I have an idea to make your life easier this year: Design 2010 as the year you desire rather than letting the winds and whims of circumstance determine your future. Start right now, keeping it simple with the technique I’ll describe. It’s similar to techniques I use with my clients and even my own company, LodeStar […]
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Grateful? Put It In Writing – November 2009
When Investors Business Daily interviewed me during Thanksgiving week in 2004 about LodeStar Universal executive coaching, they were curious about one particular executive coaching “secret.” Once a controversial and edgy idea, the practice was none other than my take on the “gratitude journal.” Five years later, it’s again Thanksgiving; and I still recommend the practice. […]
Carl Sewell’s Customers for Life
Car magnate Carl Sewell‘s book Customers for Life makes an important link between customers and employees. Treating one group well over the other is not an “either-or” concept, in spite of the fact such seems to be the case in some companies. Let’s see, a comparison between two airlines comes immediately to mind: one […]
The Reinvention Ragtime – September 2009
Cary Grant did it. ATT, TI, and ExxonMobil did it. Even I’ve done it-several times. Reinvention is a hallmark of successful companies and people. Just like the great American musical genre ragtime, the originality and excitement that emerges from reinvention is built on a legacy of past experiences-both the positive and negatives. I developed a […]
The Overwhelm Loop
What struck me when I was asked to address a meeting at a client company today was how many were stuck in the “overwhelm loop.” It was a perfect opportunity to explore some aspects of emotional intelligence. I asked the group to describe what being overwhelmed meant for them and received great answers, such […]
And What’s Your Job? “Chocolatier,” She Said.
Sexy, hip, Katrina and Noel Merrem are a husband and wife duo living their entrepreneurial dream. The founders of the decadently deep, hand crafted NOKA Chocolate rightfully so are designated “Chocolatiers, ” even though the two of them once labored in traditionally ho-hum jobs. Now they attend glittering parties, have stores in Neiman Marcus and Tokyo, […]
A $13 Billion Handshake
Mr. Joe Ordinary out there rarely considers how so-called “soft skills” carry any financial punch, much less could have the clout to impact billions of dollars. But one extra-ordinary Joe, legendary attorney Joe Jamail, proved how even the humble handshake can rock Wall Street. Here’s what ordinary people miss that the extraordinary don’t: We make […]
Bravo for the Gutsy Babes at Angels and Demons
The Cigar Peg is the kinda place you’d expect to see testosterone in action. You just don’t always expect to see it from a couple of dainty and determined women. Without them, this economic slump would have slammed the Cigar Peg last Monday night, since the bidding was anemic until my friends stepped up and […]
Writing Your Mother’s Obituary
You do it, because you don’t want anyone else to do it. After all, she was your mother. It’s a strange way of holding on. You once were the newspaper columnist, and every one expects it. After all, who else should do it? It all happens so fast. Between then and there, you have […]
Shakespeare on Risk: Anything New Under the Sun?
There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. William […]