’re first in line when that window opens, and I want to document that. In the meantime, let me talk about what else I can do.” Non-cash compensation deserves a serious conversation, not a consolation-prize presentation. A title change that reflects expanded scope raises the employee’s market rate permanently and compounds in their favor at every future negotiation. A professional development budget benefits the organization as much as the individual. An accelerated review cycle, moving the next formal review from twelve months to three, signals genuine seriousness and gives both parties an early accountability checkpoint.

Honesty Builds the Kind of Authority That Lasts

There are things managers say in these conversations that damage trust even when well-intentioned:

  • “I think you’re already paid well” sounds dismissive even when it’s factually accurate
  • “Everyone is struggling right now” deflects rather than addresses the specific request
  • “I’ll see what I can do” breeds quiet resentment when nothing follows
  • “Don’t tell anyone about this raise” creates a culture of secrecy that tends to backfire
  • “You should be grateful you have a job” ends the conversation and, effectively, the relationship

Also worth naming: some managers instinctively penalize employees who ask for raises, assigning lower performance ratings afterward, passing them over for projects, or treating them as a flight risk. The employees most likely to advocate for their compensation are often your strongest performers. Penalizing that initiative trains your best people to stop engaging and start planning their exit instead.

Pay attention to gender dynamics in these conversations. Research consistently shows that women who negotiate assertively are penalized more often than men for identical behavior. You have a specific responsibility as a manager to notice whether your reaction to a raise request shifts based on who’s sitting across from you, and to correct for it honestly.

A single employee asking for a raise is a normal part of managing people. Multiple employees asking within a short window is a signal about your compensation structure or your culture, and usually both. Word travels despite your best efforts at confidentiality. If you grant raises reactively, only to those who push hardest, you build a culture that rewards volume over performance and invites a chain reaction. The answer isn’t to be uniformly conservative. It’s to build a compensation structure that’s coherent and reviewed regularly, so that no one has to guess whether they’re being paid fairly.

How you handle these conversations defines your reputation, not just with the employee in front of you but with the team watching from outside and the candidates you’ll try to recruit down the road. A raise conversation handled well is a retention conversation. It’s also a signal, to everyone paying attention, of what kind of manager you are.

How to Listen, Really Listen

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How to Listen, Really Listen: Listen with Intent to Agree Most advice on listening is predictable: keep eye contact, stay alert, don’t drift off. It’s the sort of checklist that makes listening sound like a military drill. Useful, yes, but it misses the point. Because when people are told to “listen with intent,” what they usually do is prepare their counterstrike. They’re not listening; they’re loading ammunition.

The alternative is harder, but far more effective: listen with the intent to agree. Not to surrender your own view, but to understand theirs. Accept that their facts, experiences, and worldview are not yours. Before you explain, defend, or suggest, assume that what they’re saying is true from their perspective. That’s the only way to reach genuine communication.

This means stripping away the noise and focusing on the core. What is the person actually saying? What emotions are they trying to convey? Hold back your judgment. Don’t impose your own framework. Ask clarifying questions, not to trip them up, but to show you’ve heard them. Assume they are right about their feelings and experiences. Listen for what they may be struggling to articulate.

When they finish, summarize. “I heard you say…” or “This is what I feel you meant…” That simple act proves you understood and gives them the chance to correct or expand. It’s not a trick; it’s the foundation of dialogue.

Idea for Impact: Listening is a skill. It can be trained, improved, and sharpened. And it matters because many people don’t need advice or solutions—they need someone to actually hear them. Empathic listening isn’t passive. It isn’t indulgent. It’s listening with someone, not just to them. That’s where connection begins.

Top 10 Duties of a Pharmacist: Here’s What You Can Expect

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Top 10 Duties of a Pharmacist: Here's What You Can Expect

Have you noticed that every time you walk into a pharmacy, whether it’s a large corporate one or a small local one around the corner from your home, the pharmacists in the back are never standing still? You never see a non-moving pharmacist. This might sound like a bit of an odd statement but there is truth to it. Just think of the last time you went to a pharmacy. If they aren’t helping a patient, they’re filling up medicine boxes for collection, rearranging their medicines, checking sell-by dates, jotting something down on their laptops and overall, just staying busy bees. But what exactly are they truly doing? If this interestes you, then keep reading.

