It's traditional to picture the turning of the year as the departure of a crusty old codger, replaced by a bouncing, pink-cheeked babe with its whole life (all 365 days of it) ahead. Sometimes, that's a great way to move into the future - sending old ways and ideas packing, in favor of new approaches with exciting potential. But wait: Before you relegate Old Man 07 to the has-been heap, think about everything that old guy brought you this year, and make sure you hold on to the good stuff when he goes.

    Did you gain new ideas and insights this year, or learn new ways of thinking, behaving, and succeeding? Did you make new friends, bond with new colleagues, open up new opportunities? Did you renew your appreciation for good things in your life that have been around for a while?

    Certainly, no one who knows us at CEO would accuse us of refusing to let go of the past! But we do want to take some time, as we say goodbye to 2007, to acknowledge the wonderful people and events that made this year a "keeper": All of our program participants and the fascinating sessions they inspired. Our team of facilitators and consultants, including several talented new folks who joined us this year. And all of our longtime supporters, who continue to help us grow and prosper.

Wishing everyone in the CEO family a delightful and safe holiday season, and a New Year full of growth, health, prosperity, and fun!

    As for the future, the closest thing we have to a New Year's baby is our new Executive Assistant for Marketing and Sales, Patti Schuldenfrei, who joined us in November. Patti will be developing the "creative" end of Creative Energy Options, Inc., focusing on communications and branding.

    Patti has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and has an extensive background in both marketing communications and business management. "We're very excited about the skills Patti brings to CEO," says Mary Jane Saras, Director of Business Development, "and we're just as excited to find someone who's such a natural fit with our team. We had her attend a TLC session even before her first day on the job, and we could see she took our approach to heart right away. We feel she's the perfect person to help communicate our vision."

    With this issue of PEPtalk Patti takes the reins as Editor, while George and Nancy Pennebaker move into the role of Contributing Editors - no "out with the old" for these devoted CEO associates! We thank George and Nancy for their great work with PEPtalk, and look forward to great contributions to come.

    When companies look to "tighten their belts," training is often among the first budget areas to be cut. That's because traditionally, it's been hard to prove the value of dollars spent on training initiatives such as leadership development. Today, according to several recently published articles, companies demand that leadership development provide ROI - return on investment.

    At CEO we know that our flagship program, Total Leadership Connections, meets that requirement in spades. Or to put it in mathematical terms, TLC=ROI.

    How do we know this?

    Over the past few years, more emphasis has been put on "emotional intelligence (EI)" and "social intelligence" in correlation to leadership competencies. Research conducted by the large universities and business research centers points to the importance of "people skills" and the ability to improve human potential as a core leadership trait.

    By golly gee-whiz, that's just what TLC has been doing since its inception in 2001! A key strategy in TLC is developing the ability to mentor and grow others by putting our proprietary Pattern Aware Leadership™ model into your daily work. A forum for doing "the hard work on the soft skills," TLC helps leaders understand patterns of behavior, which enables them to have honest and open discussion with colleagues and direct reports when negative patterns rear their ugly head during times of stress. It's this leader who is best equipped to continue his or her leadership growth and to help others grow. READ MORE...

    A young businessman had just started his own firm. On his first day in business, he was sitting at his desk when he saw a man come into the outer office. Wanting to impress a potential client, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working.

    He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, "Can I help you?"

    The man said, "Yeah, I've come to activate your phone lines."

PEPtalk is a free monthly eNews from Creative Energy Options, Inc. (CEO) - a global leadership development, consulting and coaching company on the cutting-edge of business transformation. We provide the solutions you need to apply the Pattern Aware Leadership ModelTM to your daily work and home life. PEPtalk is published every month and filled with leadership news and views, success stories, special events and valuable tips to energize your leadership.