I have no doubt that OEi’s Assessment-Based Leader Development process accelerated my development as a leader. The 360-degree assessment provided me with great perspective on how others experience me as a leader, and the invaluable guidance and support provided by Joanna King helped me to better understand myself and to also see that I’m not alone in the leadership challenges I face. Joanna gently challenged me to step out of my comfort zone, and helped me identify and apply strategies for growing my communication skills. As a result, my confidence and my effectiveness have both grown!
Joanna, I just want to thank you again for the great support you recently provided to 5 of my direct report leaders as part of preparing them for their upcoming job expansion. As you know, our organization has never used an Emotional Intelligence-based approach to leader development, and I admit I was unsure when you suggested it. However, I now believe that this is a great fit for developing people leadership skills and personal awareness/mastery! The assessment debrief and coaching sessions you conducted with each leader were especially valuable, enabling them to understand the adjustments they needed to make to optimize their leadership impact, and to develop an action plan for making those adjustments. All of the leaders have very unique personalities, strengths and development opportunities, yet without exception they’ve all told me that they found this process – and particularly your guidance and support — extremely helpful, and even enjoyable! I was also pleased to see that this assessment worked well across global/cultural boundaries. Thanks for all your efforts – they’ve really made a difference!
Recently our organization’s global HR Business Partner group, including my team of HRBPs from the Latin America & Caribbean region, attended OEi’s “Becoming a High-Impact HR Business Partner” program. The program was extremely valuable in helping my team members to better understand and adjust to the new expectations of their role, and to create effective relationships with other leaders in the organization. Joanna Groom King’s wide experience as a facilitator and as an HR executive were evident. The information and guidance she provided has had a positive impact on how we strategically serve our customers in the organization in new and practical ways. I fully recommend OEi’s program to any HR function that wishes to increase its strategic impact and effectiveness! Thank you, Joanna!
Being on the receiving end of a 360 assessment – even in a situation like mine where it is done as proactive support for an impending job expansion – is often intimidating and uncomfortable. However, Joanna Groom King made the experience such a positive one! After conducting an Emotional Intelligence 360 assessment on me Joanna was able to quickly help me identify and address paradigms I held about myself that had been holding me back professionally. She provided insightful, honest and challenging feedback in a way that was unfailingly sensitive and encouraging. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process, and I have no doubt that it has made me a more effective leader.
When I first moved into my new OD role with WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone I needed professionals to help me think though a 3 year strategic plan. I was essentially developing a new function for the organization and needed experts to think through how to approach this daunting task. Not only did OEi lay out a process to identify the appropriate needs, they also worked through a communication plan to gain buy in for the strategic plan. The strategic plan not only served as a three year plan, but provided the framework for me to build out that strategy for years after. Joanna and Matt were always available and willing to think through obstacles I faced. Matt also served as an excellent coach to several executives in the organization who were able to recognize the issues holding them back. He also supported them through the behaviors they needed to change to earn respect from their teams and to coach others to achieve the same.
I engaged OEi to conduct an organizational analysis of our company as we were rapidly acquiring and integrating companies to create more value for our customers and shareholders. Their process was well thought out and sound. The interviews of stakeholders allowed them to make recommendations on organizational structure and effectiveness that were both insightful and challenging to the leadership of the company. Their synthesis of both organizational design and senior leader perspectives produced a customized report for our organization that included several alternatives to be considered. I recommend OEi for any organization that would like a fresh, analytical look at their organizational design and performance.
OEi and Joanna partnered with our organization on a global workforce planning initiative that directly touched over 1,000 of our employees in 26 countries. Thanks to Joanna’s partnering abilities, subject matter expertise and project management skills this project was successfully completed on time, under budget and with extremely high quality. We could not have met our objectives without her significant contributions. Additionally, Joanna shared her knowledge with our HR team members and created a tool kit designed to enable the team to plan and implement similar initiatives independently in future. We look forward to working with OEi and Joanna again in the future.