Pharmacists do a lot of things, much more than the 10 duties mentioned below but these serve as a general idea of what they do daily, so that you can have a better understanding of this occupation. The job duties as a pharmacist are not mundane nor are they easy, so settle in because you’re about to learn a lot.

1. Dispensing Medications Safely and Accurately

Dispensing medication is one of the most visible duties of a pharmacist but it involves much more than filling a bottle. Each prescription is reviewed for accuracy, dosage and potential interactions. You ensure that the medication matches the doctor’s instructions and is safe for the patient based on their health history. But before you can do that as a pharmacist, you have to be able to read the doctor’s handwriting to start, which seems to be an additional secret skill of pharmacists that the average person simply cannot get the hang of.

This responsibility requires attention to detail and a strong understanding of pharmacology. A single mistake can have serious consequences, which is why pharmacists approach this task with careful focus and consistency. It’s definitely a job in which precision is key.

2. Reviewing Prescriptions for Errors and Interactions

Before any medication reaches a patient, it must be evaluated. This is where pharmacists act as a final safety checkpoint in the healthcare system. Prescriptions are reviewed for possible issues that could harm the patient.

Key checks include:

  • Dosage accuracy based on age, weight and condition

  • Drug-to-drug interactions

  • Allergies or contraindications

  • Duplicate therapies

3. Counseling Patients on Medication Use

Patient education is a major part of pharmacy practice. You explain how to take medications, what side effects to watch for and what to avoid while using them. This conversation helps patients feel confident and informed. Clear communication reduces misuse and improves treatment success. Many people feel more comfortable asking a pharmacist questions than contacting a doctor, which makes your role essential in everyday healthcare guidance. You should never answer questions that only a doctor should answer but you can give insight into how to use the medicine prescribed, as that was prescribed by the doctor and is therefore allowed.

4. Managing Medication Therapy Plans

Pharmacists help patients manage long-term treatment plans, especially for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension or asthma. This includes monitoring progress, adjusting dosages when needed and working with doctors to optimize results. Medication therapy management focuses on ensuring that every medication serves a purpose and works together effectively. This role improves outcomes and reduces unnecessary or harmful drug use. There is a deeper link between a patient and their pharmacist than between the patient and their doctor.

5. Supporting Healthcare Teams

Pharmacists collaborate with doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. They contribute expertise on drug selection, dosing and safety.

This teamwork often includes:

  • Recommending alternative medications

  • Advising on treatment protocols

  • Supporting hospital rounds

  • Participating in patient care planning

6. Monitoring Patient Health and Outcomes

Pharmacists track how patients respond to treatment. This may involve checking blood pressure, blood glucose levels or other markers, depending on the setting. When results show concerns, adjustments can be made quickly. This ongoing observation turns pharmacists into active participants in patient health , not just medication distributors. It strengthens trust and ensures treatments stay effective over time. As a patient, you know that you visit your pharmacist very now and again, maybe even more often if you have recurring medicine. This means that your pharmacists likely see you more often than your doctor and they can track how you’re doing.

7. Managing Pharmacy Operations

Beyond clinical duties, pharmacists oversee daily pharmacy operations. This includes inventory control, workflow management and ensuring compliance with regulations. You maintain a balance between efficiency and safety. Keeping medications stocked, managing staff schedules and maintaining proper documentation all fall under this responsibility. These operational skills ensure the pharmacy runs smoothly and patients receive timely service.

8. Educating Communities on Health and Wellness

Pharmacists often serve as educators in their communities. They help people understand disease prevention, medication safety and healthy habits. Education efforts can include vaccine awareness and administration, quit smoking programs, medication safety workshops and chronic disease management guidance.

9. Staying Current With Medical Advancements

Medicine changes constantly and pharmacists must stay informed. New medications, updated guidelines and evolving safety protocols require ongoing education. This keeps your knowledge sharp and ensures patients receive the most effective treatments available. Continuous learning is part of the profession and helps maintain confidence and credibility in clinical decisions.

10. Ensuring Legal and Ethical Compliance

Pharmacists must follow strict legal and ethical standards. This includes handling controlled substances, protecting patient privacy and maintaining accurate records. Ethical judgment is essential when dealing with sensitive situations, such as potential misuse of medication or conflicting prescriptions. Upholding these standards protects patients and preserves trust in the healthcare system.

Well, there you have it. This is what a pharmacist does.

The Three Baby Names to Avoid According to Language Specialists

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The Three Baby Names to Avoid According to Language Specialists

One of the most important parts of early childhood development is speech and language acquisition. According to a leading specialist, there are some names you should avoid.

