Turn Your Workplace Into a WOWplace:
5 Rules for Leading Your Organization to Success
(VIRTUAL and IN-PERSON programs offered)
Sandy helps you solve the challenges of getting people to do what you need them to do
Is it worth 10 minutes of your time to learn the ONE process I can do with your teams to improve employee engagement and customer service… and reinforce a culture of WOW?
If so, please call me at 407-856-1188 for a quick chat!
Customized Leadership Development
Virtual and In-Person Keynote, Breakout and Corporate Training Programs and Coaching
(Click for information on three options for your leaders)
(Click for a printable description of Sandy’s leadership programs)
10 Compelling Reasons to Hire Sandy for Your Next Event
Download your free copy of my leadership Cheat Sheets!
“Great Leadership”
“10 Things You Should Never Do as a Leader”
Sandy’s Most Requested Programs for Leaders include:
- Turn Your Workplace Into a WOWplace: 5 Rules for Leading Your Organization to Success (Read more)
- 10Things You Should Never Do As A Leader (Read more)
- What is Your “Emotional Logo (TM)”? (Read more)
- Creating WOW Experiences for Customers (Leadership-focused) (Read more)
How leaders lead determines how workers work.
Leadership comes with challenges. Research shows that when challenges occur, leadership breaks down, and therefore so does an organization’s culture, which interferes with productivity, diminishes engagement and disengages workers.
Breakdowns come in the following four areas:
- Trust (inclusiveness, fairness, respect)
- Communication (cross-generational, complete, concise)
- Execution (process, procedures, tools)
- Follow-through (accountability, measurement, scorecards, rewards)
If your mid- and upper-level managers challenged by any of the following, Sandy’s programs and coaching can help you find practical solutions and get results:
- A lack of respect and gratitude from their people
- Excessive and disruptive turnover
- Communicating with younger workers, or getting them to show up and be present
- People not following standard procedures or using the tools provided for them
- A lack of proactive thinking, follow-through and accountability on the part of employees
Sandy works with corporate, association and government leaders to help bring engagement and enthusiasm back to the workplace by creating a culture that fosters inclusion, respect and productivity. She helps leaders discover ways to improve employee engagement and their impact on loyalty, productivity and profits.
“Thanks again Sandy! I attended your workshop at AHRA and got so much out of it. Tomorrow is day 1 for transforming our workplace into a WOWplace! Buckle up gang this is going to be fun. UPDATE: We continue to implement your great ideas and our department is thriving. We have actually been selected to become a beta site for Excellence 24/7 since AHRA!”
– Helen Bradley, Lead Diagnostic Radiology Tech at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
“It was so great meeting you in Anaheim! Thank you for delivering a great presentation at the Annual Meeting last week! We’re just starting to plan out our Fall Conference and the Fall Design Team heard how your Annual Meeting session was extremely well received and was so impressed that they are interested in seeing if you’d be willing to participate as a speaker and repeat “10 Things You Should Never Do as a Leader” during the Fall Conference. We just can’t get enough of this presentation!”
– Crystal Quinones, Conference Dept./Conference Managers
“It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it!! I am also getting great feedback from the other guys as well. I have to admit this is surprising! Most of the supers are pretty skeptical of this type of thing and were basically kicking and screaming trying to get out of it! 90% of them really liked it and said they will try and implement some of the things that Sandy spoke about into their daily lives.”
– Andrew Rogers, Dir. of Field Operations, Progressive Roofing
“I wanted to let you know what great feedback we are continuing to receive from your keynote at our National Franchise Conference. The lessons learned have been a big hit with our franchise community. It’s a real testimonial on your program when months after the event owners are still engaged in implementing the key points you stressed. Not only was your presentation entertaining, it is making a positive difference in our business.”
– Jim George / President & CEO, The Snip-Its Corporation
“Thanks so much Sandy! Loved getting to meet you and your keynote was amazing. You are really an inspiration. I love to meet people who love their work!”
– Curt Fowler, FL Excellence Conference
“I was impressed with the depth of the information!”
– WOWplace keynote program executive attendee
Clients and audiences tend to hire Sandy when they are experiencing one or more of the following:
- They need an uplifting keynote, general session or training program from a passionate and energetic presenter who engages their audience and inspires them to reach higher.
- They need to restore effective communication so people from different generations can talk and work together to get the job done.
- They need to re-gain team harmony and cohesion after a period of growth, merger or acquisition, so they can get everyone on the same page.
- They need to re-build morale after the loss of a big client (or other demoralizing “incident”) before they lose another one.
- They want to preserve or re-gain the “family feeling” and excitement they had when they first started.
What is your corporate culture?
