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When has fear kept you stuck in a rut? At a fork in the road in your career? When your business stagnates in a bad economy? In a dead end situation that others tell you to leave?

As a coach, I hear clients describe their ruts. Fear has them stuck like gum on a shoe. Meanwhile one single step can remove the gum and get them moving.

Don't Let Fear Be the Gum on Your Shoe Image by:Mahalie

Break free by finding people who have been through something similar — who no longer have gum on their shoes of course — who will share the steps that got the gum off their shoes!

It sounds obvious and here’s the logic.

1. Fear of taking a step is lessened by learning from those who have survived the step.
2. Fear of the unknown is countered by those who now know the unknown.
3. Fear of acting oddly during the change turns to knowing smiles when you hear how they felt and behaved.
4. Fear of being wrong crumbles under the evidence of their experience.
5. Fear of being alone on the journey is eliminated when you travel it through their success.

Fear not. Online chatters, social media friends, bloggers, authors, and professional coaches all have life experiences to share.

My graphics designer, Kimb Tiboni, has chronicled her Illogical Success with personal insight and real life experiences. I have overcome business hurdles and gained inspiration through friends, coaches, and Twitter chats.


Take one step now and leave your story in the comments section below:

One rut you broke out of and how you did it and/or

One rut you want to break out of and two answers you seek.

You want success? Don’t let fear be the gum on your shoe! Reach out and step forward in your life, career, and business.


What stops people from reaching out — when it’s so obvious that it is key to success?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Do you know what the colors of your clothes are saying about you?

Is your website and brand logo appealing and attractive to your potential buyers or users?

Do you have a favorite color?

Color is a form of non-verbal communication and if you do intercultural business, you need to understand the effect it has on the interpretation of the messages you send to people from different cultures.

The Meaning of Color 

There are two ways in which colors acquire meanings:The natural universal association like green for vegetation and psychological and emotional association or color symbolism based on individual experiences, cultural norms and values.  For example black is for funerals in most western countries while Chinese use white as the color of mourning (see table).
Reference: The Psychology and Meaning of Color in Email and Websites, Aug 2011

More about color meaning and cultures: Empower Yourself Going Global With Color Psychology.

Color Psychology

Color has a powerful subliminal and subconscious effect on our physical and emotional well-being. For example if you enter in a mall decorated only in black, gray and white, would you be inspired to buy nice clothes, make-up or even drink coffee? Maybe not.

Color stimulates all our senses and as a result it has an effect on all our purchasing decisions. People make decisions based on their emotions and then justify them with logic. So it is essential that you are aware of both the positive and negative impact and response of each color on the emotions. There is no such thing as a bad color, just colors that are more suitable for your particular business purpose in order to get the response you want.

What does your personality color say about you? (reference: personality colors )

This again depends greatly on culture. Here an example that matches most Americans:

• If your favorite color is red, you are action oriented with a deep need for physical fulfillment and to experience life through the five senses.

• If orange is your favorite color, you have a great need to be with people, to socialize with them, and be accepted and respected as part of a group. You also have a need for challenges in your life, whether it is physical or social challenges.

• Lovers of blue have a deep need to find inner peace and truth, to live their life according to their ideals and beliefs without having to change their inflexible viewpoint of life to satisfy others.

• Lovers of black have a need for power and control in order to protect their own emotional insecurities.

Colors In International Marketing

When you want to do business globally check the meaning of colors for each country. Color symbolism impacts businesses and personal brands through website or blog graphic design, consumer product development, packaging and corporate identity. The significance of some colors is universal. Other colors, however, have meanings that shift in various cultures.

Online advertisers should be very careful about cultural differences in color symbolism since color is the first thing that is noticed on a web site or banner, even before the person understands the language or what the message says. A miss-match between colors and meanings in a  web site content can potentially ruin the marketer’s objectives.

