Conversations and strategies about how to stand out IN a crowd and create sustainable success while making a difference through high impact contributions.

Greetings,

What do YOU think that Oprah, Donald Trump, and many other celebrities and successful leaders have in common? For starters, they are frequently in the news, state their opinions with conviction, and often have diversified and integrated businesses. Yes, these are ALL correct!

They also have an inner circle with a very wide reach, and are open to input on important decisions. I was a bit shocked to read this about a few leaders who seem to have very definitive opinions, but I learned that they reached these conclusions only after collaborating with their trusted advisors or their ‘inner circle’.

As you read in last month’s Success Matters, one of the keys to success is to be involved with something bigger than yourself.

Another key to your success is to build your own ‘inner circle’ that includes internal advocates, formal and informal mentors, and peer coaches.

Some of the people in your inner circle are people with whom you affiliate often to collaborate on your goals and big idea. Others are experts who aren’t directly in your life. They may be famous authors or leaders who have been influential in your success by you modeling their practices and learning from their wisdom.

• Who would you invite to be in your inner circle? My guess is that you already have many people who are informally in your inner circle – service providers, teachers, employers, employees, family, friends, or members of professional organizations.

Reaching out to invite someone to join your inner circle takes time and energy, but you would be modeling the practice of Thomas Edison who is known as the world’s greatest inventor.

He was also a talented product marketer, and had a large ‘inner circle’ that helped him to bring his inventions to market, a talent that differentiated him from another inventor, Nikola Tesla. To learn more about Edison’s legacy, visit the Inventors Spot: http://inventorspot.com/thomas_edison

• Are you ready to take the leap and form your own formal and informal ‘inner circle’?

Read further in our Feature Article, Who's In Your Inner Circle?

Enjoy a fun and relaxing summer season, %$firstname$%.

Gerrie Dresser
The Leadership Strategist to help leaders
stand out IN a crowd . . . DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF!

Features:  What's Included ...

• Unique Genius Virtual Café
• Speaking Events
• Unique Genius 6-Question Survey
• Feature Article
• Gerrie Recommends

Our Unique Genius Virtual Café Event is scheduled on the second Tuesday of each month from 12:00Noon – 12:55pm to help you create sustainable success and stand out IN a crowd for your unique, credible expertise.

Let me know what topics YOU want to hear about!

• August 10, 2010: Guest Expert – Pam Boney, MA, Founder, CEO & Partner of Tilt, Inc., a product development company that certifies and serves coaches and consultants who work with mission critical leaders. Tilt, Inc also works directly with senior teams who want to create a culture for innovation and is building an exclusive network of professionals devoted to growing the number of conscious leaders around the world.
  
  Pam is also a subject matter expert for the Tilt Leadership models, authoring and validating the Tilt Leadership Assessments and Tilt Suite of Parallel People Solutions.
  
  Pam is a futurist and thought leader who provides Leadership Coaching for Mission Critical Leaders and High Potential Leaders who are either in or next up for C-Level roles. She is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the World Association of Coaches with Master’s studies in Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology and Counselor Education.
   
• September 14, 2010: Book it on your calendar, and check back in August for our Guest Expert!

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To celebrate the message about ‘Unique Genius’, organizations and corporations are sponsoring speaking events to inspire and motivate their leaders! Watch for upcoming events in Success Matters.

To learn more about Gerrie’s speaking and make a referral to your organization, click on link: http://www.successassociates.biz/speaking_workshops/

Phone: 610-429-0359
Email: gerrie@successassociates.biz

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If you haven’t provided your input to the survey yet, would you take just 5 minutes to complete the online survey by next week, July 30?

Click HERE for the 5 minute survey!

I greatly appreciate your support by providing your valuable feedback in the Unique Genius 6-Question Survey that will take 5 minutes of your time!

Your responses will help me to design new products and services and affect a future outcome that will help you and many others!

After I synthesize your feedback, I will collaborate with a few trusted advisors in the coming months to identify the themes and strategies to best meet your needs.

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• Are you ready to step up to the opportunity of creating your ‘inner circle’?

According to some experts, an inner circle consists of 5-7 trusted advisors, while other experts encourage you to expand your reach so that you have access to richer and broader input to your decisions and diverse support for your success.

If you’re like me and many others, you’re fully aware of how busy everyone is! So, your obstacle or barrier might be a belief that ‘everyone’s too busy’ or an uncertainty about how to invite someone to your ‘inner circle’.

What research studies show is that most people welcome the opportunity to give back and provide input to someone else’s success!

This can be a bit overwhelming, so let’s break into down into manageable chunks.

• You can either begin to build your ‘inner circle’ by identifying your virtual team, those who have gone before you and paved a path for your success. These could include famous inventors, business leaders, celebrities, artists, etc.
   
• Or you can begin by identifying your more immediate focus, your internal advocates or informal mentors. These two groups are also more accessible because you are most likely already connected with them, even if it is in informal mentoring conversations.

I’ll share a personal experience with you about when I discovered an internal advocate who put his reputation on the line and helped me advance my career during one of the most challenging and stressful times in my corporate career.

Over the span of four years, I held different roles in his organization (let’s call him John) – some that I created based on company need and other ‘opportunities’ that were offered to me.

Some of these ‘opportunities’ required me to stretch – big time! In order to step up to the challenge, I consulted with colleagues, read books on the subjects, and collaborated with the leadership team to learn more about what they envisioned for the ‘opportunity’. (Do you notice how I asked for help from my informal inner circle?)

As a result of a company restructuring, I left John’s organization and reported into a new manager who put many, many obstacles in my path.

Fast forward to the positive outcome [minus all the details in between] of having an internal advocate who values your capabilities … John was instrumental in my landing a role in a new organization that was a perfect fit for my career direction and innovative capabilities. The role provided both a positive value to the company and an inspiring leadership team for me to learn from and model.

I didn’t know if John ever knew about the significant role that he played in my career, but I was fortunate to reconnect with him through LinkedIn and thank him for his mentoring and leadership example!

If you’re not sure WHO your internal advocate(s) are … be an observer!

• What leader offers you challenging opportunities that may be out of the scope of your role with a positive value for the company, and ones that will help you to stretch?
• What leader is known to develop talent, i.e., its not part of his ‘job’, but the leader enjoys helping others grow and develop?
• What leader is well respected and stands out for his thought leadership, integrity, and individuality with a strong sense of personal power, based on building positive, cross functional relationships?

You may already have an internal advocate in your ‘inner circle’ that you’ve developed because of your unique contributions that earned you the positive reputation as someone who takes initiative, has political savvy, and is a team player.

Celebrate and nurture these valuable relationships!

In our September edition of Success Matters, we will explore the role of mentors – formal and informal.

In the meantime:

• Create a chart and label it “My Inner Circle”.
• Define your worthy goal . . . something that is bigger than yourself.
• Identify WHY this goal is important to you.
• Insert a category in your Inner Circle chart, Internal Advocates.
• Be the observer. Notice your internal advocates (or advocates who have left the company!), and ‘put pen to paper’ and add their names to your chart. Then, invite them to join your LinkedIn network!

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The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs … How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. Author: Carmine Gallo, Columnist, Businessweek.com Publisher: The McGraw Hill Companies, 2010

The story in SlideShare tells it all . . . http://www.slideshare.net/cvgallo/the-presentation-secrets-of-steve-jobs-2609477

For a snapshot about the 5 elements of every Steve Jobs presentation, read the author’s article in Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2009/sb2009106_706829.htm

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