FountainBlue's Executive Coaching Services, conducted in partnership with RAL & Associates
Our Executive Coaching Services are conducted in partnership with RAL & Associates
Since our launch in January 2006 and through February 2009, we have run monthly events to support senior executives in transition. We worked in partnership with RAL & Associates in 2007 and 2008, and transitioned the series entirely to our partners following the February event. See below for a calendar of past speakers and see Transitions Notes from this site for notes from our past events. Going forward, in support of our recruiting services for senior executives, we will focus more on coaching and on-boarding and consulting, serving the senior executives in our community. Our services include:
Weekly executive coaching for the first 90-days, in support of the onboarding process, working in collaboration with our new-hires and the executive management team.
Coaching for senior executives transitioning into new companies, roles, areas or industries.
Consulting for senior executives and their teams in the areas of: leadership training, innovation training, cross-functional and global team-building, mentoring, new-hire trainings and millennial mentoring/reverse-mentoring.
Consulting for product development and new product introduction.
Other topics, as requested by our clients, which fit into our areas of expertise.
FountainBlue works with a cadre of approved consultants in each of these areas, with all non-technical executive coaching led by Bobbie LaPorte of RAL & Associates. Our rates are $200-$300 an hour, quoted per project, and are sold in packets of 10 hours.
For more information, please e-mail us at info@svexecs.com.
Below is a list of past topics, themes and speakers as well as Bobbie's blog.
Any
successful leader is known by the work that they do and the way they lead,
even during the most challenging circumstances. Identifying your specific
leadership style, your personal brand of leadership will help you understand
what drives and motivates you and what you need around you to succeed.
Communicating your personal brand, your executive style, particularly while
transitioning to another position in a tough market will help you clarify
what you're seeking, and give you an edge for the types of positions best
suited to you.
Join us this month as we examine your successful leadership traits,
especially during difficult circumstances, and learn what that means about
us, and how that might lead us to our next leadership position.
So,
you're a victim of that dreaded corporate layoff. What does it take to land
to your next job?Find out how to
successfully navigate your way to that job and what to do when you reach that
destination.
This month's facilitator will discuss the end-to-end process, from the layoff
to the on-boarding, with specific ideas on what's challenging for senior
executives, why it is different and more difficult now, and how executives
can proactively manage through the process. You are sure to gain new insights,
while also sharing your connections and expertise.
Facilitator
Roberta LaPorte, RAL & Associates
Panel of Landed Execs who changed to clean energy, life science, etc.
With
the rapid pace of technology advancement and global business dynamics, it is
more challenging for senior execs to stay within an industry. Our surveys
have shown that the current executive job marketplace has created a very
competitive environment with many qualified candidates vying for a handful of
positions in their industry and it has become necessary for execs to leverage
their skills, passions and interests to other industries, including clean
energy and life science.
So executives in transition must be able to transfer and translate their
skills to different industries, and bring their executive management skills
from older, more established industries to emerging industries with great
opportunities and the need for seasoned executives. Whether you’re
considering the move from high tech to clean energy or life science, or from
a corporate role to a small business professional or a non-profit setting,
this month’s event is sure to provide the insights, advice and connections to
assist in the shift from one role or one industry to another.
While
generational differences have always existed, for the first time four very
distinct generations are being asked to co-exist in the workplace, with each
brings different perspectives, work-styles and needs. There are the Baby
Boomers who are pushing retirement, yet out of desire or necessity, are still
in the workforce, contributing at the executive and entry levels, and
everything in between. There are the mid-career professionals, who are driven
by different socio-economic forces than their predecessors, and the Gen Y
workers, just entering the workforce, with different desires altogether.
Please join this month's facilitator as she provides practical advice and
ideas for managing and leading a multi-generational workforce. From this
workshop, you will gain an understanding for the various differences in
perspectives, as well their preferred communication style so the next time
you bump into someone from another generation whom you don't relate to, stop
and remember that no one is right or wrong; we're just different.
Now
that you’ve landed that new executive position, how do you ensure you get off
to the best start possible? We all know the importance of making a good first
impression. As a senior executive, the impression you make in the first three
months of a new position is critical. In this program, we’ll look as what you
need to do to be ready and prepared on day one, and positioned for success a
quarter later. Among the areas we’ll cover:
- The pre-work you need to do before you even walk in the door
- Transitioning from candidate to company executive
- Understanding the stakes—and the land mines
- Using the honeymoon to your best advantage
- Storytelling and branding as leadership tools
Please join this month's facilitator as she covers these thoughts and more,
and provides practical advice and ideas for navigating the first ninety days
on the job.
