"In my experience, the most underestimated part of running a company is the value of a good organizational culture."
Today, we are excited to introduce Teresa Rand, an inspiring leader and founder of Rand Consulting. With a wealth of experience in corporate America and as an entrepreneur, Teresa’s passion lies in helping leaders climb the career ladder and create inclusive organizations.
Through public speaking, training, and career coaching, she has transformed the lives of countless individuals and businesses. As a champion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, Teresa also founded the Boss Lady Community and the Boss Lady Podcast.
Join us as we delve into her insights on overcoming communication barriers, fostering a healthy work-life balance, and the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Teresa Rand: Leaders have a responsibility to reach down the career ladder and help others advance in their careers to achieve inclusive leadership in the workforce.
Through public speaking and client coaching, I inspire individuals to be their best selves and surround themselves with other successful people.
As the founder and President of Rand Consulting, my firm specializes in speaking, training, and career coaching for individuals and businesses. As a former CEO, having managed budgets of up to $35 million and being responsible for more than 1,000 employees, I understand the challenges of being in business; whether in corporate America or as an entrepreneur.
I am passionate about helping leaders achieve their dreams of climbing the career ladder, earning their seat in the C-suite, and working in an inclusive organization. I hold a B.S. in Business Administration from Jacksonville University, am a certified Gallup Strengths and DISC coach, a John Maxwell Certified speaker, trainer, and coach, an E-Certified Virtual Presenter, and a National Speakers Academy Graduate and Member.
In 2018, I founded the Boss Lady Community and the Boss Lady Podcast that focuses on women’s empowerment, gender equality, and women’s issues. I hold a certificate in Women’s Leadership from E-Cornell University and a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business.
Past and current consulting clients include the Ladies Professional Golf Association Corporate Office, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and Brown and Brown Insurance Company.
My husband, Bob and I, have five children and seven grandchildren. I have completed eleven marathons, multiple triathlons, an Outward-Bound sailing excursion, and a skydiving adventure.
I am currently an advanced certified yoga instructor and an ACE certified personal trainer.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffet, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Teresa Rand: My company focuses on helping business teams overcome barriers to communication. My unique approach works with each individual on a team to determine their communication style before working with the entire team.
My company’s biggest strength is the process I use to analyze and discover what outcome the organization is looking to achieve.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle keeping talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are adapting to the current shift we see?
Teresa Rand: Employees feeling unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood is not a new phenomenon! This has been one of the top five reasons employees leave employers for more than thirty years. What keeps employees happy is being appreciated.
Obviously, they want the basics such as safe working conditions and fair compensation. After those are met, they simply want to feel valued, productive, and have a healthy work-life balance. In my work, I am consulting businesses to be more flexible in work requirements, such as hours demanded, decisions about coming into the office and working from home.
Employees want to know the path to success within their industry. Team building and development opportunities are key to the employees of today.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Teresa Rand: My expectations in the new world of business via Zoom, is that it is here to stay! Every option I offer my clients can be delivered in person or virtually. It has allowed me to work with clients more efficiently saving each of us time and money.
Online options are the wave of the future and with the right mindset and understanding every business can have success with offering more virtual ways for consumers to do business with them.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Teresa Rand: THE challenge right now is the for the first time ever we have four generations in the workplace at the same time. From baby boomers to Gen Zers, we are all working side by side. We must learn to communicate with each other.
The baby boomers have valuable life experiences, but the younger generations can offer wisdom on the consumers of today, the technology of the day, and a more balanced approach to work and life.
Together, this is a valuable space for companies to use in adapting to the workforce post covid!
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Teresa Rand: In my experience, the most underestimated part of running a company is the value of a good organizational culture. I have worked in great cultures and not so great cultures. The great culture valued their employees, listened to their employees and invested in their employees.
The best example is a company I worked for that kept a workplace psychologist on a retainer for all employees to access as needed. This Dr. was accessible to all full-time employees to discuss work-life balance, employee concerns, how to handle difficult conversations, upcoming evaluations and other topics as needed.
It made each employee feel valued and appreciated as a human not just an employee. The worst culture I was part of is one where all decisions were made top-down with no input from lower level employees. No one felt value or heard and turnover was incredibly high.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Teresa Rand: My superpower would be to master emotional intelligence. I believe this is the number one skill needed by a leader.
The ability to understand where another person is coming from and adapt your way of communicating with them to fit their needs.
George Wright III, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Teresa Rand for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Teresa Rand or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
