I’ll never forget the moment when I stood as newly minted first-time GM and P&L owner in front of my new leadership team. I had been hired one year earlier as expert in lean/six sigma. I was offered the job to turnaround this operating unit faced with debilitating operational issues, low customer satisfaction and low team morale. Here I was, listening to the Company CEO, who introduced me to my leadership team, using words I had never heard before. It dawned on me that I had no functional knowledge based on which I could direct the team. I had to solely rely on my general business acumen, leadership skills and my expertise in lean/six sigma. I realized that the only key to success was my ability to get the team on board. I developed relationships not only with my leadership team but with everyone in the organization. Together, we developed a shared vision and strategy, build a better operating model, streamlined processes, implemented technology and much more to eventually turn this business around.
While I was happy to demonstrate that lean/six sigma principles work to elevate business performance, I harvested my strongest conviction from this assignment: the team is the most important asset of any organization large or small.

I always believed that people are the most important asset of any business large or small. Throughout my career, I have learned first-hand that high-performing teams can be created through authentic leadership, strategic alignment, and co-created operating norms and structures.
I experienced different business cultures and enough CEO transitions to realize that, at the end of the day, it is the CEO who creates culture. In the absence of a purposeful design, culture emerges by default and can impair the ability of the organization to succeed.
As founder of Power Up Your Team, I have chosen to help woman business owners step into higher consciousness of her leadership and create a culture that allows her to scale her business with confidence and ease.