Valerie Savage - Keynote Speaker - Career Group Events for Women, CPE Credit

As a former business executive and now Licensed Professional Counselor Intern, Valerie Savage connects with the needs of working women and has been a speaker at events hosting by a wide range of groups and professional organizations, including the Association of Human Resource Professionals, Texas Society of CPAs, Austin Women in Technology, Dallas Executive Women's Roundtable, Mother Attorney Mentoring Association (MAMAs), Young Women's Roundtable (YWR), National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Association of Legal Administrators, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) and Bethany UMC Women's Retreat.


Is your corporate culture bad for your career? How well does your work environment complement your personal strengths and preferences for gathering information, making decisions and engaging with the world around you? This seminar explores how four personality preferences help identify your overall style in the workplace and, as a result, the corporate culture that is the best fit for you. The seminar will also reveal common stressors in the workplace for different personality preferences and what you can do to maintain effectiveness, even when the cultural fit is not optimal. The MBTI® Personality Assessment is a psychometric questionnaire based on Carl Jung's theory of personality and is designed to measure psychological preferences in how individuals perceive and interact with the world. MBTI® is widely recognized as the world's most popular personality assessment – a reported 2 million assessments are administered annually. It is used by individuals and organizations of all sizes to evaluate professional "fit" and to maximize productivity. Conflict Resolution – A Myers-Briggs Strengths-Based Approach Some level of conflict is inevitable in any group setting, so the ability to resolve conflicts is a critical skill for professional success. Yet, the art of conflict resolution is significantly impacted by an individual's personal strengths and personality preferences. This seminar will present a "strengths-based" framework for approaching conflict resolution, drawing on the Myers-Briggs MBTI® model of personality type for individual and team professional development. Job Satisfaction – A Myers-Briggs Strengths-Based Approach Even the best job has its good days and its bad days. So how do you keep from having the bad days overshadow the good? This seminar will use Myers-Briggs MBTI® personality types to introduce key principles that anyone can apply to increase overall job satisfaction. Discover Your Strengths – A Myers-Briggs Roadmap for Career Development This seminar will describe the MBTI® preferences (e.g. Extroversion versus Introversion), discuss the impact of personality style on interpersonal relationships in both personal and professional environments, and explore application of MBTI® results to address specific career development goals, such as increasing job satisfaction, team collaboration, conflict resolution, and job change/career transition. Good Enough Mother – Using Myers-Briggs to Discover Parenting Strengths Based on the principle that good mothers have many different styles, this seminar helps you set aside the notion of a “perfect mother” and instead identify the unique skills you naturally possess to be a “good enough” mother. Using the 16 distinct Myers-Briggs MBTI® personality types, participants will discover their strengths, challenges and tips to reduce stress and be a more confident, effective parent.	Managing and Motivating a Gen Y Team Gen Ys, Millennials – no matter the terminology, anyone who has managed a Gen Y employee knows that these individuals behave and respond differently than workers of the past. Yet, in order to remain competitive, leaders and executives must adapt management techniques to accommodate this large and growing work force. This seminar explores the preferred work environment, team interactions and motivational differences between Gen Y employees and the traditional workforce, identifying specific managment styles and their effectiveness with Gen Y teams. Core Elements of an Extraordinary Executive Have you ever worked under an extraordinary executive? If so, then you may have experienced a level of passion, commitment and cohesiveness throughout the organization that is often missing in other companies. This seminar takes a look at the core elements of an extraordinary executive, and how you might incorporate some of those attributes of leadership in your own management style. Stretching into Management - New Skills for a New Role Congratulations - you've been promoted – you’ve been promoted to managing a team! You’re excited about your new role, but you’re not sure you have all the skills you need to be successful. This seminar reviews the key disciplines critical to effectively managing a team and how to integrate your own natural leadership style into one that works well for both you and your new team. Team Dynamics - Converting Challenges into Opportunities One of the most difficult aspects of managing a team is managing team dynamics. Individual personalities don’t get checked at the office door, and the interplay of those personalities can make or break a team’s effectiveness. This seminar identifies different types of team “players” and what you can do to transition potential challenges into opportunities for overall team success. Effective Feedback Part I - Giving Feedback Giving effective feedback is one of the most important aspects of managing and mentoring employees and also plays a major role in aligning individual and corporate goals. Unfortunately, feedback is often negatively viewed as criticism, which serves to spark emotions and undermine employee morale. Effective Feedback Part II - Receiving Feedback Even managers who give feedback to their employees must also receive feedback from superiors, peers and sometimes their direct reports. Accepting legitimate feedback is critical to maintaining the highest level of personal performance and continued career success. Unfortunately, managers who feel confident in giving feedback are sometimes ineffective in receiving feedback themselves. Meeting Mania! - Reclaiming Productivity Lost in Endless Meetings Meetings are an important part of the business world, but they can also grind personal productivity to a halt. This seminar reveals what you can do to make all meetings more productive, as well as providing tips on how to make your own meeting schedule more manageable. Mid-Course Correction - Re-charting Your Career Have you begun to lose interest in your job? Or perhaps what you used to love about it has faded away? Maybe your personal circumstances have changed – marriage, family, etc. – and your career doesn’t fit very well anymore. How can you tell if you should change companies or whether its time to “re-chart” your career? This seminar will help you “look under the hood” and evaluate whether you just need a “tune-up” or whether you’re ready to “shop” for a new career. Time to Jump? "Should I stay or should I go" are not just lyrics to a popular song, but can be a running theme in the back of someone's mind when they're in a tough situation at work. Be it financial insecurity, lack of other percievable options, or reluctance to leave co-workers behind, indecision can result in the choice being made FOR you, rather than BY you. This seminar provides insight into what issues to consider in making the choice to leave or stay in your current position, to place you in control of your career path, despite difficult circumstances. You Are Where You Sit Research shows that where you sit in a meeting does influence where you stand in the dynamics of the group. After all, people are social mammals with primal methods of expressing group power hierarchies. Join us for a lively discussion on how choosing where you sit can impact how others perceive you and even whether your ideas are seriously considered.

