Dear Friends,

…I traded in my corner office for a room with a view.

In 2005 I left my job as Head of Human Resources Development in a major ad agency to establish my own training and coaching company - Creating Tomorrow: The Leadership Consultancy.

“Creating Tomorrow” - the name itself reflects the enormous Leap of Faith this step represents in my life!

As you can imagine, the road has often been rocky - filled with its fair share of both joy and frustration. To commemorate the challenges I’ve faced on my journey thus far, today - 1 June 2010 - I am launching a project that is very near and dear to my heart: Uncaged Birds™.

Trina

Dear Friends,

This morning I was having a look at an article on the hurdles some corporate diversity management initiatives face I published under my 360° of Diversity banner over at ezinearticles.com (despite proofreading, I still discovered a typo…). While on the site I took a quick look at some articles about coaching and stumbled onto  one that resonated with me right away.

In “Coaching versus Managing” Craig Nathanson not only breaks down the “what for” of two main coaching objectives; he also gives some excellent tips on how to liberate coaching from a sideline existence and successfully integrate it into your everyday interaction with staff and team members.

To me, one of the most insightful bits of advice Craig shares with his readers is this:

“Too many times managers are quick to give evaluation and not positive feedback. Evaluation only serves to reinforce the manager-subordinate relationship, which is already understood. Feedback, however, given in the right place and time serves to help people understand that feedback is information and not a value judgment about the person.“

Especially now - when the overall economic atmosphere leaves people on every level of the hierarchical corporate ladder feeling wary and unsure - the success of an organization can depend on taking as much of the emotion out of the equation as possible and replacing it with behavior- and results-based direction.

Read Craig’s article in full after the jump!

Trina

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Dear Friends,

Yes, the blog posts have gotten very rare in recent weeks. Personal and professional responsibilities require I re-allocating my time at the moment. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy, though!

If you are active on social media, here are alternative ways to get your regular fix of insightful tips, interesting links, inspiration quotes, via Creating Tomorrow:

Blogs

• If you are interested in what I’m doing regarding presentation skills - or would like to share your own insights and questions on the subject - feel free to surf over to Presentation Warrior™
• For thoughts, facts and quotes on diversity, have a look at 360° of Diversity.
• If German is your language of choice, check out Creating Tomorrow - auf Deutsch.

Facebook

• Creating Tomorrow

• 360° of Diversity

Twitter

• Creating Tomorrow

• Presentation Warrior

• 360° of Diversity

• Creating Tomorrow - auf Deutsch

 Trina

Dear Friends,

This seems to be the month of the new blogs!

I’ve been having an ongoing dialogue with myself about my bilingual audience for some time now. It’s true that many of my professional friends, clients and readers speak excellent English. It’s equally true, however, that a significant number of the above-mentioned group simply find it more convenient to read German than English on any given day of the week.

For that group of people there’s now Creating Tomorrow in German.

This blog will be a selection of older posts from this blog, excerpts from my homepage, as well as posts from Presentation Warrior™ and 360° of Diversity - all written in German. It will also include new post, Slideshare presentations and German-language podcasts.

So, if you’d like to continue following Creating Tomorrow and it’s simply easier for you to get your daily CoachingByte in German: Click. Read. Enjoy.

Trina

Dear Friends,

For a long time I’ve been thinking about ways to enhance the structure of my presentation of the work I do under the Creating Tomorrow umbrella. The first step was to create 360° of Diversity and give my work with diversity management its own blog. Although I consider diversity management a leadership issue, the content is so specific that I wanted it to have its own unique platform.

Now I’ve created another unique blog to showcase my work in presentation techniques and presentation skills training/coaching - Presentation Warrior™. I’m already in the process of migrating older presentation-related entries from this blog onto that platform and will be adding new content by the end of the month.

This blog -  Creating Tomorrow - will continue to focus on topics relevant to leadership and coaching.

Stay tuned for what else is in store in 2010 for Creating Tomorrow!

 Trina

“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.”

(Source: Roy L. Smith)

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow at 7.30 pm CET (12.30 pm EDT) I will be talking with expat author, editor and award-winning blogger Carolyn Vines about “discipline” on my BlogTalkRadio show “Five Coaching Questions about…“.

Carolyn is an American who lives and works in the Netherlands with her multicultural family. Her blog, “Black and Abroad“, is a thoughtful and thought-provoking commentary on dealing with the challenges and joys of a new culture while continuing the all-important inner journey towards self.

In our conversation Carolyn will be sharing with us, among other things:

• how her attitude towards discipline has evolved in unforeseen ways while living in a new culture, as well as
• the difference between the discipline she exercised as a university instructor versus the self-discipline she requires as an author

Is (self-) discipline an issue you are currently struggling with? Or do you have successful methods and techniques for increasing your own discipline you’d like to share? Listen in to my interview with Carolyn live and take part in the conversation, by dialing

+1-646-716-7671

or listen in online.

Trina

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”

(Source: Winston Churchill)

Dear Friends,

Are you one of the many people taking stock of the status of their business or career?

Although it’s good to sometimes just “be”, where our businesses and careers are concerned what we actually “do” makes all the difference in the direction we take and the level of satisfaction we achieve.

Sometimes, though, it’s obvious that doing what we’ve always done won’t be sufficient to take us where we want and need to go:

• What would make a real difference in the success you’re having with your business?
• How can you not only improve your on-the-job performance, as well as increase your job satisfaction?
• When is the right time to make that big career or business move you’ve been visualizing

Take part in the Career 2010 Survey to take stock of your present professional situation, as well as to short-list possible solutions.

Trina

P.S. Eine deutsche Version - Beruf 2010 - gibt es selbstverständlich auch!

Dear Friends,

In my handy online reference dictionary, the word “purpose” is described as:

1. the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.
2. an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
3. determination; resoluteness.
4. the subject in hand; the point at issue.
5. practical result, effect, or advantage: to act to good purpose.

Click here to listen to yesterday’s recording of my BlogTalkRadio show “Five Coaching Questions about Purpose“.

Trina

Dear Friends,

Join me on Wednesday, 20 January, at 1.30pm EST/7.30pm CET for the kick-off of my show “Five Coaching Questions about…” on BlogTalkRadio.

“Five Coaching Questions About…” is a content-rich, year-long dialogue between me and a selection of inspiring international business professionals who are willing to share the stories of their own personal and professional development with me – and with you!  Each month I will continue to highlight such pivotal “life drivers” as

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