I am driven to make a difference

Throughout my life I’ve been drawn to heroic books and movies.

While maturity has brought greater appreciation for the more subtle heroism of a well lived life, I have a fire in my belly to make a difference.

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What I am and am not

I’ve long believed that to have clarity about what you are as an individual or organization you must be clear about what you are NOT.    We can’t really say “yes” to anything without saying “no” to something.

Here are a few thoughts about what I am and what I am not:

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LinkedIn Feedback from Colleagues

Current and former colleagues have endorsed me at LinkedIn with comments such as:

. . . incredibly intelligent and has a tremendous ability to steer through difficult circumstances while staying cool under fire.

. . . a true “outside of the box” thinker and leader. He possesses a unique intellect that stands out in any situation.

. . . an energetic and creative sales leader with deep business acumen and insightful knack for creating high value solution offerings to meet sophisticated customer needs

. . . he was the best manager I’ve had.   He is honest, credible, and intelligent. Our customers adored him and so did the team.

. . . stood toe-to-toe with the best and brightest minds at Oracle, able to quickly grasp complex technologies and leverage that expertise across the spectrum of selling, engaging, delivering, managing, and supporting.

. . . widely recognized as one of the thought leaders in the organization and was frequently called upon to help paint the picture for the clients on how revolutionary technology applied to their specific situation.

View Rick Gage's profile on LinkedIn


Alignment Insight

What is Alignment?

It’s talked about with terms like:

trusted advisor          shared vision

skin in the game            virtual supply chain

shared risk / reward              cross-goaling

Keiretsu ……… mutual success / failure

a common enemy        virtual company

integrated supply chain         common goals

With any of these terms, alignment is what’s happening to the relationships between individuals and between organizations.

You can probably think back to a time when you’ve been in a team that was well aligned.  It feels great.  Its productive, fun, challenging and exciting.  Why doesn’t it happen more often?  Why does it seem so hard to achieve in relationships between organizations or companies?

Why Alignment Insight?

Major improvements don’t come from working harder or execution refinements.

Changing the game . . .   Taking it to the next level . . .   Creating sustainable differentiation . . .

. . . all require leaps forward based on strategic insight.

It isn’t lightning that strikes unpredictably or a mystical art practiced by those with some secret knowledge.  Its grounded in the hard work of relentless innovation.

Alignment Insight explores the steps which can predictably achieve insights that can transform your organization and your business relationships to create greater alignment.

Rick Gage is the Founder and President of Alignment Insight.


How others perceive my brand

In the last two months I’ve done some personal branding work with Reach Communications Consulting.  Part of my work with them included a tool (360 Personal Brand Assessment) which gathered input on how others perceive my brand.  I submitted a list of 35 people who know me pretty well.  Reach surveyed them directly so that their responses were completely anonymous.  20 people responded with great feedback which has been really helpful.

Here are the brand personas that their feedback identified as most closely matching their experience of knowing me.  Below the ranking are the descriptions provided by Reach for each persona.

Rank           Brand Persona  (Number of Combined Responses)

1                   Visionary     (13)

2                   Expert     (11)

3                   Judge     (10)

4                   Connector     (9)

5                   Creator     (9)

6                   Truth-teller     (9)

7                   Entrepreneur     (7)

8                   Calmer     (6)

9                   Wonderer     (5)

10                Achiever, Confidence Emitter, Rock and Self Starter (all with 4 responses)

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