Margaret Dawson’s Blog
Shining Your True Light!
This blog is my passion project around empowering you to be true to yourself by rediscovering and shining your light! I use my own life, experiences, and learnings in hopes that my stories will help others. My ultimate goal is to finish writing a teaching memoir book that brings it all together. However, for now, I am focused on this blog and writing here.
Through my speaking, coaching, and writing on this topic, I’ve learned that this struggle to be true to ourselves is a human phenomenon that nearly everyone faces at one time in their lives. Discovering and shining our true light is a universal theme.
Therefore, this blog and site is more than just my place to write and hopefully empower others around this topic. Margaret Dawson Blog is a community, a safe place, and a platform for everyone to discuss how to discover and shine their light on the world. We will also discuss related topics that are near and dear to my heart and my work, like friendship, parenting, life’s challenges, and keeping our sense of humor. You will also see content related to my decades of working in the technology industry, both from a women’s perspective and an overall tech perspective.
We want to hear your stories, too. Do you have something to share from your journey in rediscovering your light that can help others? Is there a passion project or issue you want everyone to learn about? If you have a story to share or you would like to be a guest blogger, please contact us.
My Incredible Adventure with Hernia Surgery
“It was a small bump above my belly button. I found myself playing with it, pushing it in and watching it pop back out.” Margaret delivers her story of going under the knife with enough wit to make us laugh through two IV sticks and cringing detail. Her recommendations for recovery are practical, funny and a must-read for anyone who’s having, or has had surgery.
8 Human Factors to Digital Transformation Success – Part 3
In the final blog in our 3 part series on human factors contributing to digital transformation success, we look at the importance of user experience and focusing on the customer, how to break down silos and build cross-organizational teams, rewarding people and teams who take risks and the importance of developing our people.
8 Human Factors to Digital Transformation Success, Part 2
This post continues our discussion on digital transformation success. We explore the first four of eight human connections needed to be a digital leader. Establishing a clear vision. Setting shared and courageous goals. Embracing an open organizational culture. And making it personal through face-to-face communications.
The Killer App in Digital Transformation is Human Connection, Part 1
Every organization knows it must become a digital leader to survive and thrive. But technology alone does not solve digital transformation. The most critical dependency of success is people. Margaret proposes eight human factors to successful digital transformation.
Finding Community at a Writing Retreat
Recently, I spent five days at a writing retreat in Montana. As expected, we did a lot of writing and exploring with words and themes. But we created more than stories and scenes. We built a community of writers, sisters, and discoverers that will exist long after any of us publish our books.
Letting Go of My Desire to Control
Naturally, control is a necessary part of life, until it gets in the way of personal happiness and relationships. The key to withholding the desire to control starts with self-awareness. Guest author Connie Cermak put together a list of steps she’s taken to reduce her need to control and shine her light.
Core Values Provide a Compass for Life
Are you grounded in your core values? Many of us make mistakes we regret because we don’t know who we are at the core. Margaret discusses discovering her core values and the importance of using core values as guiding principles in life.
6 Critical Traits of a Successful Leader – Part 2
In part 2 of her 2 part series on the Critical Traits of a Successful Leader, Margaret Dawson explains the remaining traits: The Builders, The Transformers and The Emapthic Leader, and how these leadership qualities impact an organization and a culture.
6 Critical Traits of Successful Leaders – Part 1
What distinguishes a good leader from a bad leader? What kind of leader are you? Margaret shares the six critical traits successful leaders and how each leadership trait, separately or in tandem with other traits, creates a dynamic organization.
Feminine Power Lessons from My First Boss
Feminine power sounds like an oxymoron. But the reality is you can embrace your femininity AND be powerful. As a young college graduate, Margaret was taken under the wing of a woman who would become her greatest mentor. Confident, compassionate and always authentically herself, Carole taught Margaret life long lessons she still follows today.
Learning How to Shine Your Light for the World
Margaret Dawson shares childhood memories of singing, frolicking, and enjoying an exuberant, light-filled youth. As we grow, our light can dim as we stray from what brings out the best in each of us. So how do we recapture our youthful light? We start by recognizing: our unique gifts to the world, our Inner beauty and power, our connection to the universe, and our potential to be all we can be.
Women Empowering Women: 8 Actions to Take Now
Let’s face it, women aren’t always as supportive in the work-place as we’d like them to be. Especially when they’re climbing the corporate ladder. The first step in women empowering women is to check your own competitive nature at the door. Here are 8 actions we can take now.
Breaking the Addiction to External Validation
When Jane Fonda announced that she’d spent most of her life being the person the men in her life wanted to be, it not only resonated, it pinched a nerve. When we spend our lives living up to other people’s expectations, we turn off our internal light to make sure someone else’s light is shining. It takes practice to stop and ask yourself what being YOU looks and feels like.
Why Am I Here? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Ever ask yourself: “Why am I here?” The root of this burning question is often the result of internal feelings of insecurity or self-doubt. How many of us walk into a room feeling as though we’re not as smart, successful or beautiful as others in the room? The truth is that most of us feel this way! Recognizing that you’re perfect just the way you are, is the first step in understanding why you’re here, and how to shine your light.
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About Margaret
Margaret Dawson is a builder, a change agent, and a coach. She is a frequent public speaker and author on technology trends, women in tech, digital marketing, women supporting women and living intentionally. Read more about Margaret.