Whether
you are an executive in transition or entrenched in a career, you can work on
developing your leadership skills to improve your marketability and the
skills of the team you are/will be leading. This program shares learnings
from four years of the Getting to the Top® career development series at
Stanford GSB and UCLA Anderson School on the skills needed for success and
leadership advancement.
This presentation will give you strategies to:
Identify skills most important in VP or C-Level roles
Define skills needed for your own career development
Understand leadership skills in other functional areas of the company or your
team
Put in place a career action plan focused on areas for leadership development
Krista
Henley and Rossella Derickson, Corporate Wisdom and SBODN
As an
experienced senior executive, are your greatest contributions and successes behind
you or ahead? Many companies that were successful 100 years ago no longer
exist.Trapped by their own success,
they gradually learn to reduce risk, avoid failure at all costs, and
consequently squelch or kill innovation and creativity.This makes them vulnerable to competition
from new or more aggressive companies with less to lose.
A similar hazard faces successful executives.It can be hard to see new possibilities that will allow future
success, especially when it requires letting go of previously successful
strategies that have served so well throughout a career. Diversity doesn’t
just apply to ethnic groups, and innovation doesn’t just apply to
products.Learn to apply both to
refresh your approach to business and give you a competitive advantage in an
increasingly competitive business environment. You’ll enjoy this engaging and
highly interactive session, and leave with strategies to:
- spark creativity and innovation
- promote sensible risk-taking and thinking differently
- inspire and leverage diversity of thought in yourself and others
- commit fully to what you can uniquely contribute to the business world
In
these demanding times, we are all required to do more with less - whether
it's with your personal or investment corporate investment dollars, your
corporate revenues or your corporate resources. As senior executives, the bar
has been raised to deliver on stakeholder demands, while also being more
attuned to the needs of the customers and valued partners and employees.
With all that said, for the first time in decades, executive compensation has
actually decreased over the past few years. While some of the scrutiny on
executive compensation is warranted, and there should be a reasonable re-set
of expectations on compensation in general, what can effective executives do
today, to negotiate for fair value compensation in today's competitive job
market?
This month's facilitator will walk us through an unbiased assessment of the
value executives brings, and provide practical tips on managing the job
negotiation process. We invite your active participation and opinions for
what is sure to be an animated conversation!
Do you
have industry and target companies identified?
Do you know the best places to look for your target jobs?
Do you know how to use your network to find opportunities and help you to be
considered amongst the hundreds of other applicants?
In the current market real jobs are scarce and companies with jobs are
reluctant to advertise. When they do they get inundated with applicants and
many irrelevant job applications. To find qualified applicants they often use
internal referrals programs and hidden places to advertise jobs. This session
will show you how to find those hidden places using the popular networking
sites and also share the skills necessary to discover the jobs postings.
Attending this session will improve your efficiency and productivity,
maximize your job search results and help you find the hidden places for an “A”
job opportunity!
FountainBlue
is partnering with Bobbie LaPorte of RAL & Associates to document how the
process for transitioning into executive positions has changed during this
economic downturn and what you need to do differently to land that next great
position. Thank you to those of you who have completed our eight-question
online survey at http://tinyurl.com/pgu9cj. Our survey results show that:
• Executives have changed jobs up to 3 times a year over the past three
years, more than ever before, and not generally at their option;
• Career positions are non-existent now, so networking, although always
important is even MORE important now;
• Online job applications, and even additional training are not the key
differentiator for executives today;
• However, online tools and reinventing yourselves ARE making a difference
for executives.
This month, we will facilitate an interactive group session and brainstorm
the challenges and opportunities which arise with the new search process.
From this workshop, you will gain insights from others on what has worked and
not worked, and you will build connections to others who can assist you in
your search.
Last
month, we worked together to strategize and brainstorm how the search for
executive positions has changed. This month, we’re polling the recruiters
themselves to ask them not only how the search process has changed, but WHY
it has changed and what it means for senior executives.
Join us for this interactive and informative panel discussion, and share your
thoughts and advice.
Thursday,
December 16
Holiday
Break
Holiday
Break
Please join us in thanking all our facilitators and speakers for 2009.
Brian
Boyer and Basil Fthenakis, Partner, TIPS Group
Kristy Louie, InTouch Staffing
Prashant Shah, Hummer Winblad
For our
first Transitions event of the year, we have invited a venture capitalist to
speak on the early-stage business funding and technology trends and a
recruiter to speak on the executive hiring picture in the Valley entering
2009.Whether you are in the job
market or not, this program will provide senior executives with a snapshot on
the market, thoughts on trends and expectations going into 2009, and advice
on how they can remain marketable in a rapidly evolving business climate.