Do you know? Is it evident in everything that every member of your team says and does? Is it in the forefront of their minds and so strongly instilled in their hearts that every action demonstrates what is important to them and the organization? When corporate culture is unclear or confused, everything suffers: engagement, productivity, customer service, morale, profits – everything.
But when the corporate culture is clear, leaders don’t have to “be everywhere and see everything” because employees will demonstrate your shared values automatically. And if someone has a bad day, their peers will jump in to help them because doing anything else “is not the way we roll here.”
Strong leadership – WOW leadership – is at the heart of culture because it guides everyone’s actions. From the Board Room to the Break Room, everyone is committed to excellence, to making a difference and to reaching their full potential … together.
When leadership falters, decisive and authentic action is needed to help the team recover quickly in order to keep the organization from losing momentum or even sliding backward.
How do you view your leadership? More importantly, how do your associates view your leadership style and leadership teams?
Do your employees have to come to work because they make a paycheck… or do they love to come to work because they make a difference?
Creating the WOW is not about big, flashy one-time actions that create fleeting impact and then are gone. It’s about our people and their willingness to consistently engage and take ownership for their role in the organization’s success.
But their willingness to consistently engage and take ownership relies on their leaders’ willingness and ability to consistently help them remember that they matter – and that their actions matter… and that make a difference every day.
Do your policies and procedures enable and encourage team members to be creative and innovative when serving others? Do they feel safe to use their judgment in order to create exceptional experiences? Do your systems and tools support and enable them to follow those creative actions through to completion? Or do those experiences fall flat because the systems or tools don’t work, and actually prevent them from keeping their promises?
Disengagement and burnout often prevent people from sharing new ideas and going the extra mile to find hidden WOW’s that add up to exceptional experiences for everyone around them.
In this program, Sandy shares uplifting leadership ideas, entertaining stories and case studies, and easy-to-use models that foster innovative and proactive thinking. The program inspires attendees to fully engage and bring their ideas to fruition by sparking their creativity and showing them how to anticipate knowledge gaps, improve processes, enhance productivity, eliminate excuses and break the “status quo”, so their ideas can be realized.
By reinforcing a culture of service, values, creativity and respect, Sandy also demonstrates how to effectively leverage the competitive advantage that exists in tapping into the tacit knowledge of the team, so it doesn’t remain hidden or “walk out the door” to benefit your competition. The result is that attendees remember that they do make a difference… and can lead others to do the same.
“Fabulous – As a new supervisor, I am leaving with great ideas.”
– WOWplace leadership training program attendee
“The presentation was GREAT. It was obvious that Sandy put a lot of time and effort in customizing the presentation for KUA.”
– KUA Manager
People don’t leave companies… they leave people!
Statistics show that 68% of customers leave a company because of the way they were treated… not because they didn’t like the product or service.
And 90% of new employees make the decision to stay with a company – or leave – within the first 6 months… mainly based on how they were treated.
If we want to turn our workplace into a WOWplace, we must evaluate and focus on everything we say and do, as well as the way we say and do it, so our words and actions match our promise of the WOW.
We could focus on all the incredible products and services our company has to offer… but if all our incredible products and services are not delivered in WOW ways, by WOW people, with WOW attitudes, they may as well not exist. In other words, if we don’t make everyone – customers and employees alike – feel valued, appreciated, listened to and respected… they won’t stay.
“We’d like to have Sandy come in and work with one department for 6 months, and then expand out to other departments once the concepts are in place in the first one!”
– WOWplace leadership training program attendee
“WOW, this was excellent. She kept my interest throughout. Also, challenged us at the beginning to participate in her own way. You would have felt less than you should be if you did not join in. We were very lucky to get this woman.”
– Healthcare association conference attendee
Sandy’s most requested programs for leaders
Turn Your Workplace Into a WOWplace: 5 Rules for Leading Your Organization to Success
(alternate title): The Leader’s Challenge: Getting People To Do What You Need Them To Do
The mindsets and concepts of how to be a great leader have been known, analyzed and taught forever! In fact, we all know what to do; the difficulty comes in finding ways to do it consistently, even in the face of disengagement and business and personal pressures. An added challenge comes from the fact that we all have “blind spots” when it comes to our own thoughts and behaviors that are hard for us to recognize and even harder for others to point out to us.
In this engaging and entertaining program, Sandy shares stories, examples and insights that help leaders identify what their people won’t – and can’t – tell them about what they may be inadvertently doing to inhibit employee engagement and contribution. She will share The WOWplace® Rules, five categories of leadership behaviors that outline a successful formula for not only creating cultural consistency in the midst of human inconsistency, but for allowing everyone to respond respectfully and compassionately when human mishaps occur so everyone can get back to business ASAP.
