Merge Gupta-Sunderji is fun to listen to and not just because of her Canadian accent. I mean, anyone who can stand on a stage in a room full of professional women and advise them, with a smile, that they must be the lobster has to be fun, right?

The leadership and workplace communications expert addressed the Raleigh chamber's executive women's luncheon last week at the North Raleigh Hilton and provided six strategies for her lobster theory: The lobster molts its skin when it grows too large to be comfortable. For a short period of time, the lobster is vulnerable, naked, bashed about in ocean waves, an easy target for predators. But in order for the lobster to grow, the lobster must molt. In order for us to grow as individuals, we must sometimes shed our protective coat and take risks. We have to change so we don't get left behind.

Short version of her six strategies:

1. Be a sponge: Continuous learning is the key. Read. Take seminars. Network. Get a mentor. The more you learn, the better off you are.

2. Keep an open mind: When the only tool in  your toolbox is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail and that's not the way it is. Put as many tools in your toolbox as you can. You may pick up a piece of information today and it doesn't seem to be relevant. But tomorrow, that information could make all the difference in the world to you.

3. Believe in yourself.

4. Seek out feedback. Have you ever watched a fly in a room, bashing and bashing and bashing against the window because it can see the outside out there? And there's a perfectly good open door on the other side of the room that would do the trick? Much better approach would be to turn around, away from the window pane, and fly out, but the fly doesn't do that. Don't be the fly! Be willing to change your course based on feedback.

5. Rediscover your creative core. Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Children under the age of 5 have 90 percent original thoughts. From the ages of 5 to 7, when we start school, the number drops to 20 percent original thoughts. Adults? TWO PERCENT. Ohmigosh. Let's channel our inner child. Let's reactivate our creative pathways.

6. Connect with people. Just think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ... we're all connected to each other in some way.

Merge energized us all with her message, delivered in a fun, friendly manner. You can learn more about her programs and services at www.mergespeaks.com.