Francine
Gordon, FGordon Group and SDForum Women's Group
So,
you're a victim of that dreaded corporate layoff. What does it take to land
to your next job?Find out how to
successfully navigate your way to that job and what to do when you reach that
destination.
This month's facilitator will discuss the end-to-end process, from the layoff
to the on-boarding, with specific ideas on what's challenging for senior
executives, why it is different and more difficult now, and how executives
can proactively manage through the process. You are sure to gain new
insights, while also sharing your connections and expertise.
With
the rapid pace of technology advancement and global business dynamics, it is
more challenging for senior execs to stay within an industry. The current
executive job marketplace has created a very competitive environment with
many qualified candidates vying for a handful of positions in their industry.
So executives in transition must be able to transfer and translate their
skills to different industries, and bring their executive management skills
from older, more established industries to emerging industries with great
opportunities and the need for seasoned executives.
Please join this month’s facilitator as she covers the trends for shifting
roles and industries and strategies on how to successfully do so. Whether
you’re considering the move from high tech to clean energy or life science,
or from a corporate role to a small business professional or a non-profit setting,
this month’s event is sure to provide the insights, advice and connections to
assist in the shift from one role or one industry to another.
While
generational differences have always existed, for the first time four very
distinct generations are being asked to co-exist in the workplace. Each
brings different perspectives, work-styles and needs. There are the Baby
Boomers who are pushing retirement, yet out of desire or necessity, are still
in the workforce, contributing at the executive and entry levels, and
everything in between. There are the mid-career professionals, who are driven
by different socio-economic forces than their predecessors, and the Gen Y
workers, just entering the workforce, with different desires altogether.
So, how would an executive manage today's multi-generational workforce, with
their different desires, capabilities and motivations? How would you build
alignment, buy-in, commitment, and get everyone focused on achieving the same
strategic corporate objectives?
Please join this month's facilitator as she covers these thoughts and more,
and provides practical advice and ideas for managing and leading a
multi-generational workforce. From this workshop, you will gain an
understanding for the various differences in perspectives, as well their
preferred communication style so the next time you bump into someone from
another generation whom you don't relate to, stop and remember that no one is
right or wrong; we're just different.
Now
that you’ve landed that new executive position, how do you ensure you get off
to the best start possible? We all know the importance of making a good first
impression. As a senior executive, the impression you make in the first three
months of a new position is critical. In this program, we’ll look as what you
need to do to be ready and prepared on day one, and positioned for success a
quarter later. Among the areas we’ll cover:
- The pre-work you need to do before you even walk in the door
- Transitioning from candidate to company executive
- Understanding the stakes—and the land mines
- Using the honeymoon to your best advantage
- Storytelling and branding as leadership tools
Please join this month's facilitator as she covers these thoughts and more,
and provides practical advice and ideas for navigating the first ninety days
on the job.
Whether
you are an executive in transition or entrenched in a career, you can work on
developing your leadership skills to improve your marketability and the
skills of the team you are/will be leading. This program shares learnings
from four years of the Getting to the Top® career development series at
Stanford GSB and UCLA Anderson School on the skills needed for success and
leadership advancement.
This presentation will give you strategies to:
Identify skills most important in VP or C-Level roles
Define skills needed for your own career development
Understand leadership skills in other functional areas of the company or your
team
Put in place a career action plan focused on areas for leadership development
Kimberly
Wiefling, Wiefling Consulting
Behavioral Interviewing – Leila Bulling Towne, The Bulling Towne Group
As an experienced senior
executive, are your greatest contributions and successes behind you or ahead?
Many companies that were successful 100 years ago no longer exist.Trapped by their own success, they
gradually learn to reduce risk, avoid failure at all costs, and consequently
squelch or kill innovation and creativity.This makes them vulnerable to competition from new or more aggressive
companies with less to lose.
A similar hazard faces successful executives.It can be hard to see new possibilities that will allow future
success, especially when it requires letting go of previously successful
strategies that have served so well throughout a career. Diversity doesn’t
just apply to ethnic groups, and innovation doesn’t just apply to
products.Learn to apply both to refresh
your approach to business and give you a competitive advantage in an
increasingly competitive business environment. You’ll enjoy this engaging and
highly interactive session, and leave with strategies to:
- spark creativity and innovation
- promote sensible risk-taking and thinking differently
- inspire and leverage diversity of thought in yourself and others
- commit fully to what you can uniquely contribute to the business world
We are
still in the midst of a serious recession – broader and deeper than previous
ones – that is having a dramatic and lasting impact on the executive job
market. Many executives find themselves in an extended job search; those who
are employed are concerned about job security and about making any career
moves. Overcoming disappointment and inertia, keeping a positive attitude and
focusing on proactive career management are challenges for the heartiest job
seekers.
