We help enhance your organization’s ability to lead people, lead change, and get results.• Reduce the firefighting, stress, and persistent problems that waste time, energy and money• Enhance people’s motivation and commitment to the success of your organization• Create an environment where people and performance thriveBy:• Creating thinking, habits, and systems that lead to wiser investments of your organization’s resources. • Building upon your strengths and applying a deeper understanding of what it takes to get people motivated, engaged, and achieving results.• Improving alignment, communication, and goal achievement.We work with successful owners, executives and senior leaders who have the willingness, desire, and courage to learn more and do differently.We first use our THRIVE: A Leadership Journey program to help the organization’s senior leadership team expand their knowledge and use of emotional intelligence, boundary-setting, systems thinking, communication, relationship-building, goal-setting, and coaching. Our time together builds trust, cohesion, and commitment among senior team members. Once the solid foundation is formed, we build upon it with things like training for more leaders, strategic planning, data collection, and difficult discussion training for all. Together, we reduce stress and firefighting, increase critical thinking, eliminate persistent problems and create a culture where people and performance thrive.If you're open to exploring the potential of your senior leadership team and organization, we’d love to meet you. melanietaylorconsulting.com

At Humaning Made Easier Inc. we believe that if people are supported to feel their best, they can and will give their best and have the potential to achieve more remarkable results than we could ever imagine.Through our programs, facilitated by our trusted partners:We help owners, executives, and other vital decision-makers create a workplace culture that best supports their leaders and teams.We help leaders develop the thinking, skills, and habits that motivate, engage, and inspire.We help people develop the mindset and skills needed to embrace change, lead, learn from failure, continuously improve, problem solve, collaborate, communicate, and navigate conflict effectively.We help create an environment where people and performance thrive.https://humaningmadeeasier.com/

As a Coach and Facilitator, I worked closely with organizations and individuals to focus on their greatest opportunities and achieve the results they were looking for.Drawing upon the proven programs and services of The Achievement Centre, I provided support in four main areas:- Leadership and Team Development (Results-Centred Leadership and Results-Centred Teamwork)- Strategic Planning (Milestones)- Employee Assessment and Engagement (CORE Engagement Surveys, Prevue Psychometric Assessments, RC360 Surveys)- Business Growth / Sales / Customer Service (Pure Selling)Whether providing executive coaching, facilitating leadership development and team building programs, or coaching salespeople to achieve success, I inspired people to make changes that increased productivity, performance, and profit, but most importantly, personal satisfaction.My clients included SMEs, large corporations, family-owned businesses, non-profits, licensed childcare centres, medical research organizations, First Nation Administration, car and equipment dealerships, manufacturing facilities (automotive and other), tech companies, transportation providers, agriculture providers, and insurance companies. Some objectives my clients and I achieved together:- Developed an understanding of how to effectively coach employees to succeed and create a culture of coaching relationships based on commitment, guidance, support, accountability. - Developed an understanding of how to build effective teams who are able to successful navigate conflict and achieve win:win outcomes. - Broke down departmental silos and got departments communicating more and considering each other’s needs, creating plans to achieve client results together.- Developed engaging leaders who understand how to meet the needs of the employees so that they can best meet the needs of the customers. - Developed sales knowledge, skills, habits, and confidence in an experienced sales team.

Member of the Board of Governors responsible for providing strategy and oversight to the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital, an award-winning 155-bed community hospital.Chair of the President and CEO Search and Selection Committee, responsible for developing a position profile and selection criteria, selecting a slate of candidates for interview, interviewing, recommending a preferred candidate and supporting rationale to the Board, developing and negotiating an employment contract, and developing on-boarding / transition process.Chair / Member of the Infrastructure Committee, which provides oversight on the $90-million redevelopment project that includes new Emergency, Surgical, and Mental Health Care facilities, which broke ground in November 2015. Chair / Member of the Quality Committee, which provides oversight of the development of annual Quality Improvement Plan and monitors quality performance.Chair / Member of the Governance Committee, which oversees: Board succession and member selection; policy monitoring and content review, planning of strategic retreats and education sessions, Board and member effectiveness, and President and CEO and Chief of Staff effectiveness. Member of the Audit Committee, which provides oversight of the development of the $90-million Operating Plan / Budget and monitors financial position and performance.Member of the Executive Compensation Committee, responsible for creating the organization’s executive compensation philosophy and framework.

Responsible for initiating and managing continuous improvement projects aligned with corporate goals.Notable work and achievements include:- As part of the Senior Management Team, provided input and guidance relating to all aspects of the organization including customer service, production, marketing, and human resources.- Worked with the Customer Service Department (five employees and a Senior Manager) to develop a skills-based Project Management Team that focused on providing customer value through improved scheduling and communication. Taught the team to identify and solve problems using A3 methodology, focusing on waste. Results included empowered employees who could solve their own problems, changes to project schedules becoming the exception rather than the norm, the elimination of the need to search out or wait for information for related projects.- Part of the Strategic Planning team that developed a 2-year vision and was tasked by this team to identify and implement improvements in the areas of Data Entry and Scheduling. I conducted a comprehensive operational assessment from order initiation to shipping with input from employees and customers and, once complete, engaged a consultant to assist with the improvement plan and implementation in those areas. Benefits realized during my tenure included standardization and documentation of job tasks, employees better understanding the role they and their team play within the broader context of providing customer value, and employees having a better understanding of the challenges faced by their internal and external customers and how they could better work together to achieve success. These benefits were realized in spin-off projects initiated in the Engineering and Production departments. - Planned and facilitated a Strategic Planning session for the organization’s sister company.

