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Turning Potential Into Results

Ostrich-ize your Leadership

By Camille Smith / November 16, 2014

When someone’s ignoring what we think they ought to pay attention to, we chastise them with: “Don’t be an ostrich and stick your head in the sand!” Well, add one more thing to the list of the stuff we believe that isn’t true. This past summer, I visited the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch outside Red…

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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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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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Swallowing the bitter pill of rejection leads to a diet of success

By Camille Smith / July 31, 2014

No.   Thanks, but no thanks. Decline.   Not interested. Dismissed. Rejected.    Your idea might not be adopted. Your application might be declined. Your declaration of love might receive a blank look.  It’s ok to not like rejection. But, if you avoid it when something really matters to you, I promise you’ll regret it. Why? …

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2 Degrees of Separation (Subtitle: Be careful what you resell.)

By Camille Smith / June 11, 2014

Kevin started it.   Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a parlor game based on the “six degrees of separation” concept which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. Today, with connectivity being what it is, I think we’re down to two. On my “get-better-at” list, I have…

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Can you hear yourself now?

By Camille Smith / February 25, 2014

Time for a hearing test. No, not the kind that someone else wants you to get because they think you need hearing aids; this is a more of a “listening” test that can help you be more effective, more confident. This test is not age-related; it’s performance-related. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people…

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What’s your word for 2014?

By Camille Smith / December 31, 2013

I have a collection of dictionaries and I’ve been known to read them. (No, not all the way through! Not all at once, anyway.)  Nuances, subtleties, double ententres, etymology, layers of meaning – they all get my juices flowing.  (Balderdash, anyone?)  I write poetry, dabble in Haikus and blog. I snap pictures of bumper stickers…

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Friction: Love the Rub

By Camille Smith / November 15, 2013

Do these sound familiar?  Don’t rock the boat! Don’t upset the apple cart! Don’t rub people the wrong way! All good advice that maintains the status quo and avoids friction.  When we follow it blindly, we tip-toe around issues, sugar-coat facts, excuse inappropriate behavior.  (Oh, joy!) Friction is not the enemy All good advice except…

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What teaching taught me

By Camille Smith / August 27, 2013

From 1970-80, I taught high school English in Columbus, Ohio. School was designed to move kids through the system and teachers were there to make that happen. Both teachers and students did their best, given the system. I loved teaching and my students. I taught because I wanted to contribute to someone developing competencies that…

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Been nudged lately?

By Camille Smith / June 4, 2013

I got a D in English when I was a sophomore in high school.  I don’t remember who my teacher was or if I liked him or her. I don’t remember who I sat next to in class.  I don’t remember being yelled at by mom or dad; it’s likely they expressed their deep, deep…

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