Profile

My job involves placing other people in a place to be successful. I do that by:

• Helping new employees have the tools and understanding they need to be successful in the workplace
• Ongoing growth and development of those employees
• Creating systems and tools that support all that. Example: mentoring programs, targeted competency development workshops, training processes, etc.
• Curriculum and systems design - targeted development programs for a specific skill, team playbooks, supplemental training guides
• Helping people get started and grow within positions they are in and help them develop and go to the next level.
• Supporting new business development pitches promoting our training infrastructure and capabilities.

I work in a corporate office building and report to a Vice President in the Retail Channel. The majority of my responsibilities are focused on that channel. I’m a member of the senior team helping drive strategy in meeting their goals and objectives. I get to partner a lot with people. My job is very consultative. Each manager owns their team, they come to me to ask for advice and we partner together to meet the needs of their program. We achieve a goal together which is a carryover of what I loved most about being a member of sports teams growing up.

I like working in both team and individual environments. In my job I like to work in a team environment but then spend time individually refining and developing the concepts.

My number one strength and what I love to do is make things better. I like to help others achieve their vision and enable them to be successful.

Vice presidents, directors, clients, managers, account executives, employees at all levels.

There’s a large variety in my job. I spend a lot of time on projects that have a start and a stop. Examples would be team launches, rolling out special programs, etc. In the morning when I come in I look at everything for the week, plan out which items need blocks of time to be able to think and work on them, determine which projects need information from other people and schedule accordingly. Approximately 50% of my time is spent with people in meetings, collaborating with others and approximately 50% is spent alone working on projects.

• Flexibility
• Listening skills– being able to hear what is important to other people to ensure the training will meet their objectives
• Empathy - being able to imagine the training experience from the position of the trainee. Example: in training, role playing can be threatening. I try do experience from the trainee’s eyes and adjust the strategy and approach to maximize the effectiveness of the training.
• Attention to detail – To conduct a successful training event, you have to prepare and follow-thru on every single detail and develop contingency plans.

Typically my days are 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. I generally work thru lunch. I’m often also working from 7-9 p.m. in the evenings as well plus additional 4-5 hours over the weekend. Based on workload, I will sometimes work all weekend. It is not uncommon during launches to have “all-nighters” to meet the objectives. On average, I work 60 hrs/week.

Yes, it comes in cycles, but approximately 25%

I love partnering with people to help them achieve their goals. I love brainstorming, I love new ideas, I love the “what if” question. I love trying to find a system, process or methodology that can be duplicated that ensures success… a turnkey system or best practice. I love information. I consider myself an “informationholic”. The more information you can give me regarding an assignment (background, past experiences, challenges, critical success factors, perspectives, examples, data, vision/goals/objectives) the better I feel. I like to know what has not worked so I can figure out what will work. I love to take all that information and think on it from every angle and then modify and develop what is needed and work it into a deliverable that is the best it can be.

I don’t like surprises. I do not like last minute assignments where I have to create something that is less than perfect based on an unrealistic timeline or last second due date. The more of a “heads up” you can give me regarding a project or work assignment that might come my way, the happier I am. I need clear expectations. I like to know what the target and success criteria are so I can surpass them. If you give me a project without information – a blank slate so to speak- that will totally stress me out. I don’t like people being upset with me. It is important to me for people to be happy with the work I do and the contributions I make. I also want to know where I stand at all times… If someone is unhappy with something I am doing I want them to come to me first so I can fix it not just complain to a third party. I find it absolutely devastating if someone questions my integrity, character, intentions or work ethic.

MWorking as a team and achieving a goal as a team. Being appreciated - thank you’s go a long way with me. I also enjoy relationships and knowing that I’ve made a positive difference. Friendships and camaraderie at work are important to me. Helping someone else reach their goals means a lot to me. I guess that is why I love coaching volleyball so much. When players reached their potential or the team won, that was exhilarating. Doing what I know is the “right thing” and being around those who choose the higher road inspires me. My personal mission statement is to “place those around me in a position to be successful.”

A volleyball coach I had on a pre-olympic development team, named Gary Coffee. He empowered me to be the best player I could be. He believed in me, challenged me and taught me a lot of life skills. I was the team captain and he taught me how to lead teams successfully. He was the ultimate life coach.

