It's that time of year once again! It's the season when pundits such as myself get up on our soapboxes and make pointless predictions for the coming year that are little more than rehashed and half-baked versions of the same predictions our peers are making right now. Nobody wants to read those. I like my predictions to be a bit more provocative, so with that I give you my thoughts (some rational, some requiring a bit more explanation) for the next 12 months as we drive into 2011.

If you are in media and have been honored enough to be in the room with Tom Deierlein, a leader among us -- accomplished ad executive, U.S. Army Major and founder of the Tom Deierlein Foundation -- you might find yourself blown away by his record of military as well as civilian service. Though it's a lot to summarize, if you don't know Tom's story, it went something like this:

Groupon is killing it. It's experiencing meteoric growth and (as of this writing) is on the verge of a $6 billion dollar acquisition by Google. The "deal-a-day flash-sale group-buying coupon service" is rewriting the rules on local business advertising and marketing. #

This week began with the extraordinary disclosure, orchestrated by WikiLeaks, of hundreds of thousands of once-secret U.S. diplomatic communications. Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission called for a do-not-track List to put Internet users in control over what information is captured and stored about their Web browsing habits. In a world of ubiquitous digital networked communications, will secrecy and privacy ever be the same? Just because both involved the Internet, will some confuse the issues of personal privacy with the purposeful leaking of state secrets? Probably.

Unbeknownst to you, many of the executives you know engage with a business and/or life coach. These coaches are there to help make sense of the chaos that is everyday life, and can help execs learn the best way to address career issues, maintain work/life balance, and even mentor the employees who work for or with them. Coaches are valuable and effective -- and if you ever get the opportunity to work with one, I certainly recommend you do it.