What GVG clients are saying

Our goal at GVG is to exceed client expectations.

 


 

Sample Clients Served

 

“Shannon is a fantastic coach, strategist and forward thinker. She brings an incredibly deep skill set to each situation and can pull from many tools, previous client work, and personal experience while helping teams/individuals navigate work.

Whether it is one-on-one coaching for leaders or facilitating company wide sessions, her thoughtful approach always hits the right note and help teams better absorb whatever is coming to them.

We found Shannon’s programming to be really useful for our organization as we looked to build resilience skillsets needed due to the pandemic. Her flexible approach to partnering allowed us to co-develop a program that was customized to meet our specific needs.

A trusted advisor, Shannon is my go to resource for coaching, training, and strategic thinking.”

Katie Goldberg
SVP, People and Culture
Lockton Companies

 

The Home Depot Logo

 

“I can’t say enough good things about Shannon’s recent engagement on 2 projects that I was involved in!!  The first project was focused on creating insights on personality traits of our high potential female associates and how to interpret these insights to guide how they engage with other associates to allow them to be more effective leaders.  This full day event was very well received by all that attended and allowed them to have take-aways that benefitted not only their professional engagements but provided some great tips on personal communication as well!

Due to the success of this conference I engaged Shannon in a ½ day strategy review with my smaller team of about 10 people.  She helped facilitate and guide a robust discussion and ultimately a strategy, vision, purpose for our diverse group.  This has been tremendously useful not only at the leadership level but information that is being cascaded to all of the teams so they better understand how their role impacts the Interconnected Merchandising group as well as THD. 

At both of these events we all were very pleased with Shannon’s energy, thoughtful questions and insights.  Very highly recommend!!!”

 

Jeanine M. Huebner, SVP of Interconnected Merchandising
The Home Depot

 

“Working with Shannon and Sherry was very rewarding.  It was a true co-creation where they brought their creativity and knowledge to the table and worked with me to shape it to meet my goals. The end result was a dynamic and engaging webinar which included live interview segments and Q&A.
 
In the end we took what can be a dry topic – compliance and ethics – and made it come alive for staff, tying compliance and ethics in the workplace to ethical behavior in staff’s personal lives.

 
The attendance was high, engagement during the webinar was high and the survey results demonstrated how much staff enjoyed the experience.”

 

Maura McGrath, MA, CHC
Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer
Integra Managed Care  

“Thank you so much for the amazing process you led us through over some of the most difficult times in the history of our Chamber, Community, and State thanks to the impact of Covid. Your corporate strategy and training background and experience gave us a fresh perspective and outlook as our team faced a new challenge and major disruption to our normal chamber world. You helped us plan our strategy pivots for Covid and grow individually and as a team. Your one-on-one sessions were most appreciated by each staff member, especially me. Even though we have a good team and feel good about our work, you led us through strategic planning conversations and team building exercises that we would never have done on our own. I am certain that our team is better prepared to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities in front of us. We will never forget a very positive experience during a difficult season.

 

Daniel Jackson, President /CEO
Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and Carroll Tomorrow

 

“As a recently acquired business with new leadership in place, we were seeking clarity around roles, strategies, and tactics moving into a new year. We also needed to re-establish our team culture and build trust within our newly formed Senior Leadership Team. We hired GVG to support our efforts for both the strategy and team alignment work.


From day one, Shannon’s unique and successful business experience translated into extremely effective strategy discussions and team resolutions. She proved to be both fully prepared and also an engaging and flexible facilitator. Although very customized, Shannon’s approach was incredibly thorough bringing in tools such as Birkman, compression planning and other best practices. Her passion for supporting her clients’ success was evident in her preparation and enthusiasm. Her professional and comfortable style promoted new ways of thinking, organizing and understanding our business needs for the entire Senior Leadership Team.


The BCC leadership team is incredibly thankful for the insights and value that Guided Ventures Group provided. Our experience added value to the business, and we would recommend Shannon and her team to any organization looking to improve their strategies and leadership practices.”

 

Ron Cryer, President
Brad Cole Construction Co., Inc.

 

I worked with Shannon on a project to redefine our company’s mission and values statements. Shannon is clearly well-versed in the subject matter, and developed a thorough plan to help get us there. Throughout the process, Shannon communicated regularly, while showing flexibility and sensitivity to the scheduling needs of a busy project team. Our two-day workshop was fun, invigorating and productive, and enabled us to achieve and exceed our goals.

