The Cosmic Career Coach

Dear Cosmic Career Coach,

I am an Aries and I'm having trouble managing an employee. He's a Sagittarius and seems to have trouble focusing and following through on projects. He starts out each project with grand ideas of what he'd like to do but then his enthusiasm sort of peters out after a month or so and the project goes unfinished. What can I do to get him more on track?

—At My Wits End in Atlanta

Dear Wits End,

Welcome to management, Aries. You've correctly identified what optimistic and philosophical Sagittarians bring to the table in any work setting: big-picture thinking and a lack of follow-through. While most Aries make it to management due to their ability to bulldoze projects into submission, flaky employees like this Sag drive you nuts.

However, Action-Oriented One, once you make management, your job becomes prodding others to do their jobs. (The Brass forgot to tell you that when they were handing out promotions. Sorry!) In the case of your Sagittarius, you'll have to baby-sit him to get him on track—at least in the short term. While this may seem like a waste of time, it's part of your job. You can tell him flat out that you see a problem with his work (Sags like honesty), but give him hope by telling him you two will work on it.

Your Cosmic Career Coach thinks the best way to manage a Sag involves breaking down any major project he has into several "mini-projects" with short-term deadlines. Sagittarians like a challenge, and your Archer worker will love racing to finish work and impressing you with pre-deadline deliverables so that, like an enthusiastic puppy, he gets the next task. By keeping the carrot near his nose at all times (rather than letting it dangle far out in the future), your Sag will stay engaged in work and eventually finish it—and you'll have taught him how. For future projects, you can give him a longer leash—or he can eventually follow this model to manage himself.

Hot Careers for Aries

• Management
• Computer Programming
• Nursing

Dear Cosmic Career Coach,

I'm a Pisces. I work as part of a small team at a technology company. One of my co-workers, a Cancer, is constantly coming to me for reassurance and advice about her work. I try to be honest and constructive with my critiques but she seems to take it the wrong way. Other co-workers have told me they've seen her crying in the bathroom sometimes after our conversations. I don't have time to deal with her issues. How do I get her to leave me alone?

—Interrupted in Illinois

Dear Interrupted,

Gentle Piscean, ye of the Kleenex boxes and listening ear, you with that empathetic face that makes people want to put up their feet and fill a 50-minute hour with their deepest, darkest confessions. Your big heart and the above traits are fine for parenting, art, and social work. But they act as disadvantages in the high-speed world of technology, especially if folks like this Cancer flock to you.

Coach has two words of advice for you, Pisces: boundary time! It's one thing to listen to a colleague who is suffering through a change for the better, and quite another to listen to a broken record message from someone who isn't succeeding in changing their situation. It sounds like this Clingy Cancer's problem isn't her work but, rather, her insecurity about her talents and methods. In addition, Cancers are territorial, and she may feel that if she doesn't measure up she'll suffer professionally. This, empathetic Pisces, is not your problem.

For Cancers, there's often a need to share feelings for the sake of sharing feelings. Respond to her feelings with some of your own (in a diplomatic way), since Cancers are respectful of others' emotions (if not their time). Next time you see her hands wringing outside your cube, sit her down and dole out the tough love: you really think she's a great person and great worker, but it pains you to see her so insecure about her talents. As a favor to you, because it upsets you so, she needs to stop doubting herself—and, since she's this upset, she should tell her manager of her concerns and get the real feedback she seems to need from the source she needs it from—the boss.

Hot Careers for Pisces

• Business
• Graphic Design
• Fashion Merchandising

About Jane Hodges, The Cosmic Career Coach Jane Hodges is a Seattle-based business writer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine and many other publications. When she's not reporting on real estate or big business, she writes the "Seeing Stars" astrology column for Southwest Airlines' magazine, Spirit. She is also the author of Cosmic Grooves, a music and astrology book series (Chronicle Books/Rhino Records, 2001).