You are only a "leader" if those who choose to follow you call you that

I have successfully led digital transformation all the way up to the enterprise level, both via hands-on involvement and hands-off coaching. I help leaders understand best practices and successes of other companies, case studies, frameworks, methodologies, and research from both scholarly and practitioner literature. A leader does not need to be an expert on digital transformation, but being well-coached on the path to success does wonders with achieving organizational goals. Digital transformation is not simply the adoption of new IT capabilities. It is cultural growth and the transformation of people who can cope with and drive change management within their own professional lives so that the sum of their efforts can transform an organization at every level.

Getting things done is a fundamental need of any organization, department, team, or professional. The ways of getting things done usually fall on a spectrum ranging from agile to traditional/waterfall. In reality, however, project management is process management, which entails using the ideal way of doing the correct things in a given situation. I coach on identifying, selecting, and capitalizing on the process management that fits the situation, guiding on establishing guardrails, plotting interactive milestones between AS-IS and ideal TO-BE moments, and educating on value outcome over output using pragmatic approaches that work immediately out of the box. Having the correct things done correctly is the ultimate measure of getting things done.

Work is often a team sport. I groups on becoming cohesive teams. I do not teach the experts how to play the game. I teach them how to play as a team and win together, changing them from individual to team contributors by getting obstacles out of their path and then, when they are ready, getting out of their way so they ascend to the level of role models.

I lead leaders who themselves have the pleasure of leading direct reports. My approach is to take leaders, who in turn take their teams, away from transactional leadership basics, through a transformational leadership journey, and onto servant leadership so that the leaders can concentrate on supporting their people while their people can focus on achieving both their own professional goals as well as the organization's objectives.

I coach leaders on the “new normal,” where leaders play a pivotal role in ensuring employees not only have technology but also know how to use it effectively to collaborate well virtually, so that these activities generate positive engagement and productivity results for leaders, which they can use to understand how to help people succeed with remote work. This is especially critical given the uncontrollable factors of competitors offering remote work, existing employees having restructured their lives and priorities based on the preference for remote work options being a reality since the pandemic, and the fact that younger generational cohorts are not only expecting such options but also are used to them from having grown up with virtual collaboration at home and in school.

Using advanced elements of agile frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban, I coach leaders on how to prioritize doing the right things and how to lead teams to do those things the right way, so that iterative value can be delivered quicker and with the ability to change direction easier. My approach goes beyond software development that most agile methodologies hail from and I cater the practical application of those frameworks to non-IT departments using my proprietary approach. It is leaders that I help transform to be more agile, not just processes, irrespective of the type of work those leaders are accountable for.

Whether it's using Excel in the simplest and immediate way, utilizing the essentials of project management to stay on track, or applying agile frameworks to switch direction due to changes that happen at the speed of life, I coach on the most efficient and effective way of using tools and approaches that otherwise often seem bloated with unnecessary complexity and functionality that is rarely used outside of specializations. I have taught supply chain and logistics basics, Microsoft Office, common sense flowcharting, todo lists, business plans, budgeting, and critical analysis, to name a few, to both students and professionals of all ages.

Life is about dealing with people… and that is one of the reasons it can be so complex. Whether difficult personalities that require quick ways to stay level-headed, being resourceful with tricks to help familiarize yourself with topics to learn new things quickly, or exhibiting various critical skills like followership, ownership, follow-through, and dependability, I teach both strategy (about things to keep in mind) and tactics (in the form of things to try immediately out of the box) so that life can be easier as you collaborate with others more purposefully. 

What worked yesterday does not work quite as well today. I help educate on leadership styles, power types, and leadership approaches. Whether hands-off or hands-on, or whether power-driven or power-sharing, understanding the correct leadership style for a situation can do wonders. One of the most common difficulties for leaders is relying only on expertise gained through experience, which means relying only on skills gained over time. That's how a leader says, "I have done this for a while; I know what I'm doing." The problem is that things have changed quickly in the past several years. Waiting for time to help provide new experiences that become updated skills is a race that will never be won. Leaders need best practices.

I specialize in teaching leaders about retaining employees in the "new normal," where Generation Z is entering the workplace and expecting flexibility, remote work, work-life balance, well-being, teamwork, and specific types of communication, to name a few. It's devastating when employees leave, and preventing it helps a company thrive. The reasons for attrition are not as simple as they once were.