Posts by Susan Bixler

Getting Through a Crisis…Three Things to Learn from Everything Happening It seems that daily, another crisis arises.  It hits us personally, professionally, and globally.  How much can we handle?  How can we possibly process this much chaos? How in the world do we keep moving forward as leaders, as colleagues, as friends, as a community…

40th Anniversary Letter – Stay Curious and Adapt When I started the first version of my business, The Professional Image Inc, there were not many women who owned their own businesses. That did not deter me since I had very little to lose at the time, and I had great passion for my business idea.…

“My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon”Mizuta Misallied, 17th Century Japanese poet and samurai Our barns have burned down and yet there is opportunity and promise ahead. We didn’t plan or expect for the COVID-19 crisis to be as damaging as it has been. But here we are with sickness, medical…

The greatest scarcity today isn’t capital – it’s leadership.  Our eminent challenge is to develop our current teams and hire the sharpest people we can find who will make a difference in how our businesses operate. There is not a business today that can afford to operate as they have in the past.  What we…

Dr. Roger Bannister was the first human to break the 4-minute mile on May 6, 1954. Contemporary thought was that a human being could never run that fast. Yet 64 days later, Bannister’s record was also broken. Many years later, on September 29, 2019, Allyson Felix, USA Olympic sprinter, broke another major record. She surpassed…

Dear Colleague, Paul McCartney,  Sheryl Sandberg,  Jeff Bezos, and many others in multiple industries are considered top performers.  Top performers produce.  They add value.  They have staying power and they are all talented. But is talent alone enough?  Skills, capabilities, and a stellar brain; that should do it, shouldn’t it?  But we know better.  Everyone…

Dear Colleague, Definition of Company Culture: The combination of values, beliefs, behaviors, personality, and informal rules that guides the company in its day-to-day interactions. Culture is the differentiator and the greatest predictor of continued company success.  It starts at the bottom and it starts at the top.  Everyone owns it.  It’s the air we breathe. …

Dear Colleague, Points of View That Required a Resilient Response “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Charles Duell, U.S. Commission of Patents, 1899 “Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” President Grover Cleveland, 1905 “Guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Records after turning down a group called the Beatles,…

Dear Colleague, The greatest challenge of every business boils down to one thing – attracting the best people available, and then engaging, developing, and retaining them. Through them, services and products are improved, sales goals are achieved, and customers are well served. Creating these companies full of rising stars is one of the most difficult…

Dear Colleague, John Green, the mega-selling author of The Fault in our Stars, recently discovered his very first book, New Year’s Resolution Streamers, while he was cleaning out his office. He wrote and illustrated this 4-page book when he was about 6 years old.  His approach was to write New Year’s resolutions for each member…