Fear is one of those universal human experiences we rarely talk about honestly. Ask ten people why they fear change and you’ll get ten different answers, but the feeling itself shows up everywhere.

One day you look up and realize you’ve built a career that looks good on paper but feels empty on the inside. You’re exhausted, unfulfilled, and unsure how you got here. You’ve checked all the boxes you were told to check… yet something is still missing.

That “something” is often purpose. Not in the grand, cosmic sense, but in the grounded, human sense.

So how do you walk into these rooms without shrinking? How do you hold your ground, influence the outcome, and make leaders feel confident saying yes?

It comes down to five core practices — simple in concept, powerful in execution:

1.      Know Your Audience

2.      Over‑Prepare — Expect the Unexpected

3.      Obtain Meeting Advocates

4.      Practice, Practice, Practice

5.      Manager Alignment

Let’s break each one down so you can walk into your next meeting with clarity, confidence, and control.

Whether you’re stepping into leadership for the first time or you’re a seasoned manager walking into a brand‑new team, the fundamentals don’t change. Your first 6–12 months will define your reputation, your influence, and the level of trust people are willing to give you. Rush this phase, and your success will stall before it ever gets started. People may tolerate you — but they won’t trust you, follow you, or stay.

Ever since becoming a coach, this is one of the questions I get asked most often — by friends, family, clients, and people who are simply curious. And honestly, I get it. The word coach means something different to everyone.

My role as a career coach isn’t to tell you what to do, give you orders, or hand you a pre-packaged plan based on my own experiences.

My job is to help you dig deeper into your experiences, your values, and your goals so you can make decisions that feel aligned, meaningful, and sustainable.

It’s not about giving you answers.

It’s about helping you uncover the answers already inside you.

In many corporations, the IC path has a ceiling. You can grow, but only to a point. Leadership, on the other hand, opens new doors, more responsibility, more influence, more opportunities to shape the work and the people around you.

So which path is right for you?

Only you can answer that. But I can help you think about it clearly.

We love the idea of promotions being a reward for hard work. Put your head down, do a great job, be a team player, and eventually someone will notice. Someone will tap you on the shoulder. Someone will say, “You’ve earned this.”

That’s the story we’re sold.

But it’s not the story most professionals actually live.

In an ocean of policies, procedures, rules, regulations—both written and unwritten—and leaders who can’t make a decision without calling a tribal council of other leaders, it’s a miracle corporations get anything done at all.

Common sense and good judgment feel like endangered species in today’s workplace.

But why?

Performance Review season is a fascinating little ritual in Corporate America. For the folks who drift through their careers like a plastic bag in the wind, it’s just another meeting on the calendar. But for high achievers — the ones who actually give a damn — this season hits differently. It stirs up hope, excitement, nerves, and a very specific kind of anxiety that feels a lot like being a kid counting down the days until Christmas morning.

If you’re laughing at the title and thinking how dramatic it sounds, I don’t blame you. We’re not exactly crawling through trenches or dodging actual explosives. Most of us are working from the comfort of our homes or sitting in a beige cubicle that hasn’t been updated since the early 2000s. Hardly a war zone.

So why call them landmines?

Because if you’ve spent any time in Corporate America, you know the politics are real. You may not fully understand them, but you can feel them — the invisible tripwires, the unspoken rules, the “don’t do this, don’t say that” expectations that no one bothers to explain until after you’ve already messed up.

Think of this as your insider briefing — the stuff no one teaches you, but everyone expects you to know.

Working for a manager who doesn’t advocate for you isn’t just frustrating — it can stall your career if you don’t learn how to navigate it. The good news? You have more control than you think. Here’s your insider guide to handling a manager who isn’t exactly your biggest cheerleader.

After spending 17 years navigating Corporate America, dodging political landmines (and stepping on some), and learning a few lessons the hard way, I’ve pulled together my top seven unwritten rules that EVERY employee should understand. Consider this your insider guide to avoiding the pitfalls you never saw coming.