Speech and language pathology is vital, yet underutilized in clinical practice. It helps children get to grips with one of the fundamentals of communication: Speech. According to experts, there are three names you should avoid giving children due to their trickiness to learn in the early years. But have you selected one, and if your child is having trouble with speech, can a language pathologist help?

The Three Names to Avoid

Chloe Conrad is a speech-language pathologist and the founder of Spunky Speech Therapy. On a video posted to Instagram, she declared that the three names to avoid are Rory, Rowan, and Aurora. This is not through personal dislike, but from speech, language, and the way infants develop their speaking skills.

Her explanation was that any names with an R and an O next to each other will be difficult for children to learn. This is because certain vowels, in particular, are trickier to learn when placed adjacent in a word. Most children tend to substitute W for an R as well, which is a normal progression. Luckily, they are not the most popular baby names

.

The Importance of Speech and Language Pathology

Speech and language pathologists are the people who help children and adults who are having issues developing their speech. They don’t just work on speech problems either. They can also help solve issues regarding how people chew, eat, or swallow. However, they are primarily concerned with communication, not only in children but in people of all ages.

The etiquette of communication is known as pragmatics, and also falls under their domain. This involves factors such as how close we stand to people when talking, or how the rules of questioning and answering are followed. The delivery is also important, and pathologists may help people who stutter or display verbal tics.

Language is more than just speaking. People who have speech and language issues can also encounter issues with reading and writing. This can exacerbate communication problems and can leave people isolated from the world around them, which SLP professionals also assist with.

Becoming a Speech and Language Pathologist

Becoming a speech pathologist is not an easy path and will take time. However, it will be one of the most rewarding careers you could possibly undertake. You will be creating a future for people, allowing them the gift of speech and communication with the world at large.

The first step is to gain an undergraduate degree. This will need to be in a related field. Language development, linguistics, psychology, and communication sciences and disorders are a few of many that will set you on the right path.

After this, you have the qualification that will allow you to start an SLP masters program . You can now choose to do these online, making them more accessible than traditional master’s programmes. They will set you up for state licensure, which is the step after, and get you ready for work through real working hours and observation periods. Many will have at least two internships, and all of these can be completed in around five semesters.

Who Do Speech and Language Pathologists Work With?

Speech and language pathologists work with people across all age groups. However, the bulk of their clientele is children who are developing or want to address speech issues, along with those who have lost the ability to speak or may be having issues in later life. This can arrive through a range of problems, such as accidents and illness.

Generally, a doctor will refer you to an SLP. They may do so if you or your child is experiencing difficulties with speech, in a bid to improve it. However, other communication issues may also be referred to them, especially if issues with comprehension and self-expression arise.

Any issues regarding social situations also fall under their domain. If you struggle to communicate in these settings or develop stuttering or tics, you may be referred. Those who have no speaking ability or are limited may also see them develop other ways to communicate.

Developing Speech With Your Child

You don’t need to be a speech pathologist to develop your child’s linguistic skills. In fact, an all-round approach to communication is a great foundation. This includes talking to them, playing with them, and reading. Even the names mentioned above won’t have much of an impact if chosen. It may simply take longer before a child can pronounce their own name properly.

Even with these factors, children can still develop speech issues, as can adults. These exceptional circumstances are where the expertise of speed and language pathologists comes in, providing help and assistance to those who need it. Unfortunately, there are too few in the US, and if you are considering a career in this, then contact an educational establishment and discuss your progress.

A Simple Portfolio-Building Guide for Future Nurse Educators

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AACN counted 1,977 vacant full-time nursing faculty positions for academic year 2023–2024, a 7.8% vacancy rate out of 25,247 budgeted roles. That’s a big, very practical reason to start treating the teaching you already do at the bedside as something worth saving and shaping.

This article shows you how to collect everyday clinical moments, convert them into simple lesson assets, and build a portfolio that signals ‘I can teach’ before you ever hold a formal educator title. We’ll keep it grounded in what nursing schools and regulators are telling us, including AACN’s national vacancy survey (sent to 1,091 schools; 922 responded, an 84.5% response rate) and the shift toward clinical judgment in the Next Generation NCLEX. And because many programs for online RN to MSN nurse educator explicitly emphasise creating lesson plans and overseeing students’ clinical practices, you’ll be aligning your portfolio with skills you’re likely to be asked to demonstrate anyway.

