Welcome to the Career Insights Blog

Bienvenu.e au blogue Perspectives carrière

For those who have been told to “wait their turn,” to “tone it down,” or to let their work speak for itself, who have worked twice as hard, spoken twice as carefully, and still wonder if they belonged or if it was enough.

Pour les personnes à qui l’on a dit d’attendre leur tour, de modérer leurs propos ou de laisser leur travail parler pour elles. Celles qui ont travaillé deux fois plus dur, parlé deux fois plus prudemment et qui se sont encore demandées si leur place était légitime ou si cela suffisait

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Career Insights is a space for growth and skill-building, helping young professionals master the unspoken rules of success—confidence, communication, and career strategy. With practical tools and insights, we help you navigate challenges, refine your skills, and step into your full potential—because talent deserves opportunity.

Perspectives carrière : Un espace dédié à la croissance et au développement des compétences, qui accompagne les jeunes professionnel·le·s dans la maîtrise des règles souvent tacites de la réussite : confiance en soi, communication, et stratégie de carrière. Grâce à des outils concrets et des ressources pertinentes, nous vous aidons à relever les défis, affiner vos compétences et exploiter pleinement votre potentiel. Parce que le talent mérite d’être reconnu et valorisé.


Latest Publications - Publications récentes

Imposter Feeling Has More Than One Face
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Imposter Feeling Has More Than One Face

Imposter feeling gets referenced constantly, yet it rarely gets examined closely. Dr. Valerie Young identified five distinct patterns in how it shows up, and each one follows its own logic. Left unexamined, these patterns can influence how you lead, what you model for others, and the standards you set, consciously or not. Understanding which one resonates is more useful than addressing self-doubt in the abstract. This blog walks through all five.

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You Keep Saying Imposter Feeling. But Is That Really What It Is?
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

You Keep Saying Imposter Feeling. But Is That Really What It Is?

Imposter syndrome. Lack of confidence. We use these terms as though they mean the same thing. They do not. One is about refusing to own success you have already earned. The other is situational, contextual, and often temporary. Knowing which one you are navigating changes what you do next. And neither is something you must simply live with.

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When Your Peers Become Your Team
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

When Your Peers Become Your Team

Getting promoted over former peers is a hard leadership transitions, not because the work is unfamiliar, but because the relationships are. The dynamic shifts whether you name it or not. What follows is a look at what tends to go wrong, what resistance actually looks like, and what helps you lead with clarity without abandoning the relationships that matter.

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Quand on devient le patron de ses collègues
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Quand on devient le patron de ses collègues

Prendre la tête d'une équipe de collègues que l'on connaît déjà, c'est naviguer un changement de dynamique que personne ne voit vraiment venir. Non pas parce que le travail est inconnu, mais parce que les relations, elles, le sont trop. Ce qui suit explore ce qui déraille, ce que la résistance prend comme forme, et ce qui aide vraiment à prendre sa place sans perdre sa crédibilité.

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What Do Leaders Do with Untapped Potential?
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

What Do Leaders Do with Untapped Potential?

Everyone talks about playing to your strengths. Few ask what has never had room to emerge. You were recognised for what you do well. But what about everything you have not yet had the chance to become? Untapped potential does not appear in most performance reviews. It surfaces when someone takes a risk, when circumstances shift, or when a leader decides to look past the obvious.  This blog explores what that looks like in practice, for you and for the people you lead.

 

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AI for Leaders: The Questions That Matter (And They Are Not Prompts)
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

AI for Leaders: The Questions That Matter (And They Are Not Prompts)

AI is now part of daily professional work. But are we using it well? Research shows that only 5% of employees use AI in truly sophisticated ways. The difference is not technical skill. It is the quality of the questions you bring to it, and the critical thinking and curiosity you apply to what comes back. This blog explores what more deliberate, more engaged use of AI actually looks like in practice.

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How to Get Your Ideas Heard When You Are Not the Boss
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

How to Get Your Ideas Heard When You Are Not the Boss

You have done the work. You know the file. You come prepared. And yet, somehow, your ideas get overlooked, delayed, or picked up later by someone else. It is not necessarily about self-confidence. It is even more pronounced if you are still building your footing, just started a new position, or joined a new organisation. What determines whether an idea gains traction has less to do with being right and more to do with how, when, and with whom you plant it. Three practical approaches to help your ideas land, regardless of where you sit in the organisation.

