About
About this Professional Skills Blog…
The purpose of our Professional Skills Blog is to provide you support and encouragement through ideas, articles, questions, and new concepts as you seek to further develop your professional skills.
About the Authors…
The authors of the Professional Skills Blog are the consultants that make up a portion of our team of expert training facilitators, dynamic leadership and executive coaches, and overall thought leaders. Here’s a snapshot of each contributor:
Scott Boozer
In his role as a Senior Consultant in the Leadership and Professional Skills Practices at Management Concepts, Mr. Boozer uses his 22+ years of experience in the learning and performance improvement arena to partner with his clients to improve individual, team, and organizational performance. Mr. Boozer has served as an internal human resources executive in Fortune 50 companies, as well as providing consulting services and team-building activities to clients in both the public and private sector. Mr. Boozer has led training organizations and provided performance interventions for highly specialized audiences, including energy, healthcare, telecommunications, software development, and several different multi-national organizations in the consumer packaging industry. As a highly sought after facilitator and keynote speaker, Mr. Boozer has conducted training in over 70 cities in over 7 different countries, and his areas of interest include values-based leadership, talent management, succession planning, and individual and organizational development. Mr. Boozer’s central belief is that the primary role of leaders is to unleash the potential of their people.
Ken Buch
As a Senior Consultant and Executive Coach in the Leadership and Professional Skills Practice of the Leadership and Management business unit at Management Concepts, Mr. Buch has close to thirty years of experience in developing teams, leadership and organizational development, and transformational and transactional coaching. As a Johns Hopkins Fellow in the Management of Change, Mr. Buch has helped to create awareness among organizational leadership on the impact of organizational change from the perspective of the individual and how the individual impacts change within organizational systems. In April 2009, Mr. Buch wrote a white paper on Adaptability: A Crucial Personal and Organizational Skill, which was later offered as a nationally broadcast webinar. Conducting speaking engagements and facilitated sessions across the country, Mr. Buch contributes enlightening thought leadership that encompasses the Neuroscience of Leadership in understanding brain functions and their impact on effective leadership practices. Mr. Buch has written articles for publication in The Public Manager, Training Magazine, and T+D magazine.
Flip Filippi
With over 28 years of direct leadership and management experience in the U.S. Air Force and private industry, Mr. Filippi has been a team leader, commander, and director for organizations ranging from 5 to 850 persons in size. He has led traditional, matrix and blended organizations to help them envision and achieve their desired end states. Mr. Filippi has a wealth of hands-on experience with leadership development, strategic planning, and curriculum design and development. His areas of expertise also include thinking skills development, change management, employee engagement, and communication improvement. Mr. Filippi regularly serves as a subject matter expert for customized and off-the-shelf training programs for government, non-profit and commercial organizations. He also serves as a strategic partner for a variety of business development efforts across Management Concepts’ Leadership and Management Business Unit.
Mark Leheney
As Senior Consultant for the Leadership and Professional Skills practices of the Leadership and Management business unit within Management Concepts, Mr. Leheney provides executive coaching, consulting, facilitation and assessment interpretation for clients. In July, 2008, Mr. Leheney’s first book, The Five Commitments of a Leader, was released. He has spoken on the book and related topics at many leadership conferences, retreats and seminars. He has also authored articles in The Federal Manager, Business Analyst Times and Employment Relations Today. In January, 2010, his e-book, How Managers Can Lead, was released. Mr. Leheney also serves in the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Program.
Kathryn Mooney
As a Consultant within the Leadership and Management business unit at Management Concepts, Ms. Mooney acts as the subject matter expert for organizational decision making. Ms. Mooney brings 7 years of investment experience in the global financial asset management industry where she developed expertise in decision making in high-pressure environments, relationship management, strategic problem solving, corporate risk management and regulatory compliance. Ms. Mooney currently focuses her research on how larger organizations can create management practices and cultural norms that facilitate timely and effective decision making. Ms. Mooney is committed to blending both traditional and non-traditional media into teaching, and believes a dynamic educational experience is essential to effective learning. In 2010, she earned her MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, focusing on Data Models & Decision Making, Leadership, and Managing Strategic Growth.
Robin Sparks
Leveraging over 20 years of professional experience, Robin Sparks has worked as an Executive Coach with a variety of leaders to align their individual strengths with business imperatives. She blends her more than 10 years of direct experience with supervising and leading others with her hands-on expertise in leadership and management development, employee training, and curriculum design and development. Ms. Sparks has also served as a coach, project manager and business partner on a variety of broad organizational performance and development issues, with emphasis on employee satisfaction and engagement, organizational culture, performance management and the development of leaders at all levels. Ms. Sparks incorporates her experiences from the non-profit, healthcare, hospitality, and high-tech industries into her work with clients, bringing a thoughtful, incisive approach to each engagement. She has a special interest and deep expertise on the topic of women and leadership. As a Senior Consultant and Business Development Lead, she regularly serves as a subject matter expert and strategic partner on customized and off-the-shelf solutions for government, non-profit and commercial organizations.
Casey Wilson
As the Director of Practices for the Leadership, Management, and Professional Skills practices of the Leadership and Management business unit within Management Concepts, Mr. Wilson is the chief subject matter expert and consultant with responsibilities for each practice’s strategic products and services. In this role, he focuses on leveraging strategic leadership with subject matter expertise and instructional design expertise for customized client solutions, consulting and assessment services, and off-the-shelf training courses. In January, 2008, Mr. Wilson’s first book, The Cornerstones of Engaging Leadership, was released. With endorsements by Stephen M.R. Covey and other business and government leaders, this fast-selling book is being embraced across the leadership arena. Speaking across the country on the topics of engagement and engaging leadership, Mr. Wilson is a sought after keynote speaker and conference presenter. Mr. Wilson has also been featured in and written articles for T+D magazine, Learning Executive Briefing, The Public Manager, Training magazine, Federal Computer Weekly, Federal Radio Weekly, and CyberFeds.
Catherine Zaranis
AAs a Senior Consultant for the Leadership, Management and Professional Skills practices of the Leadership and Management business unit within Management Concepts, Ms. Zaranis researches and develops the practice’s strategic products and services. In May 2010, Ms. Zaranis was elected President of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Potomac Chapter. She is a sought after conference speaker on learning technologies and games that teach. She has presented at the ASTD Maryland Chapter, the Training Officer’s Consortium, the North American Gaming and Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA) and the George Mason Innovations in E-learning Symposium. Ms. Zaranis has a special interest in inter-cultural communication and proudly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Romania from 1995 to 1997.
About Management Concepts…
Established in 1973, Management Concepts is a global provider of quality training, coaching, and consulting in leadership, management, and professional skills development, as well as federal grants and assistance, acquisition and contracting, analytics, business analysis, financial management, project management, and retirement planning.
For more information about Management Concepts Leadership and Management products and services, which include training, coaching, consulting, assessments, and publications, visit us online at http://www.managementconcepts.com/leadership.
Information about our other training and consulting services offered by Management Concepts is available on the homepage at http://www.managementconcepts.com.