Coaching & Consulting
Key types of consulting
- Coaching leaders and businesses to do great things in ways that align with their values
- Coaching individual creators to reach their creative potential
Competencies in my backpack
Process engineering, creativity, change management, conflict management, writing & communications, project management, team building, event planning, product development, risk management, publishing
Valutivity LLC's Certifications
- State Corp Comm. LLC-ID: #S305631-6 since 10/06/2009
- Dun & Bradstreet (DUNS): #832359561 since 2009
- Vendor # with e-VA: VS0000054574 since 2009
- Small, Women & Minorities (SWaM) Certification: #682920 since 2009
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- Written by Karen Smith-Will
- Category: Coaching & Consulting
A deca
de or more ago, a peer gave me some difficult feedback about one of the members of my team. Observation and some discreet questioning validated his thoughts. My next steps took me down the halls of some new—and very difficult—experiences as a manager. The actions I took needed to happen. However, my response did NOT need to impact me physically and emotionally the way it did.
Read more: Leadership: Fear, Unconscious Motivator of Leaders
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- Written by Karen Smith-Will
- Category: Coaching & Consulting
For the past 40 days, my family has taken care of 3 crabs. Managing Eco-Earth and sand habitats, supporting fresh- and saltwater environments, and monitoring eating habits takes research, time and even expense. (We even try to give our crabs a little ocean-spray “tide” in the evenings.) As the first pets we’ve had in years, these critters have reminded us what it means to nurture. Nurturing just might be one of the most undervalued concepts in leadership. And that could be a problem, because nurturing is a critical component to the DNA of servant leadership.
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- Written by Karen Smith-Will
- Category: Coaching & Consulting
"Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth." Susan L. Taylor
Acting like a Leader: Responding to the Crisis
Doug: After that was all over and I got back home, then I volunteered for submarine duty and they sent me to San Diego. Lena Mae was already on her way away from Hawaii. They wouldn’t let us change our abode because war had already broke out. And all I could say was meet me at the YMCA in San Francisco. I couldn’t tell her when, where, or what not, because I couldn’t tell her on the radio where we would dock or when.
So we met in San Francisco, and they sent me to San Diego to catch the S-27, which was an old type submarine. As soon as I got on her, we went to the Aleutian Islands. And from the Aleutian Islands…
Lena Mae: “Well, let’s go back to Pearl Harbor. When he went to do his duty station, the girl next door and I, we didn’t know what to do.
Read more: Greatness Thrust Upon Him: Leadership at Pearl Harbor, Part II
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- Written by Karen Smith-Will
- Category: Coaching & Consulting
On Friday, September 9, 2011, my 12-year-old son and I attended President Barack Obama’s speech at my alma mater, University of Richmond in Virginia. He discussed his Jobs Plan, as a follow-up to his similar pitch to both houses of Congress the previous night. President Obama demonstrated a change management technique I call acquiring “emotional change agents,” individuals who will respond to an emotional appeal and voluntarily become ambassadors for change.
Read more: Leadership: Recruiting Emotional Change Agents: President Obama’s Jobs Plan
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- Written by Karen Smith-Will
- Category: Coaching & Consulting
"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V).
Uncle Doug Eaker is a quiet man--salty at times, introspective at others and with a twinkle in his eye. Like most people, he has many stories. On today, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I offer his story of leadership thrust upon him at age 23. He shared this with me a decade ago, on September 30, 2000, at our annual family reunion. The story will be told in several parts, including his perspective, his wife, Lena Mae's perspective, and that of his sister-in-law. Finally, there were will some statistics, for those die-hard history buffs. History serves as an important library of resources for the study of leadership.
Read more: Greatness Thrust Upon Him: Leadership at Pearl Harbor, Part I
Subcategories
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