>>>We've got a data file that has dates in 'dd-mm-yyyy (time)' format (and coming in as a string) and need them in 'standard amurican' 'mm-dd-yyyy (time)'.
>>>
>>>What's the best way to do this conversion?
>>
>>Are you looking to do the conversion in SSIS or something? How is the file getting loaded?
>>
>>Or is it stored in the table as a string in that format?
>
>Stored as a string

Try

DECLARE @t TABLE (dt VARCHAR(30))

INSERT INTO @t (dt)
VALUES ('30-10-2014')
	,('13-12-2013')

SELECT dt
	,convert(DATE, dt, 105) AS [Real Date]
FROM @t