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Turning Potential Into Results

Walk your Talk … Vertically!!

By Camille Smith / November 27, 2016

When I tell people I’m taking an indoor climbing class at Pacific Edge, their “Good for you!” is usually followed quickly by “Why?” My Whys I have several whys.  Every day, I ask leaders to commit to something without knowing how to do it and without a guarantee of success. I ask them to step…

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The Canary in Leadership’s No Man’s Land

By Camille Smith / June 7, 2016

Last week I learned I was wrong about something I was absolutely, bet-you-$100-sure about.  In my 40 years of playing tennis, I was sure “No Man’s Land” on the tennis court was located just inside the baseline and extended through about half of the service box. It’s called “No Man’s Land” because if a player…

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Don’t be bored: Gather clues!

By Camille Smith / October 12, 2015

When I was a kid (and not damming up Yellow Creek), my brother and I played two board games, Monopoly and Clue. My brother liked (and usually won) Monopoly which probably paid off in his role as a VC. Clue was my favorite. I liked it because I was good at making educated guesses. Nothing…

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Leaders Come From All Parts of the Orchard

By Camille Smith / August 20, 2015

People who want to be leaders often ask me: “Do I have the right personality to lead?” My answer: There’s no personality type that designates someone a leader. This doesn’t mean you ignore your personality, preferences and foibles. It means you become aware of them so you can lead yourself first, then others. To gain…

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Got complaints? Replace whines with action!

By Camille Smith / April 14, 2015

When a friend’s birthday approaches, I sort through my stash of cards for one that’s appropriate. For the last 6 years (OK, maybe 10), I’ve rejected the same 5 birthday cards. What I thought was funny when I bought them, isn’t funny anymore. The cards in the No pile include an old gal hiking up…

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Illusions are too cool, until they turn too costly

By Camille Smith / March 12, 2015

Optical illusions are a hoot. They work by taking advantage of how our brain’s hard-wiring processes information. Recently, a photograph of a bride’s dress posted online went viral along with the question: Is the dress White and Gold or Blue and Black? Those in the W&G camp are adamant that they are right, just as…

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7 Steps to Effective Delegation

By Camille Smith / February 6, 2015

Fess up: Do you delegate or drop-off?  Dropping-off.  We ask others to do stuff for us all the time – stuff we don’t want to do, don’t have the time to do, and couldn’t do even if we had the time.  We drop our suits off for pressing (a task we can’t do), our car…

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Drink up to improve your performance!

By Camille Smith / October 16, 2014

“Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” So says the speaker in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner remarking about a sailor on a becalmed ship surrounded by salt water that he cannot drink. By extension, these lines are used to describe a situation in which someone is in the midst of plenty…

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School’s Always In for Leaders

By Camille Smith / September 19, 2014

It’s Fall. School’s back in session. I’m taking an online class in strategic planning. Ordered my used books from half.com and downloaded my ebooks. (I’ll see if I can resist printing them.) With pencil and highlighter in hand, I opened HBReview’s “On Strategy” to read my first assignment. When I got to page 5, yellow…

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Values are more than Skin Deep

By Camille Smith / August 6, 2014

Being an adult dedicated to helping people access their potential, be values-driven and experience an uncommon sense of satisfaction and success, I’m curious as to how folks wind up where they do and how they navigated the path to get there. Being a child of the 60’s dedicated to looking good, I followed the female…

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