To supplement the retail revenue stream in the start-up years of Vesta Shop we hosted small training sessions related to breastfeeding. This led to the creation of the Birth and Beyond Conference, a large-format conference, and later the Birth and Beyond Conference On the Road Series through which we have been able to take the positively-reviewed culture and structure of our larger conference to smaller venues across Canada. Notable work and achievements include:- Identifying the need for conference and training opportunities for those not associated with formal organizations relating to birth and parenting- Creating, planning and executing a series of well-attended conferences and training sessions with positive reviews, requests for our organization to host events in specific communities, and delegates who have attended all three large conferences. Attendance at the inaugural conference of 90 delegates with growth to 300 delegates at the third conference. Events range from 25 to 300 people, 1-day sessions to 4-day conferences, and are held across Canada. - Establishment of a formalized structure and processes which has resulted in the events being able to continue and grow during significant management transition- Creating and managing event budgets to ensure profitability and sustainability- Recruiting and retaining world-class speakers- Managing branding and advertising including website development and web and print ad creation- Coordinating venue, food, accommodation, and travel details- Planning and set up AV equipment- Securing and managing vendors and sponsors- Making introductory remarks to delegates at all events- Leading staff and volunteers to ensure seamless execution and high attendee satisfaction

Upon seeing a need for the continued provision of “parenting centre” services provided by my current business partner’s existing business, which was closing, I teamed with her to create a business model that focused on financial sustainability through a larger retail revenue stream. This business model allowed us to provide our small community with a retail option that historically required a trip to the larger urban centre, and also allowed us to maintain and expand the parenting centre services that we believed to be incredibly valuable to the new parent population in our community.I was equally involved in start-up, management, and operation of the store and parenting centre until November 2014 when I stepped back to an oversight role within the organization.Notable work and achievements include:- Start-up and management of a retail business that saw annual product sales growth of 312% over a five-year period with a 93% increase from year four to five. The business realized a 56% growth in product revenue from year five to six and expanded to a larger and more prominent location in year six. - Created budgets and sales targets, tracked monthly sales, and celebrated successes with the staff- Trained and led staff to provide customer service that aligned with the company mission and values- Day-to-day operational duties included bookkeeping, payroll, sales, and product selection- Logo and brand design- Web store development and operation- Facilitating peer-networking discussion sessions with a variety of parenting topics

Responsible for managing the work of the Environmental, Health and Safety Department and the Quality Department which included ensuring compliance with applicable legislation and standards and championing continuous improvement projects.Notable work and achievements include:- In response to escalating warranty costs and identified potential reputation risks, implemented a program to record and evaluate customer warranty claims that resulted in a decrease in overall claims, the availability of customer feedback to investigate root cause and implement preventive measures, improved employee and customer satisfaction, and an overall decrease in direct cost of warranty payments by 60% over a 3-year period- Lead auditor for ISO 9001:2008 program. Managed and conducted quality audits to identify non-conformances to the company quality program and ultimately customer satisfaction. - In collaboration with the IT Department, developed a web-based Non-conformance Reporting tool that tied directly to the corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to enable easier reporting and tracking of internal and external quality problems and availability of data to use for root cause investigation.- Initiated and conducted round-table discussions at annual customer information and networking meetings (National Builder Meetings) to gather customer feedback. Guided the leadership team to evaluate and act upon the feedback. Customer feedback at subsequent NBMs indicated they felt the round-table component was a valuable exercise.- Created and revised policies and procedures to align with changes to ISO standards and internal requirements- Hired and managed my replacement in the EHS Manager role- Created the position of Quality Improvement Specialist, hired an internal employee in to the role, and managed the employee in the position

Responsible for managing and executing all work related to Environment, Health and Safety.Notable work and achievements include:- To meet corporate responsibility and in response to escalating costs and increased legislative requirements, developed a comprehensive EHS program that included policy and procedure creation, establishment of training programs, and a focused culture change. Efforts resulted in a “safety culture”, proven by consecutive one-year and greater periods of zero lost time injuries. This safety culture continues to exist within the organization and has led to reduced lost time injuries, increased WSIB rebates, and improved employee satisfaction. - As Wellness Committee Chair, led Steelway to receive Elgin St. Thomas Public Health's first Platinum Healthy Workplace Award - Developed training programs and conducted all safety training including orientation, overhead crane, forklift, aerial platform, lockout / tag out- Created safety and HR policies in consultation with staff, management, and the Joint Health and Safety Committee- Joint Health and Safety Committee Management Co-Chair- Managed the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims and Return to Work program, working closely with supervisors and managers to ensure successful safe modified duties and a planned return to work program