Thank YouI’m way overdue to provide some thanks to a number of great people and organizations that I’ve worked with or that have supported me over this past year, and the deep freeze here in Chicago is no excuse for delaying this post any longer.  Nor is the fact that I’m horribly behind on holiday shopping (the economy is waiting!), not to mention that my wife and brother both have birthdays within 6 days of Christmas.  (Parents, in the future, better planning please!)

I turned up the heat a bit, refilled my coffee cup and pried myself away from this week’s all consuming collaboration on my next Building Better Leaders program (mentoring plus distance education) entitled Leadership and the Technical Professional, and here are just a few of Thank You’s that I would like to extend.

My Thanks!

-Thank you to the editors at SmartBrief for including a number of my posts in their great bulletins during the past week and over the past year.  I particularly enjoyed contributing to their 2009 Leadership Review and was in some great company with Wally Bock (Three Star Leadership), Dan McCarthy (Great Leadership) and others.  If you don’t subscribe to one of their many bulletins, you are missing out on an outstanding opportunity to stay informed and gain access to great content.

–Speaking of Wally, I am thankful for his great support and for his frequent inclusion of my posts in his great feature, “Midweek Look at the Independent Business Blogs. The best part of the inclusion is that he puts me in good company with some of my favorite business bloggers.

-We have a great resource in my county called the Shah Center for Corporate Training, affiliated with our community college.  This organization, its Director and team do an outstanding job bringing all manner of professional training to businesses and non-profits all year long.  I was honored to write the cover article for the Q1 2010 issue of their publication, CATALYST, and noticed the other evening that it had published.  My article is perhaps timely given the state of our economy, and I encourage you check out the pdf version of “Rethink, Renew and Recover,” as well as take a look at the expanse of what this great organization provides to our community.  They are certainly a model to learn from.

-My recent collaboration partners, Chris Colbert, Joe Zurawski as well as the team at DigiSage (web development/hosting) have all been in overdrive helping on various projects, including the Building Better Leaders launch.  Joe and I will launch the new technical leadership program in early January, and Chris is working evenings to help out.  The DigisSage team never sleeps.

-Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire Collaborative Services for collaborating with me on two, “Two Voices” posts.I’ve rarely worked with anyone as creative and frankly as fun to work with as Mary Jo and I look forward to more opportunities for us to pool our thoughts.  Of course, her pool of thoughts is much deeper than mine, so I am the beneficiary in this arrangement.

-Thank you to my Twitter and all of my blog readers.  Who would have imagined that the world of social networking would lead to so many amazing and productive new relationships!  I’m working with a dozen or so great professionals and organizations that I’ve met through blogging or on Twitter and look forward to some great new ventures in the upcoming year.

-Thank you to the great professionals, deans and department chairs at DePaul, The Illinois Institute of Technology and McHenry County College that have invited me to participate in serving their students and communities as a management and leadership educator. Thanks as well to my students!  The secret here is that when I’m teaching, I’m learning.  The pleasure is all mine.

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Saying “Thank You” is always in style, and all too often, we let the pace of life get in the way of these two simple but important words.  For anyone reading, please accept my sincere thanks.  Now it’s time for you to pay it forward.