CEO Today - Business Women Awards 2022

Can you share a little bit about what you’ve been up to over the past 12 months? Research and application in a changing world is never-ending. Our best successes combine old school savvy with new school invention. Given changing employment law, economy and talent optimisation, our executive decision tools and coaching have been laser-focused on up-to-theminute research and adaptation. Some of our recent successes in the legal realm have included navigating changing laws with holistic playbooks, guiding clients through business mergers and acquisitions, protecting intellectual property, identifying new threats and applying legal risk management, policy/practice establishment, corrective action plans and affirmative defence. Recent projects in the behavioural science world include understanding talent motivation, leadership coaching, executive planning for best talent engagement, new demand opportunity, establishing employee ownership plans, chairing business owner advisory groups, incredible growth for our Lawfulchecks brand and more. Our deliverables focus on overcoming challenges, bespoke action plans and facilitating a changed mindset from fear to opportunity. We’ve been applying our daily study of changing case and statutory law, fluctuations in the business environment and decades of hands-on entrepreneurial experience, which creates an authentic bigpicture lens with tactical insight. While most of our work is confidential to clients, a great deal of our aggregate insights has been showcased more publicly. Appreciative inquiry, daily case study research and grit have been relentlessly deployed from our arsenal. The studies of behavioural science are everywhere, and we’re constantly honing our skills at understanding the changing mindset through such an era of rapid change and tumultuous opportunity. While classic concepts such as Maslow’s Hierarchy, Blanchard’s Situational Leadership and deBono’s Six Hats of Thinking remain precisely relevant today, the variables feeding these analytics are changing. It’s been challenging to stay on top of change, and we’re dedicated to the embrace and predictability of it. What are the achievements you’re most proud of? I’m most proud of the measurable and high impact success for our clients. When we can attach quantifiable business wins to the work we’ve delivered, we see clients’ posture for new success with confidence and attain that success. Examples include business turnaround, overcomingobstacles, invention and capturing opportunities where it’s not obvious to others. The wins for our clients include fiscal savings upward of 300%, legal risk mitigation, building organisational alignment and solving specific problems. Every expression of appreciation from our clients and the business community is really treasured. Appreciation is our fuel. As the world continues to build and improve technology, I am so proud to have developed business technology used worldwide today and recognised by the US Patent and Trademark Office. I watch other seasoned business leaders who simply don’t adapt and fail to stay relevant. I’m proud of relentless dedication to bring new value each day, and I’m proud of the many, many obstacles and knock-downs we’ve overcome. It’s the most difficult trials navigated of which I’m most proud. I’m proud of my continued service to charity, community and greater good. I’m proud that no job is too small or too dirty, and no job is too large or too daunting. I’m proud every time we receive a “thank you” for easing someone’s stress, improving financial security or creating betterment of any kind. I’m proud of our impact and how it is recognised. On the crisis management side, we’ve successfully neutralised shooter threats and we’ve contained pandemic breakouts. I’m proud that for established clients, we’ve been proactive and preventative to successfully avoid such threats. I’m proud of building and serving a family business. I’m so fortunate to have built businesses with my exceptional son Matt and I’ve learned so much through the challenge of working with other family members where conflict may arise. While much of my career has been working with juggernaut and publicly-traded businesses, I really appreciate working with small to midsized businesses, especially those that can be more nimble, and they are becoming a larger sector of our client portfolio. What are your top tips for other women in business? Don’t be afraid if you need to be better than the male baseline. Every opportunity and challenge can lead to greatness. The early years of my career occurred in a world where the glass ceiling was much lower and harder to break. It’s been said many times that I “shattered” it. I credit necessity as my motivation. I suggest that whomever you call family can be your motivation. In my case, it was a driving caregiver need that sparked an early career that’s lasted so long. My family needed support in ways I could only address with a full-throttle career win. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and needing to be better can lead to actually being better than you would be under less pressure. Women today need to understand that those who are biased have their biases shaped through ignorance. While it’s a problem to address, there are workarounds and great men and women to surround themselves with motivation and an elevated mindset. What are you looking forward to for the future? I’ve been steadily working since the age of 8. I’ve overcome major obstacles that many would have accepted as insurmountable. Stubbornness was sometimes involved, but it sure led to great learning and excellent tools for the arsenal. I’ve already scaled businesses through exponential growth, including to $50M and 1500+ employees. What I’m scaling now is my expertise, client businesses and new OLLC ventures. Our flagship executive consulting business continues to bring on new clients regularly, and we love it! Because most of our work for clients is project/transformation-based, we create quick results and can transition easily between client projects, and I love that! It is not my goal to ever retire but rather to continue work and relevance as long as I possibly can. It’s exciting to bring this much learning and apply forward-thinking invention for the win. I’m dedicated to bringing greater value to our clients each and every day. 25 www. ceotodaymagazine . com USA

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