The customization of color pattern for each country is becoming more and more critical as the population profile of Internet users is shifting rapidly. Latest statistics for 2011 regarding internet users show that Asia has the most internet users accounting for 44% of all users world wide, Europe 22.7 % and North America 13.0%  (Click for Reference).  The top 3 languages spoken on the internet is English with 26.8 % of users Then Chinese with 24.2% and Spanish 7.8% Reference: (Click for Reference )

In an increasingly competitive, global, interconnected and saturated market, communication needs to be carefully targeted. Few companies have a brand that is powerful enough to generate same response world-wide. For most companies it is important to understand what the impact of communication and color use will be on the targeted group. Therefore it is not only important to understand its meanings but also to find easily applicable rules for translating them.

A very good example of color customization is McDonald’s. The company has different website designs and colors for each country. For example the site for Japan is yellow and for Egypt is red.

Whether you are going global or local, use the magic power of color for your success.

Guest Blogger Bio
About Anne Egros, Global Executive Coach, at Zest and Zen International LLC
Anne  Provides Global Business, Career, and Expat Life Coaching Services For International Executives and Managers. Pharmaceutical Doctor (PharmD) with 20 years of international experience as business manager in Fortune 500 Companies. Anne worked as an expat for 20 years: US, Japan, Europe, APAC region. Fluent English, native French speaker. Please contact if you have questions Email: aegros@zestnzen.com.

View all posts by Anne Egros, Global Executive Coach »

With ONE Simple Question!

Leaders, managers, investors, parents, and coaches, are often realizing and mentoring someone’s big dream.

The bigger and more outlandish the dream, the greater the disbelief and concern.  This doubt can produce unhelpful reactions like “what are you thinking” or “it sounds too risky”.

Yet there is ONE simple question that powers success with both inspiration and practicality.

Realizing & Mentoring Another's Dream With ONE Simple Powerful Question Image: KLW Photo

The ONE Simple Question

“What do you picture?”

This questions powers positive inquiry, broader and deeper perspective, dialogue, and research. It unearths understanding of:

1. What does the dreamer think it will take to make the dream a reality?
2. How complete or accurate is that picture?
3. What strengths and how much endurance does the dreamer have?
4. What obstacles does the dreamer foresee – internal and external?
5. How will the dreamer handle missteps and mistakes – psychologically and practically?
6. What help, truly, does the dreamer expect?

What do you picture is a far better question that what is your plan? The latter requires great foresight of details at the start yet doesn’t assess the dreamer’s true readiness.

For parents with wide-eyed teenagers or high achieving college students, asking what do you picture encourages them to consider their dream more deeply without killing their spirit.

For investors in new inventions, knowing how the inventor thinks and pictures the future will affect the win or lose.

For coaches, this one simple question — what do you picture – sets up a positive non-directive dialogue with those they coach.

There will be time for plans and details. Yet if you skip the picture and go right to the plan, the plan will be incomplete. It will lack success factors that are found within the dreamer not within the plan.

Have you tried this question — what do you picture? What was the result and response?


From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Business success — be it corporate, mid-size enterprises, innovative start-ups, or small businesses - depends on the positive can do attitude. It is also weakened and destabilized by a bad attitude.

For business success, leaders, inspire people to choose a positive attitude but don’t coach a bad attitude. The latter is a waste of time and money. The team members who bring a positive can do attitude use your inspiration to deliver success. An employee with a bad attitude just uses you.

Are you surprised to hear me, The People-Skills Coach, say don’t coach a bad attitude?  Well, I am not speaking about an employee who offers a different view, contributes alternate solutions, or is having a bad day.  I am referring to an employee who under performs, is under-motivated, constantly negative, analyzes but doesn’t deliver, or refuses to work with necessary constraints.

One leader recently asked me, how long do you work on the bad morale of a negative employee? I replied, never!  You cannot work on someone’s morale.  People choose and own their individual attitudes.

Coaching a bad attitude means you are spending time on their mission instead of the mission of the organization.

Inspire Positive Attitudes; Don't Coach a Bad Attitude!

Positive can do team members …

• Offer realistic solutions to fix frustrating/difficult situations they don’t like.
• Own their occasional bad day.  When they ask for assistance, they try the suggestions you offer vs. negating your ideas and continuing to complain.
• Learn from many situations – the good and the bad – instead of complaining about them.
• Initiate actions to deliver success.