That competence is not necessarily your destiny. Just because I can do something well doesn’t mean I’m supposed to do it. Don’t let people pull you into things that you’re competent in if you’re not passionate about them. Example: people told me I should be a math teacher – I would have been a horrible math teacher. I was good at math but I did not like it. Your job should be something you would like and love to do even if you did not get paid to do it. It is about passion AND competence, not just competence.

Expose yourself and experience as many things as you can. Don’t just assume you know what it means to be a vet, doctor, etc. Shadow people in their work environment, ask questions and see if that’s really what you want. It may sound good, but you may be seeing it differently than what it really is. Growing up I did everything - 4H, girl scouts, sports, bell choir, piano lessons, Latin club, tab dancing… you name it I tried it. My mother wanted me to find what I wanted to do, not push me into something someone else wanted. My mother was very surprised when I liked sports because that’s not what she envisioned. I was the first person in my family (cousins included) who wanted to play sports in college. I was able to earn an athletic scholarship and play volleyball at the University of Louisville. It was a wonderful experienced and paid for my college education.

Education – I got caught up in that I wanted to be a coach and was told to be a coach I had to get a PE degree. Looking back, I would not have got a physical education degree. Ideally I would have opted for a BIS degree (3 minors focused on marketing/communication, business and kinesiology.). That would have better prepared me to be a collegiate coach than PE. Because I loved team sports, it was natural to think I should get a physical education degree but it actually didn’t really help me much.

I like to read, go to seminars, learn new things and communicate and spend time with my family. I love being the best Auntie I can be to my niece Miss Emery. Digital photography is a passion. I like going on what I call a Photo Treasure Hunt where I hike in places like Zion and look for that unique photo opportunity. I am involved in a lot of church events and non-profit organizations. I am part of an online webchurch which is basically like a social networking congregation. In fact I am the website administrator. We have almost 300 members. I have made friends with people around the world and have even met some of them. It is a wonderful experience. I find it amazing the connections you can make and how you can help people through these types of online venues. I listen to Christian music all of the time and I play conga drums and percussion for a couple of church worship teams.

Relationships. Everything I do comes down to my relationship with God and my relationships with other people. I love helping others to achieve whatever they are trying to accomplish, helping others get thru a tough time, making life better for other people. I love to help people identify their true passions and callings and encourage them go after their destiny. My relationship with God is very important to me. I read the Bible and meditate on what God is showing me. Prayer and intercession is a very important aspect of my life. At the core, everything I do has to do with the spiritual journey God is taking me on.

I was a collegiate volleyball player and coached internationally in Europe.

I played on scholarship at University of Louisville and did very well there… all conference, MPV of the team and MVP of the conference etc. Interesting enough, even after 25 years I still hold some records at U of L.

After college I went to California, and tried out for a grassroots Olympic development team. A lot of my teammates went on to play for the Olympics. The only reason my coach let me try out (I’m 5’3”) is because I brought out a 6’10” girl with me. He gave me three days to prove myself. He said I was too small and that being from the Midwest – my chances weren’t great. At the end of three days the coach asked me to stay and I went on to become the team captain.

We travelled overseas and played. I have competed in 33 different countries. While traveling with this team a professional team in Europe saw me play and contacted me to play for them. This was a good team, ranked 4th in all of Europe. My playing career was cut short when I blew out my knee. The greatest honor was being voted Most Valuable Player of the first round of the Europa Cup (the European Championships). I had a 31” vertical jump which is what allowed me to play at such a high level. I also had the opportunity to coach several developmental teams in Europe. Some of the players I coached I later saw playing in the Olympics which was a great thrill.

I eventually became head volleyball coach at Weber State University. I was there for four years but eventually resigned to get my Masters in Design and Curriculum Development. I realized that the things I loved about coaching I could do in a corporate educational environment. What I really loved about coaching was training and developing the players. With my team we used mission statements, personality profiles, individual development plans, team building, etc. As a volleyball coach, I liked designing the practices and figuring out the strategy for the game which is just like designing a training plan in corporate life. I always have books and resources and my house is one big library. I’m like a Wikipedia person in “stuff” – I like connecting people to resources and tools and concepts. I loved designing and conducting week long volleyball clinics and camps – basically it was a little school. It led me to realize I like curriculum design so I decided to explore that field. From there I taught at Weber State, worked with a dot com company in developing software applications for universities, pursued some project management work with Qwest and finally landed at MarketStar… and love it!