Teach It Once and Keep It Forever

You don’t need a new role to start building educator evidence because bedside nursing already includes teaching in small, repeated ways. Sometimes you’re educating a patient, sometimes you’re coaching a newer nurse through a workflow and sometimes you’re translating a provider’s plan into steps the whole team can act on.

The key move is to stop letting those moments disappear after the shift report.

AACN’s 2023–2024 Faculty Vacancy Survey found that 59.4% of responding nursing schools reported at least one vacant full-time faculty position (548 out of 922 schools). When schools are stretched, they don’t just want caring clinicians, they need people who can explain, structure and evaluate learning in a way that’s consistent from student to student.

You’re not ‘writing about yourself.’ You’re building a small library of reusable teaching pieces that make your thinking visible. Start with one teachable moment per week and capture it in three lines: (1) what the learner needed to do (2) what you said or demonstrated and (3) how you checked whether it landed. Keep it de-identified, of course, and generalise it into ‘a patient with…’ language so you’re preserving learning without preserving private details.

One more detail that matters if you’re teaching in a particular part of the country: AACN reports that among schools with vacancies, the West had an 11.0% full-time vacancy rate for academic year 2023–2024. In other words, in some regions the need for confident, well-prepared educators is even more intense which is good motivation to package your teaching strengths clearly.

The next step is making your work legible to academia because ‘I’m good at teaching’ is hard to evaluate, but ‘here’s what I teach and how I assess it’ is much easier.

Your Portfolio as a Capacity Booster

A portfolio can feel personal but it also has a system-level effect: it reduces friction.

When a school is trying to hire or place clinical instructors, time disappears into back-and-forth questions. What can you teach? Can you evaluate students fairly? Can you run a clinical day without guessing what ‘good’ looks like? A portfolio answers those questions faster and faster onboarding is a quiet form of capacity.

AACN’s nursing faculty shortage fact sheet (updated May 2024) notes that in 2023, 5,491 qualified applications were turned away from master’s programs and 4,461 qualified applications were turned away from doctoral programs with primary reasons including shortages of faculty, preceptors and clinical education sites. You can’t fix those constraints alone but you can show up as someone who’s ready to teach in a way that protects standards and saves time.

Build a ‘micro-syllabus shelf.’ Not a full course. Just three short, clearly structured teaching modules you could deliver in 10 to 15 minutes during a clinical day or precepting shift, each with one objective and one simple check for understanding. If someone asked you tomorrow to support clinical learning, you’d have something ready that’s coherent, consistent and easy to reuse.

It also helps to know that federal workforce support exists specifically to grow nurse faculty. HRSA’s Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NOFO HRSA-24-015) stated it would award approximately $26.5 million to up to 90 grantees over one year to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty nationwide, with loan cancellation up to 85% for graduates who complete up to four years of full-time nurse faculty employment. That’s a strong signal that ‘becoming nurse faculty’ is a real, supported pathway and schools have reasons to keep developing the pipeline.

Make It NGN-Proof

If you want your portfolio to feel current, build it around clinical judgment.

NCSBN announced it launched the Next Generation NCLEX on April 1, 2023, explicitly tying the exam’s direction to the need for entry-level nurses to make increasingly complex decisions using clinical judgment. That emphasis gives you a helpful filter: choose bedside moments where a learner had to notice cues, prioritise, select an action and adapt.

There’s also a practical career angle here. AACN’s 2023–2024 vacancy survey reported that 79.8% of vacant full-time faculty positions required or preferred a doctoral degree. You may be early in the journey but you can still show you’re serious about education by presenting teaching artifacts that look like how educators work: objectives, structure, feedback and measurable learning.

Here are three portfolio pieces that do that without turning your life into a paperwork project:

  • A one-page ‘clinical judgment debrief’ template: cues noticed, options considered, action chosen, what you’d do differently next time.

  • A simple evaluation for one common learning moment (handoff clarity, medication teaching, prioritisation, infection prevention) with 3–4 levels so feedback is consistent.

  • A ‘version history’ reflection note: your first draft of a mini-lesson, what didn’t work and the revised version after you tried it again.

If someone read only your portfolio, would they see how you think or only what you did?

Document the Good You’re Already Doing

A bedside-to-lesson-plan portfolio works because it follows a steady logic: capture real teaching moments, shape them into usable learning assets and align them with how nursing education now talks about competence and clinical judgment. It’s also a surprisingly optimistic project because it asks you to notice what’s going well in your practice and turn it into something that can lift other people faster .

