Getting Unstuck

SEVEN

Power, People, and Achievement

Three Interwoven Patterns

SAMANTHA MCPHERSON, now thirty-five, was born and raised in California but has spent the last decade working in Europe. She is a warm and outgoing person who listens well and cares about what others have to say. She has worked in nonprofit organizations her entire life, mostly in higher education. When I met her, she was an assistant director in the office of student life at a prominent European university. Sam had come to one of my workshops because she was facing an impasse.

“I spent the first five years after the birth of my children doing parttime contract work in order to dedicate myself to nurturing my two beautiful baby girls,” she said by way of explaining her interest. “Over ...