BIO

As an organizational consultant and executive coach, Sandra Hill, M.A. has spent more than 25 years assisting thousands of leaders and their direct reports in enhancing organizational capabilities. For 11 years, as senior lead organizational consultant in a Fortune 50 telecommunications company with over sixty consultants and trainers reporting to her, she was responsible for developing and then providing a full range of organizational development consulting services including strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching, team building, performance management, communication systems, and merging of organizational cultures. 

Her extensive experience with many U.S. and international companies has allowed her to develop a proven track record of success in enhancing productivity and performance.  A master at organizational assessment, she’s a catalyst for her clients developing powerful strategies and organizational cultures that optimize customer satisfaction, employee retention, and bottom line success.  This has led to trusting, long-term client relationships. An executive coach long before it was popular to be a coach, she is widely known for her pioneering work with leadership development and team development, including top executive, virtual and cross-functional teams. She is recognized for the innovation and creativity she brings to her work. Other areas of expertise include mergers and acquisitions, project management, and diversity. She has worked successfully with numerous scientists and engineers in high tech, R&D organizations. She masterfully incorporates assessments into her work, including the Myers Briggs and the Enneagram. Her clients have included Lucent Technologies, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Cisco Systems, IBM, the World Bank, StorageTek, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Proligo, and Paradyne..

EDUCATION, AFFILIATIONS AND CERTIFICATION
 

• M..A., Counseling and Organizational Development, University of Colorado, 1977
• B.A., Sociology, California State University at Long Beach, 1969
• American Society for Training and Development
• Certified Myers Briggs Trainer
• Association for Psychological Type (Myers Briggs)

SOME OF OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Our clients value our long-term collaborative relationships with them. Trust is central to our ability to work together productively.
• The ability to draw on expertise and wisdom by stepping back and asking the right questions is the hallmark of a learning organization as well as of an effective consulting group.
• The organizational culture can be aligned in a way that maximizes productivity and effectiveness. However, trying to achieve goals without addressing organizational culture leads to an inefficient use of resources, including chasing symptoms and missing root causes. 
• Some surveys suggest that close to 90% of the work force are either causing problems or just looking to get a paycheck. It’s a mistake to believe that well-crafted mission statements, increased salary, benefits, or other perks will change that. Employees need to feel that they are making a difference, and that they are valued and appreciated. A focus on employee satisfaction that’s integrated into bottom-line results is therefore crucial.
• We understand that leadership/executive development needs to start with results, and the competencies needed for success on the job. We also understand that leadership development is beneficial for everyone in the organization. 
• Training by itself is ineffective unless it is directly linked to performance on the job.
• It is critical for managers to understand that they can be effective coaches without sacrificing commitment to bottom-line results.
• Talented employees may join a company for a variety of reasons (including financial incentives, stock options, etc.) but research has demonstrated that a major factor in how long they stay and in their overall productivity is their relationship with their immediate supervisor. Managers need to develop skills and awareness in employee retention. 
• It is imperative for individuals and teams within organizations to learn to communicate in ways that reflect taking healthy responsibility for organizational results. Blame, resentment, and other such reflections of unhealthy responsibility sap energy and impair productivity. We have learned to utilize a powerful tool to teach individuals and teams how to take healthy responsibility.
• Leaders and other organizational members, both individually and as teams, often have the best of intentions yet find themselves getting in their own way. We know how to assist people, individually and collectively, in dissolving barriers that interfere with having fulfilling work lives and successful work outcomes. We have developed mastery with a variety of tools, including the Enneagram and the MBTI, which assist in this exploration. These tools also allow the value of diversity to really come alive.
• We understand that too much time is usually placed on analysis and diagnosis, and too little on implementation.
• Agitation and struggle are poisonous to organizational culture. The ability to relax in the act of getting the job done, including strategically stepping back at times, is critical.
• Organizational cultures need to increase their flexibility, agility, and responsiveness to change. 
• Our backgrounds include extensive training and experience in understanding the functioning of both organizations and the people within them. It is the combination of the two that leads to our effectiveness. 
• Building/strengthening high-performance teams requires attention to a large number of factors, including clear and well-defined leadership, working agreements, well-defined yet flexible roles, a common definition of mission and purpose, and organizational support. 
• Authenticity, integrity and credibility are crucial leadership qualities. They are also crucial qualities of a sustainable, successful organization that have not been adequately addressed by many companies. 
• An organization can’t play by the old paradigms and still survive.
• Great consulting must go beyond the flavor-of-the-month bandwagon (and assist the client in going beyond the flavor-of-the-month).
• Listening and communicating are arts that require more than cursory courses.
• It is important to ensure that the reward systems and performance evaluation are aligned with organizational strategies and goals. It is particularly important to pay attention to the informal reward system and accountability.
• It is an art to have a company’s expressed mission, vision, and values come alive. Particular attention needs to be paid to any discrepancies between what is said and what is lived.
• Awareness of customers, both internal and external, is a critical factor for success.
• Creativity and innovation are vital in today’s fast-paced and volatile business climate. Optimal creativity and innovation require spaciousness and inner relaxation.
• Emotional intelligence, while already an over-used concept, is at least as important as IQ. One without the other is not just incomplete, but leads to the breaking down of critical relationships and communication. 
• Quality consulting, and any effective initiative, requires consistent evaluation and re-focusing.