If you’re considering an RN-to-MSN Nurse Educator path, it’s worth remembering what programs say they’re preparing you to do: create effective lesson plans and oversee clinical practice. Starting your portfolio now makes those outcomes feel less like ‘school tasks’ and more like a natural extension of the nurse you already are.

So keep it simple: one de-identified bedside moment, one clear objective, one quick check for understanding, saved in a place you can build on.

When Nursing Starts to Feel Like a Dead End

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When Nursing Starts to Feel Like a Dead End

Nursing rewards commitment, but it does not always reward longevity. Many experienced nurses reach a point where effort no longer translates into momentum. This is about recognising that moment, questioning the grind, and looking at career progress as something deliberate and sustainable, not rushed or self-destructive.

You can like your job and still feel boxed in by it. A lot of nurses reach a point where the work keeps piling up and the shifts get heavier, and yet the role itself stays fixed. You are trusted and relied on but maxed out, yet the path forward looks fuzzy. That tension sits in the background of daily life, especially when work already takes more out of you than it gives back. At some point, the question becomes simple: stay where you are, or find a way to move forward without blowing everything up.

Hitting the Ceiling in Clinical Roles

Most nurses know the feeling of being good at the job but stuck in the same lane. You handle more complex situations and mentor newer staff, you carry a lot of unspoken responsibility, yet your scope does not really change. Promotions are limited. Pay bumps are small. The work keeps coming anyway.

That is often the moment when education enters the picture, not as a dream move, but as a practical one. Some nurses start looking for paths that do not add unnecessary steps or drag things out for years. An integrated option like an RN to MSN degree can feel appealing in this context because it skips the stop-start pattern of earning multiple credentials along the way. It is less about chasing a title and more about opening doors that actually change what your workday looks like.

For many people, the appeal is simple: a clearer direction and a sense that the effort actually goes somewhere real.

What Advanced Practice Actually Changes

Moving into advanced practice is not about becoming a different person at work. It is about having more say in clinical decisions and more control over how you use your skills. Nurse practitioners, for example, work with greater independence and often have more predictable career options.

That direction is not accidental. Demand for nurse practitioners continues to grow , and roles are expanding across primary care, mental health, and specialty settings, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those roles come with different expectations, but also with clearer authority and professional footing.

If you are already carrying responsibility without the title or flexibility to match it, that difference can feel meaningful. It is all about doing work that lines up better with your experience and judgment.

Education Paths That Do Not Add Extra Years

One of the biggest blockers for nurses thinking about graduate school is time. Not everyone has the patience or energy to stack degree after degree while still working full time. Traditional routes can feel drawn out, especially when they include steps that do not really change your day-to-day role.

That is where streamlined education paths come into focus. Integrated programs appeal to people who already know what they want and do not need extra proving ground along the way. The draw is efficiency. You study with a clear endpoint in sight and avoid repeating material you already use on the floor. There is no “starting from the bottom” again setback, btu a natural continuation of where you already are.

For someone balancing work, family and basic a bit of me-time, that structure can make advanced education feel doable rather than overwhelming. It is less about speed and more about respect for the reality of adult life. It’s the educational pathway that has been missing, but now, at least, it is available in nursing.

Hustle Culture Versus Sustainable Progress

Healthcare does not escape hustle culture. There is a constant hum around doing more and taking on extra shifts, pushing through exhaustion because that is what dedicated people do. The problem is that this framing leaves very little room for long-term thinking.

Stepping back from that mindset does not mean giving up. It often means choosing progress that does not drain you dry. A thoughtful look at hustle culture cuts through the idea that constant pressure equals success. Hustling is great, but not at the cost of your sanity.

For nurses, sustainable progress usually looks quieter and more deliberate. It might mean fewer shifts but more influence. It might mean changing roles instead of adding more tasks. The goal is not to escape work, but to shape it into something you can live with for years, not just survive this month.

Choosing Forward Without Burning Out

Career growth does not have to feel dramatic to be real. For many nurses, the most honest moves are the ones that reduce friction instead of adding it. You already know the work. You already carry responsibility. The next step is about aligning your role with that reality.

When choices are grounded in clarity rather than pressure, they tend to hold up better. Moving forward does not require noise or grand gestures. Sometimes it just means choosing a path that respects your time, your energy, and the life waiting for you when the shift ends.

