Tag Archives: interpersonal relationships

Maria Schnell

Maria C. Schnell, M.A. has been certified by Company of Experts as an Appreciate Inquiry Facilitator, and has built her practice on creating revolutionary change for Individuals and Organizations. Maria carries an M.A and B.A. in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in the areas of Leadership and Speech Education from the University of Colorado. This background combined with her exceptional experience allows Maria to assist with a variety of change initiatives for you or your organization.

A top-notch trainer with over 10 years of success in speaking, training and organizational development, Maria has mastered the Secrets to creating a life-changing, lucrative corporation.

An expert in interpersonal communication & personal/professional development and a mastermind in program design and facilitation, Maria delights her audiences with her unique blend of humor and insight, openness and sincerity, and complete generosity of self.

Maria exudes passion, and executes facilitation of change with experience and implementation of individualized sustainable programs. Maria is diverse in background; organizational communication, diversity training, leadership training, sales and development, profitability training, and individual development (just to name a few). Clients included in Maria’s repertoire; lia Sophia Jewelry, Goodwill Inc., United First Financial, and the BDCC.  Maria’s skilled performance fulfills clients need and executes transformation.

As an Expert on Call, Maria strives to pursue the mission of the Company of Experts. Maria creates a learning environment that is open, respectful and focused to ensure that your desired result is accomplished.  The opportunity to work with Maria will offer you and your organization tools to immediately use each day in your business.

As a Facilitator of Change, Maria seeks to inspire organizations to thrive through encouraging action and execution of transformation.

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Specialties:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Change Management
  • Collaborative Learning
  • Conflict Transformation
  • Cultural Diversity
  • Customized Training
  • Gay and Lesbian Issues
  • High-Impact Strategic Planning
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Keynote Speaking
  • Leadership Development
  • Marketing
  • Online Education
  • Oral Communications
  • Professional Development
  • Program Development
  • Project Management
  • Team Development
  • Transformational Leadership
  • Women in Leadership
Bill McGinnisBill McGinnis has had a long and varied career in higher education, including management, trusteeship, and consulting and training. Bill has been certified by Company of Experts.net as an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator.

From 1989 to 2003, he served as an assistant to the vice president for strategic planning, accountability and property procurement; and director of facilities management and services in the California State University system. He also taught political science, served on a system-wide quality improvement planning committee and as a system-wide facilities management coordinator.

Bill served as a California community college trustee from 1992 to the present, with terms as clerk, vice president, and president. He also served on the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) board since 1997 to the present, with terms as vice president and president, and on the advisory committee on legislation and finance.

In addition to his community college and university work, Bill worked as a local government manager from 1973 through 1985: city administrator, city manager, chief administrative officer, and personnel director in California, Oregon, and Florida.

From 1970 through 1975, Bill worked in the private sector as a legislative analyst for California State Employees Association (CSEA) and as an account executive.

Bill has made major presentations for university student groups; community college new student trustees; community college trusteeship and management; community college effectiveness; and effective trustee practices. He has facilitated training sessions on a variety of topics, including: Knowing – Doing Gap, Turning Knowledge into Action; Balanced Scorecard & Strategy Development; Parking Analysis of CSU; Balanced Scorecard for CSU; Measuring Success for Business & Finance; Development of Employee Strategic Goals; Growth Analysis for CSU; Balanced Scorecard for Butte Community College; Integrating Quality Improvement with Strategic Planning and Accreditation for CSU; Gift Receipting Process Mapping Project & Analysis; Balanced Scorecard in City Government; Outlook for Future California State Budgets; Results Based Leadership; Performance Measuring Seminar; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis for CSU; FISH! and FISH! Sticks– Employee Development & Motivation; Leading Change; First Break All the Rules, Improving Employee Performance; Demonstration of PB Views Software for Performance Measuring ; Employee Climate Survey Presentation; Preventing Employee Burnout; Hidden Values: How Extra-Ordinary Companies Succeed with Ordinary People; Employee Motivation & Strategic Planning (Russian-American Business Training Center, Sakhalin Island); Community College Trustee Retreats and Board Development of Long Term Goals.

