ABOUT CINDY

I’ve spent the majority of my career focused on hiring and aligning human talents with company culture and business strategy so those company’s make money.

I have interviewed thousands of candidates and hired hundreds of employees – mostly at management levels and above. I have been a confidante and performance coach to executives, management professionals and individual contributors all the way down organizations.

I have witnessed firsthand when people’s talents are truly aligned to the right job for their skills and interests, they are the BEST versions of themselves at work. High performers and the most successful employees in companies are those who know who they are (self-awareness) and what they are good at doing. When people are passionate about what they do, they in turn, actively help the company they work for – be better and more profitable.

I care deeply that people are, or aren’t, using their talents, experiences, and skills in work that LIGHTS THEM UP.  I believe the innate talents and passions we’ve been given are a GIFT – unique to each of us – that we need to fully realize and share with others through the work we do. I also believe that deep down, we all crave connection to our life purpose and satisfying work – so when it is all said and done – we’ve made a difference in the world and our lives mattered. PEOPLE MATTER in BUSINESS.

MY CAREER STORY

When I went to college, I told the career counselor I wanted to major in Speech Communication and in Studio Art.  She promptly said, “You can’t do that. Communication goes with a Business degree and Art goes with Theatre.” I then made it clear to her that I was both an extrovert AND an introvert and those two majors combined reflected who I am and what I wanted to learn about.  I went on to say…that because I was paying for my college education…I intended to get what I wanted regardless of what she thought I should do. Four years later, I left college having conferred those two degrees.

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Then, in my late 20’s, I inherited a business.  Overnight, I became what is now called the Chief Operations Officer of a privately owned franchise of a national company, co-owned by my then fiancé and his dad.  They had been business partners for a decade until the father was incapacitated from a terminal illness creating an urgent need for me to step in and run the business.

When the family asked for my help, I was working full-time in marketing communication applying my two college degrees and using my industry experience in insurance and management training and consulting. Marketing communication combined my passions in psychology, human behavior, visual graphics and media.  And although the abrupt work and life change was completely against my will at that time; today, I believe it was divine intervention to put me on my true career path.

Over the next four years, I ‘earned’ what I call the blood, sweat and tears version of a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree while figuring out how best to organize, operate and grow a company I knew nothing about.  Because the one person who could teach me the business was in a coma, I tapped into my innate strengths of curiosity, resourcefulness and efficiency to learn all the aspects of company operations: organization/logistics, finance, legal, customer service, human resources, sales, marketing and apply that knowledge to help the business scale and thrive.

While I learned the ins and outs of business management, I also learned very acutely that businesses are about PEOPLE.  The core of business is HUMAN BEHAVIOR in relation to leadership quality, clarity of mission and direction, job duties, accountability of each team member and the flow of money.  Simply put, the right human talents aligned with good leadership and supported by sound organizational systems make a company profitable – or not.  Therefore, if you want to make money in business – you have to be open to learning about and appreciating people and understanding human behavior.

When we sold the business after successfully increasing our profits 200% year-over-year, I had the option to get back on my original career path in Marketing Communication or to focus on what I’d learned in the business.  It was then that I made a conscious decision to go into Human Resources.  I chose to work in the area of the business where I could use my business acumen, work experience and education to directly influence – designing effective companies – right structure, right talent with the right skills to execute the company strategy. It’s the part of HR that incorporates Organizational Design, Development and Change Management where my work is focused on creating clarity and connection between the mission and the jobs within a company. I help leaders increase Accountability, Productivity, Management and Leadership Capabilities while reinforcing desired behaviors through effective Coaching and Performance Management.

Based on how I got into HR, this makes me a non-traditional HR professional. My mix of education, business acumen, and combined work experience of Operations Leadership and HR/Talent and Organizational Development have provided me a unique lense from which to help leaders and companies succeed while attracting the right talent to the companies for which I work.