Mentoring 101 – For Mentors and Mentees Mentoring has long been an effective tool to help accelerate career advancement and can be a fulfilling experience for both the Mentor and the Mentee. As relational individuals, women are natural mentors and with more women in professional roles today, there is more opportunity than ever to leverage the wisdom and experience of mentors. This seminar will look at what makes a good mentor and a good Mentee, how to find a good fit and how to make the mentoring relationship a fulfilling experience for both individuals. Women Don't Ask A recent study showed that men were nine times more likely to ask for an increase in compensation than women. Despite equal levels of dissatisfaction – and complaining – men were more likely to change their situation by directly asking for more money. This seminar looks at social norms and other factors that tend to inhibit women from asking for what they want and teaches techniques for direct and effective negotiation in all aspects of their career. Just Do It - Now! Do you find yourself procrastinating? Everyone is tempted to put off unpleasnt or time consuming tasks. But then, they pile up and WHAM! you get slammed all at once. The seminar will help you motivate yourself to start - and complete - those dreaded tasks and minimize the stress associated with procrastination. 7 Signs of Burnout - And How to Prevent Them Endless to-do lists, overloaded email inboxes, PDAs that keep us wired all the time - so many things to perpetuate a frenetic pace. It's easy to see how burnout can happen. But the biggest risk of burnout is not recognizing the signs until it's too late and your work, your career, and your personal life begin to suffer. This seminar identifies 7 common signs of burnout and what you can do to catch yourself before you "burn out". Keeping Your Cool - Working Effectively With Difficult People This is Austin - and temperatures can certainly rise in the Texas sun. But tempers can heat up any time when you're faced with working for, alongside, or even managing a person with a "difficult" personality. If you're tired of "losing your cool" and want to learn a more effective way of dealing with "difficult" people, this seminar is for you. Work/Life Balance – Fact or Fiction? As professional women, we always seem to be juggling our careers and our personal lives. Deep inside, we might wonder: Is there any truth to the concept of “perfect” work/life balance? If work/life balance is achievable, why can’t I get it right? This seminar explores what’s true and what’s not true about work/life balance and discloses 3 truths that will help you redefine balance in your own life. Saying "No" Without Guilt Most of us know that over-committing can lead to feeling overwhelmed. Then why is it that we continue to say “yes” when we know we should be saying “no”? Often, the answer is GUILT – the voice that says “I really should do that”, “They’re counting on me”, or “I’ll miss out if I don’t”. This seminar explores not only the reasons behind why we give in and say “yes” when we should be saying “no”, but also how to say “no” without guilt. Make No Mistake - The Truth About Making Mistakes The reality is that no matter how hard we try to avoid them, we all make mistakes. The reasons go beyond "we're only human". It turns out that our eyes do play tricks on us and our memories do change over time. It's also true that men and women tend to make different kinds of mistakes. This seminar explores statistic evidence for the reasons behind our mistakes, how to recognize our own patterns in making errors, and strategies for avoiding or compensating for those tendencies. "What Was Her Name?" The world memory champion can memorize 170 names and faces in 15 minutes. Yet many people cannot recall a single name thirty seconds after hearing it. This career seminar addresses one of the most important and commonly used skills in business and will highlight strategies for remembering names, even in large group settings. Food and Mood - The Hidden Role of Favorite Foods How food affects your mood is not just in your head. Cravings often represent a biological need, such as using carbohydrates to compensate for low serotonin levels or using sugar and caffeine to do the "blood sugar boogie". This introductory-level session to food and mood will highlight what drives cravings for certain foods. It will also outline how stress affects nutrition, and what "smart foods" can do to help you feel better, sleep better and be more productive.