Nursing 101: Make Sure You Have What It Takes to Make an Impact in the Nursing World as You Get Started

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Nursing 101: Make Sure You Have What It Takes to Make an Impact in the Nursing World as You Get Started

So, you want to become a nurse? You have your undergraduate degree in another field but you’ve found out about the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (ABSN program) and you’ve learnt that you can do this fast-tracked degree to build on the one you have. You could get into nursing in just over 12 months. It sounds great, doesn’t it? And it is. Amazing to think that the nursing field offers something like this; however, you must be aware of the fact that, whilst you might already have an undergrad, you must have some subjects under your belt that will assist you in the ABSN program. This includes subjects like statistics, psychology, biology and anatomy. Keen to learn more? Great, it’s time to dive in.

There are certain prerequisites for nursing online that you need to be aware of. If you don’t know them, you have come to the right place because you’re about to learn all there is to know. To start, you must build the right academic foundation before you do anything else. Sure, you have a BA already but you must cross off some additional subjects. Then, you need to spend some time looking at your GPA and also looking at what exactly the ABSN program demands of you. Think you’re ready? It’s time to dive in.

Building the Right Academic Foundation

Before applying to an ABSN program, it is important to make sure your academic base is strong. Nursing relies on both science and critical thinking, so prior coursework matters more than many people realize. Classes like anatomy, psychology and statistics are not just boxes to check. They directly shape how easily you understand nursing material later on. These subjects prepare you for understanding the human body, interpreting research and connecting physical health with mental and emotional well-being. If you don’t have these, the program will likely be a lot harder for you to grasp because these are simply the foundations of this field.

Key courses that often matter most include:

  • Human anatomy and physiology to understand how body systems function

  • Psychology to understand behavior, stress and patient interaction

  • Statistics to interpret medical research and evidence-based practice

  • Microbiology to understand infection control and disease processes

Why GPA Plays Such a Big Role

ABSN programs move fast because they compress years of nursing education into a shorter time frame. Schools use GPA as a way to predict whether you can handle that intensity. A strong GPA shows consistency, discipline and the ability to manage challenging material. Your GPA reflects more than grades. It reflects how well you manage deadlines, absorb complex topics and stay committed when things get difficult. These qualities are essential in nursing, where responsibility is constant and stakes are high.

Even if your GPA is not perfect, showing dedication and growth can still work in your favor. Schools want to see commitment just as much as raw academic performance. So, if you find yourself in the situation of not having achieved your ideal GPA, don’t worry. Try to get in touch with the nursing school you’re interested in to plead your case. Show your passion and commitment for the field and see what they say. Don’t give up!

Understanding What an Accelerated Nursing Program Demands

An ABSN program is intense by design. It takes the content of a traditional four-year nursing degree and delivers it in a much shorter window, usually within 12 months. This means long study hours, frequent exams and very little downtime. You are expected to absorb information quickly and apply it immediately in clinical settings. That requires organization, focus and emotional resilience. It is not just about memorizing material. It is about learning to think like a nurse. This pace can be challenging but it is also what makes ABSN programs so effective. They prepare you for the reality of nursing, where quick thinking and adaptability are everyday skills.

The Personal Skills That Matter Just as Much as Academics

Nursing is a people-centered profession and personal qualities matter just as much as test scores. If you want to make an impact in nursing, emotional intelligence and resilience are essential. You have to be someone who is willing to help, who can showcase empathy, cultural sensitivity and who can stay focused even when beyond tired.

These skills help you connect with patients, work effectively in teams and manage the emotional demands of healthcare.

Preparing Before You Apply to the Program

Getting ready for an ABSN program starts long before applying. It is about creating a strong academic and personal foundation that makes the transition smoother.

Ways to prepare include:

  • Reviewing science material before classes begin

  • Practicing time management strategies

  • Creating a support system of family or friends

  • Understanding the physical and mental demands of clinical work

Preparation helps reduce stress and increases confidence. When you know what is coming, it feels easier to meet challenges head-on.

A Strong Start Shapes a Strong Career

Success in nursing begins long before graduation. It starts with making sure your foundations are solid. Taking the right prerequisite courses, maintaining a competitive GPA and preparing mentally for an accelerated program all set the stage for long-term success.

Nursing is not just about passing exams. It is about developing competence, compassion and confidence that will lead you on your journey.