As the VP of Human Resources at a publicly traded financial retail company, with operations coast to coast domestically and a large presence in Spain and Mexico, I was tasked with instituting changes within the leadership team of a newly acquired company. Specifically, to help them transition from a family-run organization to a publicly traded one. Having worked with OEi in the past while with Frito-Lay, I knew immediately that they were the perfect fit to provide leadership development support to the various hub locations while promoting organizational alignment at a furious pace. I must say that we’ve had nothing but exceptionally fine dealings with OEi in the past 9 years. Deadlines were met, and the quality of their work has been superb. The few times we asked for changes, they were carried out quickly and cheerfully. I can only say that we were very pleased with their work.
I’m a huge Joanna Groom King proponent. For almost 10 years Joanna King has been the professional I turn to when my organization needs assistance with our people-related strategies and processes. She has supported us across a variety of initiatives – from designing the strategy, processes and tools we use for developing emerging ministry leaders; to facilitating Board retreats; to leading creation of our strategic plan. Joanna has brought great insight and expertise to all of these initiatives, and has been central to improving the effectiveness of our organization as we work to build God’s Kingdom. She is a joy to work with and I look forward to continuing to engage her in future. I would absolutely recommend her to any organization that needs a strategic partner for meeting its people-related objectives.
OEi’s support in developing our strategic plans and continuous improvement processes & tools, along with the assessments and training they provided was critical for us at our stage in the business life-cycle. My team and I truly appreciated all that Joanna, Matt, and their team did for us across the series of projects.
I had the opportunity to work with Joanna for the past two years. Joanna is truly a strategic visionary. She has the ability to not only think strategically but the organizational skills to implement her vision operationally. Her leadership skills empower her associates to be tactically involved in any project and be successful due to be powerful processes she develops. She is an asset to any organization that is serious about developing internal skills that will move an organization to the next level.
Matt is a valued member of the Syncroness executive team. His contributions have been numerous and very beneficial to the organization. His PMO leadership has moved our project management function to new levels of effectiveness, project profitability and customer satisfaction. Additionally, Matt has played a key role in leading many successful, strategic organizational improvement initiatives which have helped prepare our organization for the next stages of growth.
Matthew’s leadership of our Project Management department has led to the successful implementation, operation and completion of highly technical and complex projects. I have the pleasure of working very closely with Matthew in his recruitment efforts and he has certainly recruited and developed an exceptional, high performing, awesome team. He has the ability to lead and bring out the best in his team. Due to his extensive and comprehensive background, he is an asset to any executive team in developing and enhancing processes and policies. Matthew has amazing attention to detail and I would certainly describe him as a very thoughtful and conscientious leader, able to consider all aspects of a problem and help the team come to a resolution. It is a pleasure to be able to work with Matthew.
Matt’s skills have been invaluable in support of our product development, continuous improvement, and operations start-up. His expertise in the full scope of operational systems, processes, and supply chain management has added tremendous value, especially those related to MRP/ERP and financial elements of our business. While his expertise is second to none, it is his ability to foresee issues before they become issues and help us avoid them that truly separates him from other consultants.
Matt was a strong influence in the selection and development of our supply chain management system. We appreciated his common sense approach and would highly recommend him for folks wanting similar help or project management.
I have known Matt for over 10 years. In that time I have gotten to know him very well and have gone to him for a lot of problem solving and assistance. Over that time, he has proven to be a reliable, smart problem solver who offers a fresh perspective on things. Anyone looking for process improvement, streamlining and efficiency in their operations would be very pleased to have Matt and OEi work with their organization.
“Melanie is a natural and highly skilled trainer/facilitator. She came to the City to train on Employee Engagement for our leadership group. She connected with our group very quickly and was able to create a sense of safety that encouraged the group to participate. She inserted humor and personal experience as appropriate and kept the discussion lively and fun. I would certainly bring her back for future employee development and have no hesitation recommending her to other organizations.”