 

Melissa Doreson, Marketing Manager
Professional Physical Therapy

 

“We engaged Shannon in a major strategic planning initiative of The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). We asked her to facilitate our annual Council Retreat and help us develop a new strategic plan at a time when the organization’s broad scope of work stretched beyond available resources. The retreat was very successful in getting the Council to make difficult decisions about how to focus on the organization’s top priorities despite the organization’s long history of adding initiatives without stopping anything.

We particularly appreciated that Shannon gained an excellent understanding of the organization in a short period of time, ensured that we were extremely well prepared for the retreat, and then effectively facilitated the discussion so that everyone was fully engaged. It was the first time we brought SGIM staff to the retreat with a ‘seat at the table.’

Shannon developed and facilitated activities to successfully increase understanding between the volunteer Council members and our paid staff.  Even though it was not part of the original agreement, dealing with the ‘people’ side along with strategic prioritization contributed a lot to how we will work moving forward. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Shannon and highly recommend her for future projects.”

 

Eric B. Bass, MD, MPH
CEO, Society of General Internal Medicine

“As the Founder of a Hong Kong-based branding consultancy and board member of an e-commerce business, I was looking for some clarification around my roles within these 2 commitments. I was burnt out trying to float 2 businesses simultaneously and wanted to see where I was going wrong. After some thought-provoking consultation with Shannon in her capacity as an Executive Coach, I engaged her to take me through the Birkman Report process.

The Birkman is one of the most thorough and detailed methodologies I have ever experienced to identify strengths, behaviors, motivations, and interests. Perhaps what made it especially powerful for me was discovering what behaviors others notice about me. This was a game changer as a leader and a businesswoman who has to wear many hats on any given day in interactions with colleagues and partners all over the world.

Shannon’s superior intellect and data-supported industry knowledge gives her a unique ability to break down the results of the Birkman and join the dots for you in a way which makes it easy to digest the rather encyclopedic results.

As an Executive Coach and Business Mentor, Shannon is unparalleled. Her calm professionalism and interest in development of unique potential is evident in the care and enthusiasm in which she engages with her clients.

I can’t thank Shannon enough for leading me to illuminating insights and ground-breaking realizations through the Birkman, which continue to add immense value to both my professional and personal relationships. I recommend her without hesitation.”

 

Michelle Comrie – Founder, Creative Director
Esthetic: Alchemy for Profitable Brands

 

“We reached out to Shannon when we had a need for a DDI certified facilitator to help teach our leadership class, Step into Leadership (SiL).  We were looking for someone with real leadership experience that could be shared with participants. 

As a facilitation partner, Shannon jumped in with both feet.  She not only learned the materials but incorporated relevant and real examples from our industry.  Even teaching afternoon sessions many of the days, her unique and energetic style kept participants highly engaged in learning their leadership fundamentals.  Student ratings of her performance were very strong, and she maintained the ethics and confidentiality needed for this type of work.  She added some of her own unique personal learnings to the course and created a positive environment for learning, collaboration, and cooperation.

Additionally, Shannon evaluated and recommended some updates in the SiL program which have been implemented.

Even though we were only able to use her for six months, I would highly recommend that we bring her back should we ever have the need again. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Shannon and recommend her to anyone considering leadership development work.”

 

Angie Gibson, Training Manager
North American Learning & Development 

 

 


 

“My career has had many interesting turns and twists as I follow my passions, discover new interests, and respond to changes in corporate strategy. In the beginning of 2018, I found myself in the midst of a significant role change. To help manage the change, I was seeking new ways to help me adjust and take my already high level of self-awareness even higher. Completing the Birkman assessment was just what the doctor ordered.

The online assessment itself is simple and interesting. The results report that Shannon provided was packed with juicy nuggets of wisdom and the level of detail went far beyond my enthusiastic expectations. The readout conversation with Shannon was extremely insightful and proved to be quite powerful. One of the things I had hoped to learn through this assessment was more insight about the internal conflict I occasionally feel. The assessment revealed the source of that conflict and provided ways for me to prevent that source of stress by helping me better understand what my needs are. After the assessment, I began to immediately apply the learnings. The application of wisdom had an instant positive impact on my life both personally and professionally.

My beloved husband also chose to take the assessment. The interests section results have helped him hone in on his career goals and have also permitted us to better support one another at home, at work, and in our role as parents. The depth of our conversations has changed and our already healthy relationship is even better given our new level of knowledge of one another.”

 

Katie Huie
Elavon, Inc.

 


 

“I had the pleasure of working with Shannon during her time at Elavon.  She was a key member of our Executive Leadership team for the North American business and through her extensive experience helped shape and drive our strategic direction.  She is a talented facilitator, who excels at bringing consensus to diverse executive teams.    Shannon helped me facilitate our last strategic leadership forum and throughout navigated our executive team through complex subject matter in a highly engaging way that enabled us to make key decisions needed to grow our business.  