In this interactive session, we will help executives hit their personal
“Reset” button, focus on what’s really important, understand how their
personal value proposition can benefit employers and once again take charge
of their careers to “Get Back in the Game”.
Do you have industry and target
companies identified?
Do you know the best places to look for your target jobs?
Do you know how to use your network to find opportunities and help you to be
considered amongst the hundreds of other applicants?
In the current market real jobs are scarce and companies with jobs are
reluctant to advertise. When they do they get inundated with applicants and
many irrelevant job applications. To find qualified applicants they often use
internal referrals programs and hidden places to advertise jobs. This session
will show you how to find those hidden places using the popular networking
sites and also share the skills necessary to discover the jobs postings.
Attending this session will improve your efficiency and productivity,
maximize your job search results and help you find the hidden places for an
“A” job opportunity!
Bobbie
LaPorte will moderate our panel of recently-landed execs will share their
thoughts on the trends above and their advise on what YOU can do to land that
dream job, drawing on their own recent successful experience in the executive
job market.
• Moderator Roberta LaPorte, RAL & Associates
• Rosemarie Carbone, Director of HR, Torani (R Torre & Company)
• Barry Holroyd, CTO, Masher Media
• Phil Metz, Director of Business Development, SolFocus Inc.
FountainBlue is partnering with Bobbie LaPorte of RAL & Associates to
document how the process for transitioning into executive positions has
changed during this economic downturn and what you need to do differently to
land that next great position. Thank you to those of you who have completed
our eight-question online survey at http://tinyurl.com/pgu9cj. Early results
show that:
• Executives have changed jobs up to 3 times a year over the past three
years, more than ever before, and not generally at their option;
• Career positions are non-existent now, so networking, although always
important is even MORE important now;
• Online job applications, and even additional training are not the key
differentiator for executives today;
• However, online tools and reinventing yourselves ARE making a difference
for executives.
It is our hope to document and share how the game has changed for executives
seeking positions in today’s market. Here’s how you can contribute to these
efforts:
• Please weigh in on YOUR thoughts about how the game has changed for YOU as
an executive in transition today and in the past. Complete our eight-question
online survey at http://tinyurl.com/pgu9cj by October 1 at noon.
• Volunteer to take a ten minute telephone survey to provide more details
about your executive job search experience.
• Forward the request for survey to interested others in your network.
• Recommend an association, recruiter or others who might be interested in
participating in a telephone interview, or forwarding our survey to
interested executives in their networks.
Thank you for your support in this endeavor. We look forward to sharing our
findings with you and others in our network.
•
Moderator Roberta LaPorte, RAL & Associates
• John L. McDonald, Senior Partner, Executive Search Practice, DURAN HUMAN
CAPITAL PARTNERS
• Gretchen Sand, Principal, SKYLINE RECRUITING
• Ann Zeichner, Managing Director, TAYLOR WINFIELD
Last
month, we heard from recently-landed executives about how the search for
executive positions has changed. This month, we’re polling the recruiters
themselves to ask them not only how the search process has changed, but WHY
it has changed and what it means for senior executives.
It is our hope that last month’s event, this month’s event, and the survey
results will help us document and share how the game has changed for
executives seeking positions in today’s market. Here’s how you can contribute
to these efforts:
• Please weigh in on YOUR thoughts about how the game has changed for YOU as
an executive in transition today and in the past. Complete our eight-question
online survey at http://tinyurl.com/pgu9cj by November 1 at noon.
• Volunteer to take a ten minute telephone survey to provide more details
about your executive job search experience.
• Forward the request for survey to interested others in your network.
• Recommend an association, recruiter or others who might be interested in
participating in a telephone interview, or forwarding our survey to
interested executives in their networks.
Thursday,
December 17
Holiday
Break
Holiday
Break
Below is our calendar of topics, dates and speakers for 2008.
Meeting Date
Meeting Theme
Facilitator
1/17
The Economic Forecast for 2008: What Does it Mean for the Executive Job Market?
