- Positive Intelligence®
- Everything DiSC®
- PXT™ Select Hiring Assessments
- The 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™
- Myers-Briggs/MBTI®
- ESCI Emotional and Social Competency Inventory through the Hay Group
- Conversational Intelligence®
meet our LEADERs
Alison and Shirley refined their skills as leaders and change agents in senior leadership positions with Fortune 500 companies. They developed award-winning teams and received numerous awards for bottom-line results as well as employee engagement. Because of their passion for developing people and teams they made the transition to leadership and team development consulting in 2010. They work with corporate clients, both large and small, on communication and behavioral skills to positively impact employee development, engagement, retention, and organizational culture.
Founding Partner: Alison is a leadership development consultant, workshop facilitator, and registered corporate coach with over 25 years of P&L leadership experience including developing and leading award-winning teams within Fortune 500 companies such as Macy’s. Alison powerfully synthesizes and shares this expertise with clients not only to increase leadership capacity but also to build high-performing organizational teams. She partners with clients to develop the communication and behavioral skills that fuel career and business success. Her specialties include leadership and team development strategies that leverage both DiSC profile assessments as well as 360 degree feedback. She’s also skilled in career growth and career transition coaching.
Alison’s work is shaped not only by her professional experiences, but also by personal ones as well: because Alison’s immediate family has been affected by several conditions including dwarfism and multiple learning differences, Alison has witnessed and believes in the power of the human spirt to overcome obstacles and in the importance of helping ourselves and others achieve positive change in our lives, careers, and communities.
“I cannot offer a higher recommendation of Alison and her consulting services. Simply put, she is spot on superb. She identifies issues, prioritizes goals, instills self-confidence, and coaches with the zeal and enthusiasm of a Top 10 College Basketball coach. Her candor and encouragement, and gift at motivating, sets her apart from the field. Having the benefit of knowing her in the community for many years – and witnessing her grace and integrity on a personal level as well – allows me to say without hesitation that she is one of those rare individuals who exemplifies the highest standard of professional acumen, trust, loyalty, and sincere dedication to her professional work, her family, and her friends. Alison is a top seed in her consulting bracket!”
-Attorney, General Law
“I cannot offer a higher recommendation of Alison and her consulting services. Simply put, she is spot on superb. She identifies issues, prioritizes goals, instills self-confidence, and coaches with the zeal and enthusiasm of a Top 10 College Basketball coach. Her candor and encouragement, and gift at motivating, sets her apart from the field. Having the benefit of knowing her in the community for many years – and witnessing her grace and integrity on a personal level as well – allows me to say without hesitation that she is one of those rare individuals who exemplifies the highest standard of professional acumen, trust, loyalty, and sincere dedication to her professional work, her family, and her friends. Alison is a top seed in her consulting bracket!”
-Attorney, General Law
Founding Partner: Shirley is an executive coach, leadership and team development consultant, facilitator, and speaker. Her insightful and engaging approach inspires her diverse clientele to develop the mindset and communication & behavioral skills required to achieve organizational excellence in a constantly changing world. Integrating 25 years of experience in developing and leading successful teams with Roche Pharmaceuticals, a global Fortune 500 company with a decade of consulting and coaching and her passion as a life-long learner, Shirley delivers proven, practical methods to enhance business results. Her unique ability to help individuals develop greater empathy and increased agility while creating more inclusive cultures and stronger work relationships, ensure measurable improvement in individual, team and organizational performance.
Shirley is actively involved in her community and philanthropy where she has held various leadership and board positions, and she is committed to ending domestic and sexual violence.
“Because I’ve known Shirley for many years, I can confirm she is a woman of great integrity, and she is extremely dedicated to her work, family, and community . . . I highly recommend her as a consultant and professional coach with knowledge, efficiency, dedication and competency in her field. She is thoughtful, intuitive and demonstrates great listening skills and insight. Shirley is dedicated and capable of helping you explore complex situations, clarify priorities, make hard decisions, and move forward to accomplish your goals and take advantage of new opportunities ahead.”
