val-atkin-wells-street

Consulting

I’ve worked with most clients for many years. I describe it as inside/outside consulting.  Getting to know the organization, its aspiration, culture, people, and issues allows me to spin up quickly on new assignments and to offer realistically challenging suggestions while maintaining an objective, external perspective.

My focus is on the human side of the enterprise. I’ve worked at all levels with various sized companies and non-profits. Engaging in this work for 40+ years (I know) has given me a broad range of opportunities including:

  • Creating feedback-rich environments strong in communication, candor and engagement up, down, and across the organization
  • Building or rebuilding individual, team, and organizational trust
  • Change facilitation (I think change management is as oxymoronic as ‘non-working mother’)
  • Facilitating planning and decision making
  • Designing and delivering training linked to consulting, stand-alone sessions, and trainer training.

I often collaborate with select thought partners. Our collective experience allows us to offer “big company” expertise without the overhead or bureaucracy. Now, more than ever, time is of the essence. We are very careful to do only what is necessary. We don’t have a standard approach and come to each client with lots of experience and an open mind. This translates into targeted and cost-effective solutions.

Individual and Team Coaching, Thought Partnership

I realized not long ago I have been coaching since before anyone called it coaching. I’ve found we are often so focused forward in pursuit of goals, knowledge, and experiences we don’t take sufficient time to pause and look inward. I work with clients – individuals and teams – to amplify both horizontal AND vertical growth. Owning all of what got them here, clearly identifying where they are in the present, and assisting in the design of aspirations for the future. We’ll co-create development plans which gain traction and results.

Some of my clients request short-term thought partnership for specific issues or goals. We’ll define a process and a cadence that works for you.

Speaking

Audiences have ranged from facilities engineers to senior executives, non-profits to Fortune 100 companies, pharmaceuticals to arts organizations. I enjoy researching and customizing each and every one. All are listener-centered, practical, and create repeat requests.

For instance:

  • Your Brain at Work
  • Change: It’s Here to Stay
  • Put Time on Your Side
  • Are You Really Listening? Hello? (It Could Change Your Life)
  • Resilience: You Wouldn’t Drive Your Car Until it Ran Out of Gas
  • Selling Your Ideas
  • Trust: Getting it and Keeping it
  • The Neuroscience of Complaining
  • Self-Awareness: the Secret Sauce

Peer Forums

For leaders (and those who aspire to become leaders) virtual and in-person Peer Forums are a space where you can share, develop, enrich, and challenge yourself and the other members to live as fully as possible.

It’s a place for all of who you are and for all you want to become. Peer Forums are valuable for those who are currently in leadership, hoping to become leaders, launching a new initiative, or wanting to grow and become more resilient. They will be created based on the common needs of the members. In addition to the situations/challenges you bring to the Forum, we will utilize a carefully curated body of knowledge including the latest in neuroscience. The experience will create new skills, confidence, commitment, friendship, and ease.

Peer Forums offer:

  • Monthly meetings on Zoom
  • Sidebar mini-group discussions on specific topics for those interested
  • Interim email/phone response to questions/issues

If you’d like to know more, let’s have a Zoom coffee.