Mary Beth Deans, Founder and Managing Partner of Douglas Partner
2/21
From the Layoff to the Onboarding: What Executives Need to Know to Navigate the Process
Roberta LaPorte, RAL & Associates
3/20
The Evolving Role of C-Suite Executives: Today’s CFO Crisis
Ken Warburton, Partner with Tatum LLC
4/17
Developing a Leadership Pipeline
Nancy Monson, founder and CEO of Nancy Monson Coaching, Inc.,
5/15
The First 90 Days: Positioning Yourself for Success
Linda Popky, L2M Associates
6/19
Hot Positions and Markets for Senior Executives
Linda Holroyd – CEO, FountainBlue Bob LoPresto – President Rusher, Loscavio & LoPresto Executive Search Rod McDermott – Managing Director, McDermott and Bull Executive Search
7/24
The Ins and Outs of Executive Compensation Packages
Facilitator Roberta LaPorte, RAL Associates Panelist Jennifer Colosi, founder, Colosi Associates Panelist Dana Johnson, Devine and Virnig Panelist Marty McMahon, Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
We are pleased to acknowledge our speakers and their topics for 2007.
Meeting Date
Meeting Theme
Networking Topic
Facilitator
25-Jan
What Executives Can Expect in 2007
Mitchell Levy, Happy About
22-Feb
Learning from Bad Management Practices
Jay Michlin, OnStor
22-Mar
Using Age to Your Advantage
Jean Walker, Pathways/OI Partners Inc.
26-Apr
Working with Women Executives
Getting the Right Doors to Open
Bonita Banducci, Banducci Consulting
24-May
The Competition for Top Talent - How Does This Affect You?
Profiling/Identifying the Right Executive to Target Getting Past Gatekeepers and Into Conversations Building Executive Connections in Different Roles, in Different Industries Leveraging Successes and Testimonials to Build New Relationships
Patti Wilson, Career Company
21-Jun
Leveraging Your Personal Brand
101 Lame Excuses Not to Network
Susan Schwartz, You Who Personal & Corporate Branding
19-Jul
Enhancing Your Leadership Presence
Getting Busy Executives to Say Yes
Linda Holroyd, FountainBlue
16-Aug
Negotiating an Executive Compensation Package
Trimming and Pruning Your Network
Janet MacAulay, Chrysalis Consulting LLC Michael Whitman, Bernstein Global Wealth Management
20-Sep
Developing a Leadership Pipeline
Levels of Networking
Roberta LaPorte, RAL and Associates
25-Oct
Time Management at the Executive Level
Preferred Tools for Managing an Executive's Network
Kristi Royse, KLR Consulting
29-Nov
Recruiter Panel: Trends in Executive Hiring
Growing Your Network Strategically
Facilitator Roberta LaPorte, RAL and Associates Panelist Sue Salvesen, STRe Solutions Panelist Robert LoPresto, Rusher, Loscavio & LoPresto Panelist Martin McMahon, Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search Panelist Rita Scroggin, Director of Sales and Recruiting, Thinknicity
We are pleased to acknowledge our speakers and their topics for 2006.
Meeting Date
Meeting Type
Facilitator
Thursday, January 26
Job Search
Linda Holroyd, FountainBlue
Thursday, February 23
Leadership
Jay Michlin
Thursday, March 23
Employment Trends
Don Lee
Thursday, April 27
Job Interviews
Dilip Saraf
Thursday, May 25
Leveraging Social Networking Tools
Linda Holroyd, FountainBlue
Thursday, June 22
Strategies for Negotiating Executive Salaries
Jay Michlin
Thursday, July 27
Strategic Execution for Today's Executives
Dave Mathisen, The Virnoche-Frigon Group
Thursday, August 24
Managing an Organization through Change
Pat Obuchowski
Thursday, September 28
Entrepreneurial Options for Executives
Mike Jones, Onyx Associates
Thursday, October 26
Networking Tips for Executives
Linda Holroyd, FountainBlue
Thursday, December 14
Recruiter Panel
Roy Fiebiger, Sanford Rose Associates-Silicon Valley Sue Salvesen, STRe Solutions Gretchen Sand, Skyline Recruiting Corporation Max Shapiro, PeopleConnect
We are pleased to acknowledge and thank our cross-marketing partners below, and welcome your inquiries about becoming a cross-marketing partner for this series.
FWE&E
Harvard Alumni Association
Intel Alumni
Lee Hecht Harrison
Oracle Alumni
Right Management
Torchiana
SBODN
Stanford Alumni Association
Wharton Business School Alumni
Contact us to find out more about our Executive Coaching services
