The Living Planner Advisory Perspective Series – Mindy Bortness, Communication Works

Valentine’s week is upon us!  Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours 🙂

Our Advisory Perspective series provides you with a perspective of how to prepare for meetings with professional advisors.  This month, I would like to introduce the President and CEO of Communication Works, Mindy Bortness, Increasing your Employee ROI.™

 Mindy is a recognized leader in guiding companies toward predictive hiring, retention of top talent, leadership development and identifying how organizations can be better poised to navigate through 7 stages of growth. Since 2002, Mindy has consulted with organizations such as A Wireless, BBB, McKinney Advisory, SDCBA, AltheaCMO, American Red Cross, Lincolnland Oil and IT Tech Pros.

Mindy is certified in six “Sciences of Self” including DISC, Driving Forces and Emotional Intelligence.  She is a WBEC-West Certified Woman-owned Business, a Certified Complete Leader Facilitator, current president of NAWBO-San Diego and VP of NAWBO-California. Mindy’s charitable endeavors include working with adults/college students in career choice/transition and Dogs on Deployment – where you foster military pets while their owners are serving us overseas.

Welcome Mindy!

Question 1.  What do you enjoy about working with your clients?

My work brings me into large or growing organizations.  Using predictive assessment, we help hire people who best match an open role which directly reduces turnover. We also use assessments and processes to grow emerging leaders, increase communication, teamwork and employee engagement. All of these avenues keep me aligned with my passion for people being in their right roles, using their best gifts which results in happy cultures and profitable brands.

Question 2.  How would you suggest a potential new client prepare for a 1st meeting?

We get to solve problems. I’d want to know what their primary problems are regarding people. Are they experiencing turnover? Limited teamwork? Are people showing up but not engaged? Is there conflict between departments? Are they growing so fast they are hiring people without clarity about culture and values? Identification of what’s ailing them is key. Also, what tangible and intangible costs come with primary issues?

Question 3.  When someone agrees to become a client, what can they expect immediately?  Over time?

Clients can expect the best match in solutions for their problem, at their pace, for their people. The tools and processes we use can be as simple or sophisticated and they are scalable. We have specific, measurable objectives to hit. Let’s talk about The Complete Leader Program. That’s a 14-month, transformational leadership program designed for current and emerging leaders within an organization. There’s a combination of off-site trainings, monthly coaching, assessment and more. It’s ideal for companies with multi-generational leaders or such fast growth that people are promoted without training. We’ve had organizations say they don’t want to stop after 14 months! That’s cool. Our stable of professionals have more to give! Other companies may want a Leadership Lite offering… we can do that.

 Another example would be profiling multiple roles within Sales. Let’s say you have a Regional Leader, District Leader and Store Leader. We can profile roles in 2, 3 or 4 sciences (behaviors, drivers, competencies, acumen.) For the Store Leader, a profile measuring behaviors and drivers is awesome and perfect. For the other roles, we need more in-depth understanding of what success looks like, so we’ll use a more sophisticated predictive assessment for those roles. Actual client experience for this program experienced reduced turnover from 65% to 25% using these right tools for the right roles.
So again, it’s about the best match to the problem, at their pace, for their people.

Question 4.  What is your service philosophy?

Such a good question. I’m wired for goal achievement for clients and for best job match for individuals within the client organization. So this means being real and transparent. I want to provide such strong results that clients think, “I’ll bet Mindy can help us, or knows who can help us, with this other issue.” I aim to be a thought leader and trusted advisor. The work I do with best fit for people and roles extends to who/what team would be the best fit for the specific issue my client is having. It may not be me! It may be one of the many alliance partners I know!
Question 5.  What resources do you provide to assist “laypeople” with understanding what is being discussed?
I consider myself and others I bring into a client as resources. All of my work has some sort of assessment attached to it. Reports that are all about you! Or about the role! Or about the team! They are easy to read and chock-full of action items for continuous learning and improvement. Other resources include exercises to practice what’s being preached, online podcasts or white papers, lots of diagrams, etc.
Bonus Question!  If you were to relay one piece of advice to anyone reading this, what would it be?
One of my mentors taught me that “energy follows focus.” What you spend your day thinking about affects your attitude and your accomplishments.

Mindy, thank you for uncovering obstacles to organizational growth and providing us your perspective.

Contingency planning at home and work benefits people in measurable and profound ways. The Living Planner supports proactive resources and comprehensive business and individual/family contingency planning.

Many thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your lives.  Contact us to learn more about how we work with individuals, business owners and employees via Email or online @ The Living Planner  #CareForPeopleCareForBusiness

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