Category: Personal Growth & Alignment

How does a person really ‘reinvent’ themselves?

Over the past several years, this idea of reinventing ourselves has become a very popular concept. I have watched C-level executives move from corporate arenas to entrepreneurship, from a hardware/software orientation to a cloud/full service focus, and from senior level directors to full time consultant. Many struggle with how to make themselves matter or relevant in their new arena. It is not for the fainthearted, this I know for sure. So – how does one truly reinvent themselves? Is it really possible?

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Is there 1 Most Important Quality?

Recently I was having dinner with two very dear and special friends at my favorite Dallas neighborhood bistro, Parigi. As always, we launched into an open, authentic and passionate conversation. We were bantering about how strong personal and business relationships thrive and survive, in an increasingly turbulent, competitive and stressful world. We were wondering…is there 1 quality that makes the difference?

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4 Lessons from a Concert Pianist

This past weekend my dear friend and I went to our first Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance of the season. The most amazing experience was due to the featured concert pianist Joaquin Achucarro’s performance of Schumann’s Concerto in A Minor. This gifted musician stunned and thrilled the audience, like many have not experienced for many years – if ever. There are 4 salient takeaways I observed that evening which can be applied to any leader or individual wanting to achieve and contribute at their highest level.

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Festina lente

David Duchovny, of The X-Files fame, was working incredibly hard, pushing himself from all angles, overworked, and just not seeing the fruits of his labors earlier in his career. He was wondering…what have I done?! He thought he had blown it! He was in the wrong field, at the wrong time, and he had really made the wrong choice with his life and career. How many of us have been there…or are there? He thought back to a teacher’s advice many years ago…

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3 Tips to a Powerful Online Presence

I work with many clients who are struggling on how often to tweet, post to Facebook, or even what to include in their LinkedIn profile. Many wonder how to ‘align’ their public persona on the Internet with who they are, what they want, and how they wish to be perceived; especially those senior executives in large Fortune 500 companies who are unsure if they even need to have an online social presence, and if so, what should they include and how should they move forward? Me too…it can be daunting and a real time-sink.

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4 Tips to Overcome Betrayal

We have all experienced betrayal at one time or another. The form of betrayal could be as seemingly minor as a collection of friends excluding us from a special celebration to something as major as a colleague stealing intellectual property or bearing false witness against another. These are certainly not pleasant experiences in life; yet, that is why this life experience is is called ‘earth school’ – we are all learning lessons.

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5 Ways to Appear like you ‘Get It’ (even when you’re not sure you do)

Each of us, at one time or another, may feel we have been thrown into the deep end of the pool. I have personally watched many executives over the years use techniques when they were trying to raise capital for a new round of financing or when they were attempting to lead through influence in a new position – and they have confided in me, after the fact, that they were not really sure what to do. What can we do so we at least appear (or sound) like we “get it” and know what to do?

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Do they like me? Does it matter?

Years ago I wrote an article on whether it was important to be liked to be successful. My readers weighed in on all sides of the discussion. Amazingly, this topic continues to come up over dinner tables, cocktail conversations, and even executive coaching sessions. Is it really that important – or is respect really what we want? Are they mutually inclusive or exclusive?

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