I’m going to give you a tip. Any feedback you get that makes you feel bad about yourself is off the mark. So is any feedback that makes you feel you’re not good at something.
Coaching, Communication, Causative Communication
Ingrid Gudenas
My parents came to America from Lithuania with nothing. They had a beautiful life in the old country, and lost it all when the Soviets occupied their land and took it all away. I gained something infinitely valuable from them as they built a new life here. My parents showed me by example that the only real security we have is our innate ability to dream new realities and create them into being, abilities which nothing and no one can take away without our permission, and which they did so well.
I always think about what I learned from them as we go into a new year. I’m filled with a feeling that was well expressed by the great poet Ranier Maria Rilke, “And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been.”
This threshold into a new year is a beautiful time for self-reflection, for dreaming of the future.
Coaching, Communication, Causative Communication
Ingrid Gudenas
I’m a first-generation immigrant. My parents came from Lithuania, right across the sea from Sweden.
We have a beautiful Christmas Eve tradition I think you’ll enjoy hearing about. It creates a very special moment.
Each person at the dinner table receives a large wafer of unleavened bread and we have communion.
You might have heard of “Holy Communion”, which is different. That’s when a Priest blesses the wafer and gives it special religious significance.
This Christmas Eve tradition of communion is not religious. If you look the word communion up in the dictionary, without the word “Holy” in front of it, it means:
The sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.
You can see it’s something special.
virtual, Presentations
Ingrid Gudenas
I have no doubt you have been extensively virtual this past year. Me too. I’ve been coaching hundreds of people, trapped in a machine-based communication medium that feels stripped of soul and humanity, teaching them how to make all their virtual communications meaningful to their audience.
Coaching, Executive Presence
Ingrid Gudenas
I’ve met too many people who have no personality left. It’s been sanitized out of existence.
I’ve met people who are afraid to speak up and are way too quiet. They say way less than they should. I’ve met people who are always apologizing for what they think and who they are (“I’m so sorry I feel this way …”). I’ve met too many who are filled with self-doubt, trying to figure out “what’s wrong with me”.
And I’ve met too many “corporate professionals” who have learned to say and do all the right things, and then wonder where the satisfaction is in life.
Henry didn’t let the outside world influence him at all.
Coaching, Executive Presence
Ingrid Gudenas
Jake, the executive I was coaching, was looking at the camera like it was a snake. He had come for coaching for what’s called “Direct to camera” presentation skills.
Many executives are coming here for this coaching because so many are being asked to make Direct to Camera videos. They’re being asked to sit in a small room and talk to a camera, with no actual audience present, to create a solo video that will be watched by 200 or 10,000 people. Many of these videos will be posted online for the public to see. I recently coached an executive who posted a video to 5,000,000 views.
It’s a weird feeling to talk directly to the camera. It’s not a “natural” skill.
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