Today’s guest helps leaders and teams become the best of who they are and what they do.

She is the founder and owner of Cognitas, an executive and team coaching firm. Her clients include premier brands such as Adobe, Netflix, PwC, Gap, Dropbox, Stripe, and numerous high-growth start-ups. She specializes in helping her clients lead and thrive in fast-paced, constantly changing, and uncertain environments.

Earlier in her career, she was a management consultant with PwC and led numerous teams and projects to help companies scale and implement large-scale strategic change. Following that, she held executive-level positions at both a digital marketing agency and a private equity firm.

In her coaching practice, she helps leaders and teams create adaptive solutions that address their most pressing challenges, enhance their effectiveness, and capitalize on opportunities.

She is a regular contributor to HBR, Fast Company, and Forbes, writing about leadership and strategies for high performance.

Please join me in welcoming Dina Denham Smith.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is a choice or a stance, not a title. Leaders inspire others to follow through free-will, not authority.”
• her mentors throwing her to the “deep end” in her job and how that affected her leadership skills.
• the lessons her dad has shared with her, including the power of purpose.
• growing up at an all-boys boarding school where her parents taught.
• how she chose her field in college and all the things she had considered being entrepreneurially-minded.
• how an internship and experience at PwC led to a full-time offer.
• her dedication for wanting to improve people’s experience at their jobs because they spend the majority of their time working.
• her tips on equipping oneself with a toolbox to be the very best at anything.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer layers of her network.
• why she feels networking is a loaded word and should be rebranded.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com.

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