Human Resources: Thought Leaders

Thought Leaders
Industry Gurus Live

Welcome to the Thought Leaders - Best Practices from HR Executives Newsletter! You are receiving this email because as a member of the HR.com community you have expressed an interest in receiving our Thought Leaders update. It is our mission at HR.com to always provide you with the most relevant and up-to-date HR information. To alter your subscription preferences or noted areas of interest please update your online profile here. New articles are added daily.

Thought Leader: Catherine Nomura on "The Laws of Lifetime Growth"

Catherine Nomura is an expert on entrepreneurship and co-author of the recently published book, "The Laws of Lifetime Growth." She joined the Strategic Coach in 1998. In addition to her work with the Strategic Coach, she advises purpose-driven entrepreneurs; helping them turn their growing visions into realities. She is also the co-author of "Unique Ability - Creating The Life You Want," published in 2003.

RD: Catherine, tell us more about your story and your mother's story, and how that led to you becoming involved with this work at the Strategic Coach.

CN: I grew up in an environment where it was always understood that you could be whatever you wanted; there were no limits to how much you could grow and what you could do as long as you put your mind to it. As I went out into the world, I began to realize that wasn't the case for everyone. I ran into some situations where peoples lives seemed to be declining, particularly in the developing world, because they didn't believe that they could grow and couldn't see that they had a bigger future than their present. I got very interested in entrepreneurship as a means to self actualization, as a way to make your vision of a better world a reality. That led me to the work that formed the basis for a lot of the ideas regarding lifetime growth in this book.

RD: And your mother's story, how does that relate to this?

CN: My mother came from a very poor family, both of my parents did, they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. My mother left home at 15, in the 1950s, so that she could finish high school, because she had this dream of being a teacher. Of course that required that you have an education. Everyone in her family, because they were so poor, was asked when they were old enough to leave school and support themselves. She didn't want to do this, so she took her future into her own hands, decided to leave home and try to go it on her own. She did manage to finish high school and university and become a teacher. This was pretty much unheard of at the time. All this was done basically on her own, with the help of others who were inspired by her courage in doing what she really wanted to do in life.

My mother's story was a kind of mythology in my family and it became part of my belief system. It always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do. It made me believe that just because the world is telling you, or other people are telling you, that you can't do something or you shouldn't do something or that this or that seems impossible - don't listen. I always knew about her story and I knew that if what she did was possible, there were no limits to what I could do, given the much better circumstances that I grew up in and all the support that I had.

Learning what helps people grow and what keeps them from growing has always been very interesting to me. I see the much better quality of life that people have when they decide that they want to keep growing. Growth, as opposed to many of the other things that we might choose to aim for like money or success, is an objective that you can always have within your control. You can't always control what life throws at you, but you can always grow as a result of the choices that you make.

RD: Let's start with a key question, which is, why is personal growth so important to entrepreneurial success?

For All Members:
- View the entire article here. All articles are now available to all logged in members of HR.com for FREE.

For Premier Members:
-View the archive of the interview here.
-Download PowerPoint file of the interview here.
-Download MP3 sound file of the interview here.

Richard DiGeorgio is the principal of Richard M. DiGeorgio & Associates, a management consulting firm. He is a change management consultant, leadership trainer and coach. Richard has twenty-nine years of experience as an executive and change consultant with three Fortune 500 firms, eighteen of those years were spent at Mobil Oil. His last assignment was as an internal change consultant on assignment to Project Horizon, Mobil Oil's effort to improve its effectiveness in building capital projects and save $500M a year. He has helped companies with mergers & acquisitions, improved technology transfer, team building and change management.

His firm incorporates a network of quality consulting firms who have worked in numerous industries and at all levels of Fortune 500 companies. Richard can be reached at 215.369.0088, changerich[at]aol.com and www.change-management.net.

Sponsored by

Join us for our next live Thought Leader interview with

Cal Wick on The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning

July 31, 2006
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET

In this live webcast you will learn:

The six disciplines of breakthrough learning.
Which of the six disciplines your company is strong in and what they are weak in.
The consequences of your assessment of your companys ability to deliver results from training investments.
To appreciate why what happens after attendees leave a class is key to the company benefiting from its investment.
How the Internet and other tools can solve problems regarding what happens after someone attends a program.

This upcoming webcast is free for Premier Members of HR.com, or you can pay to see this webcast for $150 US per webcast.

Still a Guest Member of HR.com?

Upgrade to Premier Membership now for only $299US per year and receive unlimited access to all webcasts (400 )

If you enjoy the Thought Leader interviews, then you will enjoy our recently published book,
Thoughts From The Top: A Collection of Interviews with Business Gurus
by HR.com Publishing

Thoughts From The Top: A Collection of Interviews with Business Gurus is an amazing anthology of higher thinkers including, David Ulrich, Kenny Moore, Marshall Goldsmith and Erin Brockovich. It's 348-pages of exclusive interviews with top experts discussing the proven strategies, the philosophies, and the best methods they have used to strengthen their organizations. Each chapter features a different expert who reveals his/her best practices to help professionals deal with the people side of business.

Buy this book today!

View HR.com's privacy policy and terms of service.

Thought Leaders - July 27, 2006