Executive and Team Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Mentoring - Strategic Planning - Board Service

Charting the Course for Change

 Executive Coaching, Personal Growth, Thought Pieces  Comments Off
Dec 072009
 
The CEO's Handbook - Volume One
Notes for a Thinking Chief Executive
Available on Amazon Kindle - Click Here

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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Most of my coaching clients come to me with some sort of change in mind. A very few are responding to a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Most want to change something about themselves or their lives. The depth and detail of understanding that they have is one the early indicators of what kind of progress we are going to be able to manage. The more they have come to realize that a change is necessary, the better the progress we will be able to make. Continue reading “Charting the Course for Change” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 3:25 PM  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Your Life as a Work in Progress

 Executive Coaching, Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Thought Pieces  Comments Off
Dec 062009
 

The CEO's Handbook - Volume One
Notes for a Thinking Chief Executive
Available on Amazon Kindle - Click Here

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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One of the first steps in my mentoring engagements is to have the client begin to understand that their life is a work in progress. The deeper we get into it, the more detailed that understanding becomes. Then there is the recognition that life is a process which begins at birth and continues until death. But recognition is only the first step. It is an important one to be sure, but the best comes after that. We can begin to focus on the value of each of us and the positive impact that we can have on the lives of others. Continue reading “Your Life as a Work in Progress” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 9:15 PM  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting the Right Personal Vision

 Executive Coaching, Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Thought Pieces  Comments Off
Dec 062009
 
The CEO's Handbook - Volume One
Notes for a Thinking Chief Executive
Available on Amazon Kindle - Click Here

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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Lots of advice is available. The common mantra is ‘get a personal vision’. But the truth is that you already have one. Sure, it may be out of focus and counterproductive. But you do have one. Many would call it your ‘self image’. It is how you decide what you will do and what you will not do. This self image sets your expectations. It holds your private vision of you in the world. It is there with you when you wake up every morning and as you go to sleep each night. So, the question is not whether you have a personal vision. The question is ‘do you have the right personal vision?” Continue reading “Getting the Right Personal Vision” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 12:39 PM  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life Coaching – The Propose of a Compass

 Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Thought Pieces  18 Responses »
Nov 192009
 

The CEO's Handbook - Volume One
Notes for a Thinking Chief Executive
Available on Amazon Kindle - Click Here

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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It’s not the compass that finds your true north – you need to find the compass that points to your true north. Short of that, every other compass will send you in the wrong direction.

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Life coaching can bring some of life’s grandest adventures. The issues at stake are often monumental and, not infrequently, the results can be life changing. In current times such coaching is frequently requested by individuals at the very crossroads of their careers. One such engagement began not long ago. Continue reading “Life Coaching – The Propose of a Compass” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 10:21 PM  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apprehension – Fear or Understanding?

 Life Coaching, Personal Growth  1 Response »
Nov 052009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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Thinking about the meanings of word can often lead to a better understanding of our view of the world and place in it. I don’t mean debating the meanings in the dictionary – I mean discovering which of two definitions you prefer and why. Self-knowledge can be increased by acknowledging linguistic preferences.

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Language can be a complicated thing – particularly when it comes to those curious words that have multiple meanings. It’s not so much the existence of the meanings that intrigues me but the choices that people make. How a person chooses to use a particular word can tell you a great deal about who they are and how they see the world and their place in it. Take, for instance, the word ‘apprehension’. I’ve noticed that few people actually use the word – perhaps because of the complex of meanings that surround it – but, when it is used, it generally is deployed in description of a situation. Let’s start with three definitions: Continue reading “Apprehension – Fear or Understanding?” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 5:03 PM

Finding Meaning Without Manufacturing Meaning

 Life Coaching, Personal Growth  1 Response »
Oct 022009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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The human tendency to label – and call the label the meaning of the thing – can prevent us from experiencing the world as we find it. Insisting that the meaning of something is what we say it is is rather like shouting loudly at somebody that is trying to tell us something important and then insisting what we were shouting was their real message.

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The search for meaning is one of life’s continuing journeys. The suspicion that meaning is lacking can bring on a deep dread that can haunt us all. The dreary landscape of the suspicion of no meaning can lead us to make up meaning. Buddhists call this ornamentation – the creation of bright and pretty things to enliven the world as think we find it. But the world we think we find is often a world we dream while asleep. Continue reading “Finding Meaning Without Manufacturing Meaning” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 9:33 AM

Making the Possible Probable

 Executive Coaching, Personal Growth  6 Responses »
Sep 272009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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When you awake each morning, the day presents you with literally thousands of possibilities. Human existence is chocked full of possibilities. But the important questions is, what is probable? And the more important question is, how can you make the right possible things probable – how can you select the right probabilities from all those possibilities? This is one of those areas when more education can be a real liability.

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Executive coaching my way leads me to work with highly educated and literate people. Most of my clients have a Master’s degree. In some ways, working with these people is a joy. For example, they have been trained to understand and work with complex ideas. Their grasp of the language is such that conversations about complex ideas are possible. Continue reading “Making the Possible Probable” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 11:57 AM

The Price of Intemperance

 Life Coaching, Personal Growth  Comments Off
Sep 262009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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Socrates observed that ‘a life unexamined is not worth living’. Nowhere is that more true than when we act against our own self-interests and suffer the consequences – pay the bills for our own rash actions.

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“It’s what you do without realizing it that can really mess things up.”

That’s the way one of my early mentors used to put it. Jim was constantly pointing out those things I did without thinking – and the effect of my having done them on future prospects. Now don’t get me wrong, Jim was not an advocate of “staying low and not making waves”. Far from that, he made more than his share of waves and was a real change agent in his business and personal relationships. He insisted that you had to realize the likely impact of doing this or being that way on what you wanted to get out of life and the people around you. Continue reading “The Price of Intemperance” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 3:58 PM

Adults in Wonderland

 Personal Growth  Comments Off
Sep 232009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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Doggerel you say? Incoherent mutterings. Nothing much to pay attention to. Foolish person – there is all of life – the whole deep meaning of it – in the fart of a flea. You just have to learn how to listen!

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There is no freedom like being able to say what you truly mean – not what others want you appear to mean – nor what you might say in the throes of an adolescent tantrum – but to clearly say in a measured fashion exactly what you mean. Here’s the rabbit hole – down we go. Continue reading “Adults in Wonderland” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 11:41 AM

Finding a Mirror – Realizing

 Personal Growth  Comments Off
Sep 222009
 

Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Managing Partner, The Federal Circle
DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com
Dr-Smith.com

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We look in them every day – and use them as metaphors for achieving deeper self-knowledge. Every person we meet is one and what they show us can be far more valuable than any highly polished surface.

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I won’t sugarcoat it – mentoring can bring some very aggravating experiences. Sometimes it takes forever to achieve just a small illumination. Then there are the times – backsliding – when months of work seems to be washed away by a recidivist tendency. But then there are the other kinds that make the occasional frustration fade into the background. Let me tell you about one of these experiences. Continue reading “Finding a Mirror – Realizing” »

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 Posted by Dr. Earl R. Smith II at 10:25 AM
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