Bill earned a Master of Arts degree in public administration from the University of West Florida, and a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Midwestern College in Iowa. Bill holds credentials to teach public service administration and to be a supervisor in the California community colleges,

Specialties:

  • Board Training and Development
  • Change management
  • Core Values
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Facilities Planning
  • Goal setting
  • High-impact Strategic Planning
  • High Performing Teams
  • Institutional Effectiveness
  • Leadership Development
  • Mission
  • Priority Setting
  • Seven habits of Highly Effective People
  • Process Improvement
  • Quality Improvement
  • Shared Governance
  • Strategic Planning
  • Trustee Training and Development
  • Trustee/CEO relationships
  • Visioning and Futuring

Richard Lyons

Richard Lyons

Richard E. Lyons has served as a professor of management, department chair, instructional dean, corporate trainer, faculty and staff developer, and independent consultant.  His grounding in sound research and quality management practices, as well as deep learning from his varied experiences, has enabled him to exceed expectations of clients systematically.

Richard launched his consulting and presentation practice in 1999, shortly after the publication of his first book, The Adjunct Professor’s Guide to Success. He has since authored three other books – Teaching College in an Age of Accountability, Success Strategies for Adjunct Faculty, and Best Practices for Supporting Adjunct Faculty. His extensive research on these topics and familiarity with best practices that align with that research undergird his consulting. The strategies that he espouses have been well received not only by clients, but also by audiences in dozens of presentations at varied academic conferences.

Richard has presented on the campuses of community and state colleges, universities and proprietary institutions, in three countries.  Besides traditional institutions, these have included historically Black colleges and universities, historically women’s institutions, and those that serve significant populations of Native American, Hispanic and other diverse populations.  He also regularly utilizes webinars to deepen workshop participants’ mastery of critical learning outcomes. His travel experiences in over forty countries enable him to address issues in a global, futuristic context – a factor of increasing importance at many institutions.

Active throughout his career in professional organizations, Richard presently serves on the board of the North American Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development [NCSPOD].

Richard earned his B.A. in Management and M.S. in Business Education at Western Kentucky University, and his doctorate in college teaching and curriculum at the University of Central Florida.

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Specialties:

  • Achieving improved accountability outcomes in instruction
  • Adjunct Faculty Issues
  • Alternative/Authentic Assessment
  • Board training and development
  • Change Management
  • Curriculum development
  • Customer service
  • Decision making
  • Department chair training and development
  • Eight habits of highly effective people
  • Experiential learning
  • Focus group facilitation
  • Interpersonal relations
  • Interviewing for long-term effectiveness
  • Leadership development
  • Learning styles of students
  • Listening for understanding and problem solving
  • Mentoring
  • Mission formulation
  • Presentation skills
  • Quality improvement
  • Strategic planning
  • Teaching styles [alignment with student learning styles]
  • Team building
  • Train the trainer workshops
  • Trust and relationship building

The Connection between Style, Productivity, & Morale: Why it is Essential to Understand and Respond to Different Styles

 

How often do you get frustrated or upset as a result of how others have delivered their message or treated you? What about the times you’ve tried to communicate your point, but just don’t seem to get through to your audience? What’s the price you’ve paid for these disconnects in communications? How has it affected relationships and collaboration? What would be the benefit if it improved?

Anyone who has ever worked with others knows people approach situations differently. At times, these differences can create fresh perspectives, balance, and innovative solutions. Understanding personal style, and acting on that knowledge, can lead to improved performance, productivity, and morale.

Unfortunately, the converse can also be true. Often the differences in style lead to misunderstanding, mistrust, and frustration. This can then lead to lowered productivity and undesirable outcomes. Consider the following short (true) example:

I was requested by a client to coach an employee who was “having issues” with a team mate. As I sat down with the employee, something immediately became obvious… he was a matter of fact, direct, results driven guy. He acted quickly in an effort to hit his goals. His team mate, on the other hand, was relatively quiet, less direct, and seemed to take the words and actions very personally.

May not seem a big issue, but in this instance, they were required to collaborate on business opportunities. The bottom line… misinterpretations of styles and lack of insight into how to work with one another drove the two apart and cost the organization a deal worth more than $1M.

While this scenario might be extreme, conflicts, difficulty communicating with others, and less than optimal working relationships, are an everyday occurrence.

