Creating Tomorrow

“…You must have a vision of Being, a Dream, a Purpose, a Principle. You will become what your vision is…”

(Source: P. N. Zarlenga)

–> What is YOUR vision for your life, business or career?

 

If you could have exclusive coaching support

to get the results you’ve always wanted…

how would it

TRANSFORM your life?

 

 

Find out more about the 100-Day Results Now Coaching Challenge.

Register for the information call about the challenge on 6 July 2009.

“…Action is the foundational key to all success…”

Source: Pablo Picasso

Dear Friends,

“…In our vocabulary ‘help’ became a four-letter word that we would just as soon ban forever…”

When I was still working in advertising, a fellow management supervisor was known for her harsh treatment of trainees and other junior staff. She was on an extremely positive wavelength with her clients, which made her a key player within the agency, but especially those junior members of her team who would have needed her skillful guidance and mentoring often ended up in my office in tears. Instead of establishing an alliance with a more senior member in her team who could have complimented her brusque leadership style in this more EQ-related area, she continued to aggressively bowl over the egos and self-esteem of her juniors in order not to directly expose what - I found out later - she already realized was her own leadership vulnerability.

Needless to say, the turnover rate for her team - despite the prestige associated with their very desirable  blue chip client - was extremely high.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Friends,

“…At home we were most often still responsible for the majority of the housework and childcare. Added to that was now our responsibility as (partial) breadwinners…”

After our children came, and then turned 2 years old and 4 years old respectively, I began working full-time. At the same time, my husband and I decided that he would become their primary caregiver instead of having to entrust them full-time outside care. Remember: this is the mid-80’s. While I had several rôle models when it came to women in the workforce, filling out and accepting the rôle of a stay-at-home dad was totally new territory for both of us. Pretty much from one day to the next my husband found himself in charge of not only the daily well-being of our children; he was also responsible for the majority of the household chores, including cooking.

Or at least he should have been.

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“Frustration (…) is a very positive & essential part of success.” (B. Bennett)

–> What important lesson(s) can frustration teach U?

Dear Friends,

“…In the workplace we were so afraid of being thought incapable that some of us went as far as to become a caricature of the alpha-males who symbolized all that was negative in the paradigm we were struggling to shift…”

In the late 80’s I worked for a small specialized marketing agency in Frankfurt for almost five years. My job: To create, select and legally pre-check brand names for new products, services, etc. It was a great job in that it combined a decidedly creative aspect (developing brand names) with all the important features of successful project management. Of course, any projects we handled were in categories that were less sophisticated branding-wise were easiest for us. We had much more room to let our creative spirits roam free. When we dealt with more sophisticated categories, it was an uphill climb all the way!

We were once asked to develop a sub-brand name for a line of sportswear by a key European sportswear manufacturer. After developing appropriate names on my own,  conducting several brainstorming sessions with consumers, as well as surveying the results from brainstorming sessions held for us at several of our foreign offices, I compared my shortlist of favorite candidates to the brand names that had already been registered in the European and international directories. It seems as though everything under the sun - including animal names, relevant adjectives and word combinations - had already been registered!

 Hope against hope, I still continued to develop and check; check and develop. Whenever I ran into my managing director, I acted very busy (which I was), but basically unworried (which I certainly wasn’t). I wanted him to trust that I had everything under control.

Suddenly it was late afternoon before the presentation, and our managing director wanted to see the final list of names to discuss and approve my recommendations. It was then (and only then!) that I confessed that - although I had a list of wonderful, on-strategy names - every name I could recommend had significant legal problems.

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Dear Friends,

Today’s post is aimed especially (though not exclusively) at my female readers:

I graduated high school in 1974 and, therefore, grew up in the age of feminism. Women saw themselves coming into their own, and for the first time in Western history dared flex their collective muscle in many arenas both public and private. We women suddenly thrust ourselves into a new dimension, and transformed ourselves from mild-mannered innocents or long-suffering drudges to focused and vocal (!) mistresses of our own destiny. We demanded more equality in relationships, shared responsibility in child-rearing, as well as a more even playing field on the job market.

When my children were still small, I became certified as a translator/interpreter for German and English. That allowed me to work from home doing translations in the evenings and the early morning hours before the children woke up, in addition to the weekly English lessons for local companies I gave. Late one afternoon when I was just returning from the playground with two very tired toddlers, my phone rang. It was the owner of a company for whom I’d often done some translating work. This time she was a bit panicked and needed my immediate support. Our city was home to the headquarters of one of Germany’s two major TV networks, and that evening’s news program would include an interview with a controversial pro-apartheid South African official. Because he only spoke Afrikaans and English, the station was in urgent need of an English-to-German interpreter.

As time progressed, however, that large ‘S’ emblazoned across our chests - that symbolic touchstone for the ‘I can have it all’-generation - began to wilt and fade. Not surprisingly, we had begun to wilt and fade as well. Instead of achieving a new balance in power along with a more fair distribution of responsibility, many of us had maneuvered ourselves into the corner of shouldering much more than our fair share of the burden. At home we were most often still responsible for the majority of the housework and childcare. Added to that was now our responsibility as (partial) breadwinners. In the workplace we were so afraid of being thought incapable that some of us went as far as to become a caricature of the alpha-males who symbolized all that was negative in the paradigm we were struggling to shift.

Read the rest of this entry »

“The most important thing about having goals is having one.” (A. F. Geoffrey)

–> What goal are YOU currently committed to achieving?

Dear Friends,

Since being on Twitter I’ve been inspired to begin a series entitled “Monday Coaching Gem”. These ‘Gems’ start the week off with an insightful quote coupled with a provocative question, and challenge you with a different perspective from which to view your immediate goals and your activities for the coming week.

I’d like the share the latest two with you, and - in the future - publish my Monday Coaching Gems both here as well as on Twitter.

Trina

~~~

Monday Coaching Gem

(from: 1 June 2009)

“Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.” (Merry Browne) –> What door will you UNlock today?

(from: 8 June 2009)

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” (Anais Nin) –> What is UR life doing now: shrinking or expanding?