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 What AI Cannot Replace
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

What AI Cannot Replace

AI can structure your thinking, organise your ideas, and accelerate your work. What it cannot do is tell you what actually matters. That part still requires a human being who knows the context, has navigated the complexity, and understands the consequences. In other words, it still requires a leader.

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Leading When the Story Keeps Changing
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Leading When the Story Keeps Changing

What happens when you work with someone whose version of events keeps changing? Not disagreement or different perspectives, but when the ground keeps moving under basic facts. The inconsistencies often start small: a meeting recounted differently, details adjusted depending on who's asking. No single instance seems dramatic enough to confront, but the pattern accumulates. Energy shifts from work to verification and record-keeping. For leaders, this becomes an operating condition requiring quiet, pragmatic adaptation when conversation proves insufficient

 

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Fire and Stillness in Leadership
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Fire and Stillness in Leadership

Speed and visibility are increasingly treated as signals of competence at work. Acting fast reassures, creates momentum, and keeps things moving. But speed also comes with costs that often surface later. This reflection looks at why speed has become so dominant in professional life, what it enables, what it crowds out, and how leadership judgment lies not in choosing speed or slowness, but in knowing when movement truly serves the work.

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When Leadership Fails to Protect What Matters
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

When Leadership Fails to Protect What Matters

This reflection explores what happens when leaders face impossible choices between protecting the organization and protecting people. It examines these moments from multiple perspectives - the leader making the call, those affected by it, and witnesses to what unfolds. Drawing from leadership experience, it looks at how organizational pressures can make the right action feel impossible, how trust breaks in the aftermath, and what accountability requires when there are no perfect choices.

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When Strengths Become Defaults
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

When Strengths Become Defaults

Strong performance is often built on strengths that work. When those strengths are recognized and rewarded, they bring confidence, clarity, and legitimacy. Over time, however, what works well can quietly become a default, shaping how others see us and what we are asked to do next. This article explores how strengths can narrow our range when learning feels unnecessary, why change is hardest to justify when results are strong, and how continuous learning keeps professional options open. The question is not whether strengths are effective, but whether they still prepare us for what we have not yet encountered.

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Effort and What It Builds
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Effort and What It Builds

What if the problem is not what you lack, but where you invest your effort? This piece examines how inherited ideas about improvement shape leadership decisions, why gaps tend to dominate attention, and what becomes possible when strengths are treated as something to build on, not take for granted.

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The Leadership We Often Miss
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

The Leadership We Often Miss

Leadership doesn’t always look like big decisions or visible achievements. Much of the year moved forward thanks to small, steady actions that often go unnoticed. This piece explores the everyday leadership we tend to overlook and why these quiet contributions matter more than we realize.

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Oops…. This Did Not Work
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

Oops…. This Did Not Work

Setback can unsettle even experienced professionals. When a project slips, a decision misfires, or an initiative falls short, it raises questions about judgment, competence, and leadership. This piece does not have the pretense of offering solutions. It focuses on how to unpack such a situation, understand its context, and see what the outcome reveals about your leadership without letting it overshadow the rest of your work.

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A Practical Guide to Networking
Sophie Makonnen Sophie Makonnen

A Practical Guide to Networking

Networking does not require being an extrovert or spending hours at events. It grows through small, intentional actions. This piece offers a practical five step approach to staying connected, offering value, and strengthening professional relationships through a simple rhythm that feels natural and manageable.

 

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The information provided in these blogs is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace therapy, mental health services, or career counseling provided by a licensed professional. As a certified coach, my role is to support professional growth, not to offer psychological or regulated career counseling services.

Les informations fournies dans ces blogs sont à titre éducatif et informatif uniquement et ne remplacent pas la thérapie, les services de santé mentale ou l’accompagnement en orientation professionnelle offert par un·e professionnel·le réglementé·e. En tant que coach certifiée, mon rôle est d’accompagner le développement professionnel, et non d’offrir des services psychologiques ou d’orientation réglementée.