Your ability to understand your own characteristics/style, as well as those around you, can help you:

1.      Identify personal tendencies

2.      Adapt for improved communications and interpersonal relationships

3.      Effectively meet the needs of yourself and others

4.      Understand and respond to information and interactions more appropriately

5.      Get things accomplished!

For many of us, it’s likely that you’ve been using information about social style on an intuitive level for many years. Formalizing that understanding is a next step to taking actions.

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Author: Sue Cooney

Check out Sue’s upcoming Webinar – “Foundations of Style: Behavior and the Bottom Line“ – premiering November 19, 2009 at 2PM (EST)

Kristen Crusoe

Kristen Crusoe

Dr. Kristen Crusoe is a Professor of Nursing, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse, and Appreciative Inquiry facilitator. Kristen is also an Organization Development practitioner specializing in Whole System Design through team-building, collaboration, communication, and relationship-based change. Kristen has roots in both Education and Healthcare and is successful leading change in both of these highly complex and turbulent arenas. She has experience as a facilitator, practitioner, teacher, department chair, manager, and director in healthcare organizations, community college, and university environments.

The major focus of Kristen’s current practice includes using Appreciative Inquiry as a Change and Quality Improvement model for healthcare and education. She has lead initiatives for cultural excellence in healthcare and educational organizations including strategic planning, leadership development, quality improvement initiatives, and change management. Kristen is skilled in the art of appreciative reframing, leveraging opportunities, and collaborative relationship building.

Kristen has a BA from Florida State University, a Master’s of Nursing from Oregon Health Sciences University, and a Doctor of Education from Oregon State University. She is a Certified Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator with the Company of Experts. She is also a Certified Dance Therapist and Yoga teacher. Kristen lives both on the Oregon Coast and in Pensacola, Florida.

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Specialties:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Change management
  • Chief Executive Officer evaluation
  • Collaborative Partnerships
  • Conflict management
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy for individuals and groups
  • Dialogue
  • Holistic approach to organizational development and change
  • Leadership Development
  • Mediation
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • OpenSpace Technology
  • Organizational Relapse Prevention and treatment
  • Patient-Person Centered care
  • Performance Valuation
  • Strategic Planning
  • Strategic Planning Relationship Building
  • Team Building
  • Therapeutic Relationships within the workplace
  • Visioning
  • Whole System Change

Barbara Kerr

Barbara Kerr

Barbara A. Kerr has worked in higher education as a faculty member, an administrator, a consultant, and an executive coach. As part of her consulting services, she has assisted three Washington State college boards in hiring their college presidents, and has facilitated the hiring of many other college administrators and faculty. Currently, Barbara is the principal of a Seattle-based consulting firm that provides coaching and consulting services to government, non-profits, higher education, and business organizations.

Barbara has completed a post-graduate training course as a Master Certified Executive Coach and is a certified administrator of the EQ-i, an emotional intelligence inventory, as well as a number of other assessments to assist individuals, teams, and organizations in moving forward. She has developed a unique dual coaching process that provides individual coaching for executives while at the same improves and enhances the work of the executive team as a whole. She has developed expertise in working with individuals and teams to assist them in clarifying their values, creating a vision in alignment with those values, building a plan of action, and supporting the implementation and assessment of the plan. She has also developed an interactive board game to assist clients in better understanding the concepts of emotional intelligence, as well as how to enhance their own competencies. She is the author of several books, including “Read All Your Life” and co-author of “You Can Choose Your Own Life.”

Her clients have included many two and four-year colleges and universities, Center for Information Services, Commission on Colleges and Universities, United States Navy, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, the Washington Educational Leadership Association, Olympic Mental Health Associates, Washington Mutual Bank, the Charles Moriarty Foundation, and a number of individual executives and administrators. Barbara has a Ph.D and an M.A. in English from Temple University.

Specialties:

  • Accreditation and program assessment
  • Board Training and Development
  • Chief Executive Officer evaluation
  • Coach and Counseling
  • Communication
  • Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
  • Employee Development
  • Environmental Scanning
  • Executive Coaching
  • Facilitation
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Leadership Coaching
  • Leadership Development
  • Life Coaching
  • Meetings
  • Strategic Planning
  • Team Building
  • Team Development
  • Values Clarification
  • Visioning and Futuring

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