I often see a quote and think, ” YES, that’s it .. those words express exactly what I’m trying to communicate!” So along with a description of the values and principles used to guide the work I do with clients, you’ll find some of my favorite quotes that share the spirit of what you, as a customer, can expect when working with Alignment Business Consulting.
Values
Results Focus
Clarity
Simplicity
Enjoyment
RESULTS FOCUS
“We will be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.”
– Steven Covey
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
– Zig Ziglar
Alignment Business Consulting helps clients get the results they want.
CLARITY
“A problem well put is half solved.”
– John Dewey
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
– Lewis Carroll
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
– Albert Einstein
Alignment Business Consulting believes establishing clarity about the problem that needs to be solved is the most important factor in our ability to help clients achieve desired results.
SIMPLICITY
“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
– Steve Jobs
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
– Albert Einstein
Alignment Business Consulting strives to create simple solutions because simple solutions, while not necessarily the easiest to create, are often the most likely to succeed.
ENJOYMENT
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
– Dale Carnegie
Alignment Business Consulting believes that in addition to fun, enjoyment also includes getting satisfaction from our work and feeling like we make a difference for others. We strive to make our projects enjoyable for our clients and us.
Guiding Principles
Think Big
Start Small
Involve Stakeholders
Keep it Super Simple
THINK BIG
“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”
– Alvin Toffler
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
– Michelangelo
Everything starts with understanding the big picture. This includes understanding the desired state and current state of an organization’s business results, employee experience and customer experience. I learn about the big picture by looking at a company’s mission, vision, values, strategic priorities, culture, brand promise, operations, customer interactions, employee engagement, goals, and associated measurements. Sustainable long-term success is achieved when organizations operate in alignment with their strategy to generate a simultaneous WIN for Customers, Employees, and the Business.
START SMALL
“When eating an elephant take one bite at a time.”
– Creighton Abrams
Once gaps between current state and desired state have been identified within the big picture, I try to narrow focus to the 1 or 2 most important things that if done well, will have the biggest impact on result. This smaller focus allows us to start taking action immediately, and start showing results very quickly.
INVOLVE STAKEHOLDERS
Identifying the roles that are impacted by or involved with areas targeted for improvement is critical so that our project includes appropriate communication and interaction with those whose participation is important for project success. Stakeholder involvement also leads us to better solutions as those who are closest to the work often provide some of the best insights and ideas for driving change.
KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci
I work with your team to create the most simple solutions possible to help you achieve your desired results. This is widely known as the KISS principle.
Lee Ann Hawley
“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different result.” Many leaders are familiar with this quote from Albert Einstein, but it’s not always easy to figure out what should be done differently, or to effectively implement change. This is where Lee Ann can help. Her mission is to help companies make changes in their operations so that they can achieve their desired results.
Deliberate Change. | Desired Results.
Lee Ann Hawley is an independent consultant operating as Alignment Business Consulting LLC.
She developed her expertise in Operational Improvement and Customer Experience throughout her 25+ year career working for technology companies. Some of her career highlights include:
When selling copiers for Pitney Bowes, she initiated a customer care program for her largest client, increasing client satisfaction and retention. Selling copiers also taught Lee Ann a lot about persistence, managing adversity, and dealing with sales rejection!
During the 14 years she spent in the telecom industry working for MCI as a Sales Rep, Sales Manager, Service Manager, and Business Manager, she found that the more problems she could help her customers solve, the easier it became to consistently exceed revenue plans. She also developed a reporting package to help leaders track and predict results.
The most exciting 10 years of Lee Ann’s career were spent with Perceptive Software where she held leadership roles focused on Sales, Operations, Customer Experience Management, and Strategy Execution. Her accomplishments at Perceptive included creation of a sales onboarding program, leading migration to a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, implementing a strategic customer advisory program, and developing Customer Experience Management capabilities that helped drive more effective operational improvements to fuel revenue growth and increase profitability.
Lee Ann recognizes that employee experience, customer experience, and business results are tightly interconnected, and that the more closely they operate in alignment with the vision, mission, values and strategy of an organization, the better the organization can realize sustainable, long term success.
Because customers are central to every company’s success, Lee Ann promotes the strategic advantage that a well-designed and effectively utilized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide. As a Sales Operations leader, she was involved with the design, deployment and ongoing management of CRM. As a sales rep, sales leader, and customer experience management leader, she was an avid CRM user. Many seek Lee Ann’s guidance when trying to increase the value they realize from their CRM tools.
Lee Ann is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP). She has a Bachelor of Science in Business with emphasis in Marketing from Emporia State University, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Kansas. Lee Ann is married and has one son who lives in Denver, CO. Based in Shawnee, KS, Lee Ann likes to spend her free time outdoors where she enjoys digital photography, hiking, boating, kayaking, paddle boarding, gardening, and walking dogs at Great Plains SPCA.