Additionally, Shannon is s strong leader who can influence a room of opinionated executives to change direction as needed for the industry and use data to support her thesis.   Shannon was also a great mentor for many inside the organization.  We would often work on people strategies together including mentoring and coaching of other leaders.” 

 

Kim Schwendeman, Chief of Staff
Elavon Global Revenue

 


 

“I worked with Shannon when she was Head of North America Strategy for Elavon.  Our organization lives in an extremely competitive, highly regulated space.  Healthcare is one of our most important industries.  Shannon worked very closely with our team to bring structure and focus to the areas that would truly matter in our strategic plan.  She leveraged the knowledge and expertise of our team to help us think differently about how we go to market, which parts of the ecosystem made sense for us and how we would measure our success in the Healthcare industry.   

Shannon was a great partner to me as we crafted our story and investment requests for those at higher levels within the organization.
I highly recommend her for help with any strategy an organization needs to create.”

 

Jana Franks, Senior Vice President and General Manager
Healthcare Payments Division at Elavon

“After 20 years in the marketing agency environment, I began to look at my career differently. I could feel burn out setting in, and I started asking questions like, “What’s my purpose?”, “What do I want out of this job now?”, and “Do I want to keep doing this work?”.

I knew I needed help. I needed a coach. Someone to help me gain clarity, help me articulate and align with my long-term personal goals, and help me find greater satisfaction in my corporate job. Working with Shannon helped me to develop more as a leader in the workplace when there was little opportunity for upward mobility. She also helped me embrace personal, internal development so that I could replace old habits and patterns that no longer served me with new ones laser-focused on what I wanted the next phase of my life, personally and professionally, to look like.

Shannon zoomed in immediately on my fears, blocks, and barriers, both personal and professional. She firmly but gently guided me to dig deep into root causes so that I could explore them in a purposeful and safe way. I learned to spot triggers and manage through them so that I could stay centered and focused on my goals and what was important to me.

One of the highlights of working with Shannon was the Birkman Assessment. An eye-opening experience, the assessment helped me gain clarity around my usual strengths, but really drove home how unmet needs can create stressors for me. It completely changed my approach to my daily tasks, my leadership style, and my communication style. I’m far more intentional when communicating with my team, and I’m much happier at work.

I’ve leaned into what I’ve learned from Shannon, and I’m using the insights and knowledge gained to breathe life into a creative idea that’s been percolating for a few years. I have something to say, and thanks to my work with Shannon, I’m emboldened to say it and do it. The courage and confidence is empowering and life-changing.”

 

Jennifer McLucas, Principal
Jennifer McLucas Public Relations

 

 

“When I was appointed as the new Executive Director of our education foundation, it was important to me that we develop a strong vision and healthy goals for our board to work towards in the coming years. I was unsure how to go about setting us on the right path and Shannon was recommended to me. Not only did Shannon work with me to truly understand our organization’s history, mission, and the goals that we want to achieve, but she provided strong advice on how to develop a strategic plan that would be healthy and attainable.

Shannon helped us clarify what was important for our organization as we worked toward growing, while also providing a lasting impact on our community. With Shannon’s guidance, we have made significant gains in the areas of fundraising and program development in a short time. I highly recommend Shannon to any organization that wishes to move their business in the right direction.”

 

Laurie Fleck, Director, Marketing/Community Engagement
Executive Director, CCS Education Foundation
Carrollton City Schools

 

 

“Shannon designed and facilitated a resilience workshop for a small group of executives going through a re-organization downsizing. She was impeccably prepared, comprehensive in the models and approaches she used, an excellent facilitator, and a thoughtful and thorough 1:1 coach in the process.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Shannon to organizations going through major changes.”

 

Fergal Kearns, Change Management Executive
Crossing Point

 

“We had a wonderful series of meetings with Shannon Gill to help us clarify the best strategies to create our new boutique management agency for spiritual speakers/authors/musicians. Shan’s experience, skill, and knowledge helped us fine-tune our focus and determine what would serve our future clients best. It also helped us clarify what felt right for us when it comes to generating a win win win for everyone we will serve.  Even though we were unfamiliar with some of the processes she lead us through, they were easy to employ, clear, simple and EXTREMELY beneficial.  We intend to continue working with Shan on developing our business and highly recommend her. In fact, we’ve already recommended her to one of our contacts and are excited for how much she’ll be blessing them as well!”

 

John and Kathy Stringer
Founders, Healing Arts Management