*Sandy also guides attendees in using her proprietary leadership assessment tool, Leadership Bingo™, to quickly assess their strengths and identify any gaps (“blind spots”) in their leadership skills or their consistency in applying those skills to everyday workplace situations.
Enthusiastic and energetic
10 Things You Should Never Do As A Leader
Most leaders don’t want to be good leaders, they want to be great leaders. They not only want their people to help them look good, but they truly care about helping others succeed in their own right. Great leaders recognize that the more successful their people are, the more successful their entire organization will be. They also know that people don’t leave companies… they leave people, and in our competitive job market they must engage their best team members to keep them from being snatched up by other companies.
However, leaders are only human and sometimes have “blind spots” that prevent them from recognizing the actions, words and attitudes they exhibit that may be hindering the creativity and engagement of their teams.
Recognizing and changing even small things about the way they interact can bring big results because leadership impacts employee engagement, customer service, productivity, sales, profits… everything! So, it is imperative to get leadership right. Through a series of examples and case studies, Sandy will share the 10 most common activities leaders must stop doing immediately, as well as uplifting stories, ideas, templates and models to help them focus on positive everyday behaviors they can implement now. She will also help attendees recognize their “emotional logo™” and how they can change their emotional “branding” to inspire their teams to produce higher results.
“Sandy’s presentation showed that she is very knowledgeable, energetic, passionate, humorous (downright hilarious at times), and engaging. Her deliverables were empowering, enlightening, and reaffirming.”
– Mark Toatley, CRA, FAHRA (AHRA 2017 Annual Convention attendee)
What is Your “Emotional Logo(TM)”?
Whether we realize it or not, we all have an “emotional logo.” It consists of one (or more) actions, gestures or words that leap to mind when people think about you. In other words, it’s how we’re “branded” in the minds of others. And that branding can either help us be incredibly successful as leaders – or stifle our effectiveness without us ever realizing why (or that) it is happening. The good news is that with self-awareness, focus and practice, we can make that logo anything we wish it to be.
Through a series of stories and examples in this engaging and entertaining program, Sandy explores how and why our logos are formed, what inadvertent messages they may be sending to our teams, and what we can do to ensure they are true “WOWs!” for everyone we wish to lead or influence.
Creating WOW Experiences for Customers (Leadership-focused)
Exceptional customer service starts and ends with leadership. Employees will treat customers as well as they feel they are being treated by leaders, so it’s up to leaders to lead by example and model the behavior they wish to see in others. In this program, Sandy shares mindsets that enable employees to offer exceptional service to both internal and external customers. She also shares case studies from her work with clients, as well as others, who have overcome difficult challenges and achieved higher levels of customer retention and loyalty.
Sample discussion points:
- What is the impact of consistency on creating the WOW (which is a matter of will:W ill I O r W on’t I?)
- Tapping into employees’ under-utilized talents and abilities, fostering employee initiative?
- Building trust and respect by being a role model for the actions and mindsets you expect from your teams.
- Understanding the impact of being HUMAN and relatable in building stronger relationships; encouraging everyone to focus on their “Human” Duties while performing their Job Duties.
- Creating higher levels of respect & trust (effective leaders don’t DEMAND respect, they COMMAND it).
- Motivating employees to do the extraordinary, despite every reason (excuse) not to do so.
- Gaining buy-in for new initiatives.
- Fostering proactive and critical thinking, as well as accountability in the workplace.
- In terms of innovation and creativity, what do we need to do (or stop doing) to take our results to the next level?
- Helping everyone realize that we must take reasonable and appropriate risks to create breakthrough performance.
- Using proactive formulas, tools and templates for creating WOW experiences.
Through a comprehensive set of services, Sandy can help your organization manage, leverage and profit from new leadership behaviors throughout your organization, increasing engagement and driving results:
- Keynote speaking
- Leadership workshops and seminars
- Individual and group mentoring coaching and training
- Facilitation at retreats and strategy meetings
- Leadership assessments and action plans
- Tools to engage your teams and get them to contribute their valuable knowledge and ideas
- Group webinars and Q&A sessions
Contact Sandy at (407) 856-1188 to discuss a customized solution to your leadership challenges.
Leadership Bingo:
When you call, we can also discuss how Sandy’s new, innovative, scenario-based self-assessment tool can help your leaders quickly and easily identify their leadership strengths, as well as any gaps or “blind spots” that may exist in their leadership skill set.
If you already have a date in mind and want Sandy to put a “pencil hold” on that date for you, please fill out the “Book Sandy Now!” form and give us the details of your program. Sandy will be in touch with you within 24 hours of receiving this request.
Download my FREE Leadership Cheat Sheets!