-Business Development Manager, Commercial Properties
“Because I’ve known Shirley for many years, I can confirm she is a woman of great integrity, and she is extremely dedicated to her work, family, and community . . . I highly recommend her as a consultant and professional coach with knowledge, efficiency, dedication and competency in her field. She is thoughtful, intuitive and demonstrates great listening skills and insight. Shirley is dedicated and capable of helping you explore complex situations, clarify priorities, make hard decisions, and move forward to accomplish your goals and take advantage of new opportunities ahead.”
-Business Development Manager, Commercial Properties
MEET OUR TEAM
Darren Kanthal
Strategic Coach Partner
Darren Kanthal is an experienced leadership and career coach. He combines a passion for developing leaders with a deep expertise in the career process. He has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources and Talent Acquisition. Darren has led strategic and tactical development of HR and recruitment programs, policy & procedures, and reducing the pain-points managers experience, with a focus on talent management and employee engagement. Darren strongly values candor, adventure, humor, and connection.
Stefanie Langer
Strategic Coach Partner
Stefanie has extensive experience in Executive Coaching and the HR sector of large corporate organizations in Germany and Denmark. She consults with a variety of organizations in sectors including financial services, e-commerce, automotive and IT. Her work in career consulting has helped her to develop an extensive network of contacts throughout Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Finland, Spain). She is a native German-speaker but is also fluent in English.
Janneke van den Berkmortel
Strategic Coach Partner
Janneke built her business and international acumen through stints in The Netherlands, the UK and the US. As an institutional sales manager, she helped professional portfolio managers with their investment strategy, and guided CEOs and CFOs in their storytelling efforts with the investment community. Janneke began coaching to empower leaders to transform themselves, their teams and their organization to be at their best by achieving well-being, healthy relationships, and peak performance.
Jasmine Asadi
Technical Producer
Jasmine provides client support in the area of technical operations. She has experience in operational and technology support, in addition to sales and marketing experience. Jasmine has held sales roles where she focused on product promotion and placement, along with driving revenue within a saturated market. She has an MBA from California Lutheran University and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Administration.
Laura Stanley
HR Specialist
Laura has experience leading human capital strategy and driving great culture with an emphasis on talent development and employee engagement. She has a broad range of experience managing onboarding, talent acquisition, designing and facilitating management & employee development programs. Most recently she has served as Chief People Officer for recruiting & executive search firms. Laura speaks fluent French.
Ralph L. Williams
Chief Technology Officer
Ralph is an information technologist with 25+ years’ experience focused on innovative enterprise-wide technical solutions. He has a broad range of experience overseeing the integration and the transformation of business strategies using enabling technologies. His expertise is aligning strategic plans and implementing process driven, technology-based solutions to help firms achieve efficiencies and productivity growth.
We teach the communication and behavioral skills necessary to positively influence, empower, and more successfully lead others using training, assessments, and coaching, which includes current research in emotional intelligence, neuroscience and positive psychology. We apply industry best in assessments and proven leadership techniques and practices. All training is highly interactive so that participants can immediately practice the new skills they are learning using real-life business scenarios, followed by post-training support and coaching in order to sustain learning and skills acquisition.
We teach the communication and behavioral skills necessary to positively influence, empower, and more successfully lead others using training, assessments, and coaching, which includes current research in emotional intelligence, neuroscience and positive psychology. We apply industry best in assessments and proven leadership techniques and practices. All training is highly interactive so that participants can immediately practice the new skills they are learning using real-life business scenarios, followed by post-training support and coaching in order to sustain learning and skills acquisition.
Understanding your organization’s desired communication and behavioral competencies allows us to design a program that will set your leadership team up for success, build new leaders for your pipeline, and maximize team effectiveness and bottom-line results.
Through the process of learning new behavioral and communication skills in community with one another, leaders and teams become more skilled at working together to grow their collective capacity for problem solving, decision making, innovating, and managing change. These skills enable leaders to create the kind of connection throughout the organization that increases alignment, engages employees, creates accountability, grows new leaders, and gets results.
Through the process of learning new behavioral and communication skills in community with one another, leaders and teams become more skilled at working together to grow their collective capacity for problem solving, decision making, innovating, and managing change. These skills enable leaders to create the kind of connection throughout the organization that increases alignment, engages employees, creates accountability, grows new leaders, and gets results.
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