Worried about the impact the economy will have on your company and employees? Your local OI Partners office can help you navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by the current climate. To contact your local office, call 800-232-5285 or go here. You also can visit us at www.oipartners.net.

February's Featured Staff Member

D. Lynn Watts

Career Coach

D. Lynn Watts is an energetic consultant, coach and facilitator.  Lynn is a creative, results-oriented professional who specializes in leadership and team development, coaching, and diversity and inclusion facilitation.  She is known for her ability to support and inspire others.  Lynn fosters an environment of collaboration to meet business and/or personal goals and objectives.  An experiential facilitator, Lynn has guided groups from 6 to 500 participants from Fortune 1000 companies and not-for-profits.  These include, but are not limited to, financial and educational institutions, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and non-profit organizations.

With over 15 years' experience in sales and sales management, with Microsoft and the IBM Corporation, Lynn's expertise includes experiential facilitation, strategic planning, training, career coaching, team development and challenge course facilitation.

Hello Everyone,

I hope this note finds you warm and safe!

We work in a global environment, one that's a fascinating mix of different cultures and backgrounds. This diversity brings a richness that offers opportunities for both occupational and personal growth.  Recognizing and appreciating cultural differences and how they impact leadership and management communications is very important.  This newsletter shares some best practices to build inclusive and globally focused teams.

Sincerely,

Tim

OI Partners Promark Company

Do You Know Next?

David Miles shares his thoughts on reinventing a global strategy and actions that will be stronger than before and propel us into a more positive global future. Each of us must tap the total powers of all key stakeholders in our organization and at a higher level, such as our profession or industry. In essence, we must create a confluence of new leadership principles. We must create more forums and not expect instant answers.

A key to being successful is to first learn about the macro culture of the country in which you or your participant is working or is their heritage. While this can be a little time consuming, it will pay big dividends in your overall effectiveness.

Working Globally - Personal Thoughts

Global consulting can be a tremendous learning experience for you, your firm and the client. As our world markets evolve into a true global business, we all will have to learn about multiple cultures and different ways of the world economy. Here we address three potential issues.

Diversity Training - The Global Workplace

To attract and retain the best talent will require companies to value their employees. When diversity is treated as a valued asset, it can create innovative and creative ideas which can offer a competitive advantage for any organization. Diversity awareness training assists in developing decision-making and social action skills so that employees learn to view events and situations from a variety of perspectives.

Culture and the Global Team

For cross-cultural teams to succeed, managers and team members need to be attuned to cultural differences. Companies must be supportive, proactive and innovative if they wish to reap the potential benefits global teams can offer. This goes beyond financing and creating technological links to bring people together and requires going back to the basics to foster better interpersonal communication.