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Turning Potential Into Results

Personal Responsibility: Is there any other kind?

By Camille Smith / June 21, 2010

Sometimes we wish there was. Sometimes we behave as if there is.  The bad news: There isn’t any other kind of effective responsibility other than the personal kind. The good news: It’s your’s, not for the asking, but for the choosing. Let’s start at the macro level. Even in the situations in which we feel…

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“Go ahead! Do it your way!”

By Camille Smith / June 10, 2010

When anyone said this to me when I was kid, I also heard what they didn’t say out loud, but clearly was part of their message: “… and see if I care if you do it wrong and fail and waste your time and look goofy, and, and….” Whew, thank goodness, those days are over,…

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Is not saying something a lie?

By Camille Smith / June 9, 2010

What do you say? Yes? No? It depends? This statement screamed from an ad in the September issue of Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com). I ripped it out (love ripping and tearing) and marked it with a “B” (code for a blog topic). (The pages of my books are peppered with these breadcrumbs as I follow my…

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What is an Organization?

By Camille Smith / May 24, 2010

Remove people from headquarters and what do you have? Cubicles, no culture. We don’t mistake a vacant office for an organization, but we often misidentify what constitutes an organization and this thing called “culture”.  If we want to change our organization, it helps to know where it lives. Flashback: When Christopher Columbus and his crew…

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Eggshells & Jell-O: The Un-breakfast of Champions

By Camille Smith / May 10, 2010

Leadership isn’t timid-ship. If you are walking on eggshells with someone, afraid to raise an issue, give it up. If you’re hoping that she (let’s call her Sally) gets your wobbly-as-jello hints and changes her behavior, give it up. If you don’t (and you do have free will), you are giving up your ship, your…

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How Leaders Breathe Underwater

By Camille Smith / March 8, 2010

Many (many) summers ago, when I was in training to be a lifeguard on New York’s Lake George, the first principle I learned was how to safely approach a swimmer in distress. A safe approach included talking to them, letting them know I was there to help them, and giving them instructions. The second principle…

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Shushing is Passé. Speaking Up is In.

By Camille Smith / February 1, 2010

Letter to editor SJ Mercury News re: article published Jan 25, 2010.  “Kudos to AMC Cupertino Square 16 for giving autistic kids and parents an opportunity to enjoy watching movies. You set a great example of how to appropriately alter rules (let them talk during the movie, stand up, even touch the screen) to create…

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