I’m on a mission to ensure all people managers are amazing.We all have leadership potential. Being an amazing leader requires a set of fundamental skills. Too often though, training people leaders in the skills of empathy, effective feedback, accountability and empowering others is overlooked. I want to change that. As a Learning & Development Consultant with A Positive Adventure (APA), I co-created and implemented an “Emerging Leaders Bootcamp.” This program trained high-potential individual contributors in company specific leadership expectations and core “soft skills” required to be an effective leader. Remarkably, the emerging leaders program resulted in an impressive 35% of participants receiving promotions and 80% retention after two years.It was exciting to see participants connect with the content and coach them on how to start using the tools and skills, even without the “leader” title. I am specifically passionate about training effective communication skills around giving and receiving feedback. Those are the skills that can shift someone from a good leader to a great one. My passion for this work stems from bad experiences with people managers. I’ve experienced it. I bet you have to. Six years ago I was feeling held back, stagnant and depleted by the slow pace of the non-profit sector. Months of soul searching and books like “What Color is Your Parachute” and “How to Design Your Life” led to the epiphany that I was at my happiest when I was training others to do their best work. In 2019, I transitioned to L&D as a consultant with APA, where we firmly believe that “training should not be a four letter word.” Training should be goal-oriented, strategic, fun, and, most importantly, training should be impactful beyond the classroom. With APA, I have re-built entire on-boarding programs leading to immediate KPI improvements and increased retention rates. I’ve witnessed hundreds of lightbulbs go off when training people how to communicate better with folks who are different from them (using the DiSC assessment).As a consultant, I leverage my skills in strategic problem-solving, project management and facilitation to deliver effective and engaging learning experiences for individual contributors, people managers and leaders. My next career move will be to an in-house L&D Program Manager position. My goal is to infuse a culture of learning that fosters employee growth, collaboration, and high performance. I’ll always be focused on elevating the emotional & social intelligence of aspiring leaders.