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Every time you say yes, you give away a piece of yourself.  It’s a commitment of time, energy, brainpower and bandwidth. If you are operating at full capacity, there is little margin for error.  When you experience a spike in demand, something must inevitably drop off the list.

For someone who is a YES-aholic, prone to taking on new commitments, the aspect of reneging can be particularly painful.  Instead of one big up-front no, there can be a recurring chain of NO, SORRY, SOMETHING HAS COME UP, I’LL TRY AND FIND SOMEONE TO STEP IN.  Or…you get into a vicious cycle of multi-tasking, rushing, lateness, splintered effort and having less of an impact than what you originally ...

In the TV show Mad Men, Betty Draper epitomized the ideal of American womanhood in the go-go era of the 1960s.  She was Grace Kelly gorgeous and Bryn Mawr-educated with a drop dead handsome husband who was minting money as a successful Madison Avenue ad agency partner.

She presided over a stately Colonial manse with a spectacular wardrobe and a housekeeper to help look after her children.  She was a poised and effective corporate wife, the perfect accoutrement for client and business functions.  “Is this the one where I talk?  Or the one where I don’t talk?”  

Betty had it all.  A blonde version of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, if you will.  But it wasn’t as it seemed. ...

The brilliant thought leader and marketeer Seth Godin shares his views on upheaval and opportunity in a brave new world, powered by the Internet.  The venue:  Wyly Theater, hosted by Dallas Social Venture Partners via luxury/retail guru Steven Dennis, a former classmate and partner of Godin.  Oh, it was a morning brimming with inspiration, generosity and encouragement!

Some snippets:

More is the mantra of the old industrial age — the era of Henry Ford who pioneered mass production for purposes of getting more work out of workers and processes for purposes of more productivity, profitability and power for Ford.

The model of an industrial era company was based on hierarchy, how everythi...

                              Flashback to Esther Dyson’s PC Forum, 1984, year of Macintosh launch.  From left:  Nancy Keene; John Sculley, Apple;  Steve Jobs;  Apple;  Robert Toda, Seagate Technology.   Photograph © Ann Yow-Dyson                             

I had a ringside seat during the ramp-up of the personal computer industry — serving as public relations counsel to CEOs and entrepreneurs who were re-inventing the way we would do business in the modern world.   A pretty heady experience for a young, non-engineering female, not to mention an amazing learning laboratory.

A key barometer of industry clout was Esther Dyson’s PC Forum, where the elite players would conve...

Jacki Zehner saw first-hand the importance of helping others, watching her mother take the initiative with those less fortunate in her Canadian hometown — driving them to doctor’s appointments, cooking for them, generally seeing a need and filling it.

Then,  she was the recipient of someone else’s philanthropy.  Some men who worked in the financial services sector each donated $250,000 so that students at The University of British Columbia could act as real-world portfolio managers — also creating a pool of future job candidates with some actual investment experience.  Jacki was one of the first people to be chosen for this special program that also involved summer i...

It’s official.  There are metrics to prove the benefits of happy people in the workplace. In a time of economic angst and overworked work forces, Harvard researcher Shawn Achor sells a well-documented strategy that links personal happiness with business success.  He has presented to the SMU Human Resources Roundtable. Achor teaches that we can train the brain for a higher level of happiness just as we can train the body for exercise.  We may not be able to change the environment, but we can change the lens through which we view the world. Unhappy: You have a toxic co-worker. Happy brain response: “I’m so glad I don’t live that way.”

Scientists focus on po...

January 2:  You’re hired.  We love you. March 2:   EEK!  What were we thinking? Hiring regrets can be expensive.  The mistake typically becomes evident in the first 60 to 90 days, often due to culture clash or a mis-match in expectations. If you are the CEO presiding over an entrepreneural venture or a middle market company, why not learn from the experts in retained executive search?  It’s a premium, high-level service – with an in-depth process that really works.  Many make the investment for C-level hiring. But there are some principles that you can utilize for any level of new hire — whether you engage an outside recruitment firm or not. Here are some insights...