If you are thinking or saying the following about a constantly negative team member, you are enabling a bad attitude:

“But this employee …”

• “Just needs more time to develop a positive attitude.”
• “Will come around eventually.”
• “Is still recovering from the previous bad boss.”
• “Is having a rough year.”
• “Is young/immature.”
• “Is good in a crisis.”

Would upper management be swayed by these reasons when trying to assess the value of your organization? Or would they ask you to calculate the cost of having employees who don’t use positive attitudes to fuel outstanding results?

What can you expect instead? A positive attitude to create business success now; someone who is capable of choosing a positive attitude doesn’t need more time.  An employee who had a dictatorial boss before could be thrilled by a chance to work with a better leader now.  Young employees can be positive about the possibilities that lie ahead. Team members who are good in a crisis have the mental strength to choose a can do attitude daily.

Leaders, if you struggle with the idea of expecting a positive attitude, ask yourself why?

Do you:

• Want to be liked more than you want to achieve success
• Fear the necessary conversation about a bad attitude
• Believe you have the power to change people
• Believe that expecting and requiring a positive attitude means you are a tyrant/ogre
• Feel bad about yourself if an employee has a bad attitude toward the job
• Believe that positive employees won’t want to work in your organization

I see this trend among: certain personality types, managers who are leading their former peers, and leaders who replaced a rough demoralizing micro-manager.  Yet coaching a bad attitude doesn’t change the bad attitude.

It can also demoralize the committed team members who endure the bad attitude while you try — in vain — to coach. It takes you all off course.

Get back on track. Expect a positive attitude and inspire the possibilities that come from it!

Feature team successes and lessons learned.  Recognize innovative thought, outstanding effort, commitment, and action.  Express your appreciation at the end of the week for tough situations handled well.  Let no complainer disillusion or distract you and the team from the true mission.

Positive attitudes are not denial of the difficulties the team faces.  They are the very fuel for overcoming obstacles to reach business success.

Create an environment for a positive can do attitude and then expect it from everyone.

What other actions do you recommend to create an environment for a can do attitude? I welcome your comments below.

Corporate leaders, managers, supervisors: Do you have a workplace employee, a direct report, with an attitude problem — negative, or sarcastic, or controlling, or non-collaborative, self-focused, etc …? Feedback from others tells you that it is affecting teamwork, morale, customer service, or the organization’s reputation?

After outlining with the employee how the behavior needs to change, you notice that the behavior persists. No changes. One manager decided that one such employee needed coaching and decided to be the coach.

Are you, as boss, the correct workplace coach for a direct report? Is it a conflict of interest?

You might think that you would make a great workplace coach for a direct report since you know the problem and interact frequently. Let’s think further.

Boss as Coach - Conflict of Interest Image by:ShinyRedType

Conflict of Interest

1. With issues of attitude, will your employee honestly tell you if he doesn’t want to change? Or will he say he is trying when he isn’t.
2. As you coach, will you become emotionally attached to your employee and let his attitude and behavior take precedence over the organization’s goals? “He has had a rough year.” “He or she is valuable anyway.”
3. Even with specific goals for a direct report to improve/change within a certain time frame, will you be able to take decisive action if he or she doesn’t improve? Or will you question your coaching skill or struggle with the employee’s struggle?

It is possible to maintain your objectivity and be an effective coach. I have witnessed it. I have also seen managers (like the boss in the opening example) who decide to coach because they cannot make a decision about an employee who is in the wrong job.

If you have shown that you focus on the organization’s results and inspire/require positive action from all to get there, you may not fall prey to emotion and doubt. You know the difference between coaching and parenting and your employees will see the difference as well.

If this is not your strength, let someone else who is objective and unbiased coach your direct reports. (FYI:The employees would need to be aware that the coach will update you with progress reports.)

If you struggle with tough people decisions even with input from an outside coach, consider engaging a coach yourself. A coach will help you identify the underlying reasons you struggle with this and what to do about it. Your career will take on new possibilities as you discover more about yourself. From there, options will seem clearer and less daunting.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.