My Story

On the first day of my first full time job as a Public Health Sanitarian in Durango CO, I unexpectedly found my passion for a new career. I learned the importance of understanding relationship dynamics the hard way!

As I was walking across a frozen grass field, hearing crunches beneath my feet, I’m thinking, “I am so well prepared for this job. I have my MA in Biology. I’ve been through the Army School of Preventive Medicine. This feels good!”

I was pretty full of myself and my knowledge about science. My job was to design an individual sewage system for a rancher. During the soil percolation test, I told the rancher about the soil, bacteria and disease, and all the sewage system options.

After about an hour of going on and on, I said to the rancher, “Do you have any comments, you haven’t said anything?” He angrily retorted, “You are the most arrogant person I have ever seen, get off my property! I never want to see you again!”  

My heart dropped to my stomach with these words cascading through my mind.  My thoughts were, “Why didn’t somebody tell me I would have to be good with people?”  After my encounter with that angry rancher, I read every book I could find, listened to audios on customer service, attended workshops and learned a lot about people.  

I was so encouraged that others noticed my enthusiasm and it was easy to find businesses that wanted personal skills training. My ambition to learn about persuasion, influence, leadership, customer relations, emotional intelligence and other business building topics was insatiable. I devoured audio, written, video and in-person training and coaching materials with great gusto. Still do.

What is Fascinating about Teaching People Skills?

The way managers and employees communicate and deal with people dramatically affects morale, teamwork, productivity, and employee retention.  Frequent workplace interpersonal communication breakdowns can cause employees to become disengaged.  It takes so little to turn things around.

Often organizations do a good job in training their managers and employees in necessary job duties, but completely overlook interpersonal skills training.  Most managers or supervisors want to improve interpersonal communication with those they manage, but have no idea how to do this.  They don’t know where to start, what to do or how to make communication truly effective.   

Influence is the central key in great careers. I get a lot of pleasure from learning and sharing nuggets with others and see them gain lifetime habits that make a difference.  I developed the People Smart Workshop ‘How to Improve Your Personal Influence’ specifically to help managers improve their influence with those they supervise by sharpening their personal skills.

Qualifications & Experience

Jim is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals achieve and attain success in their work environment by understanding relationship dynamics.

He has a passion for helping people lead a more productive and fulfilling life. He has over 30 years’ experience assisting businesses and municipalities create high performance work teams by providing training, coaching, and technology focused on helping people work well with other people.

Experience

• Selection and Onboarding of New Staff and Internal Promotions
• Conflict Management and Resolution
• Sales Training
• Internal and External Customer Relations
• Harassment & Diversity Training
• Senior Executive Coaching
• Business Development Consulting
• Reverse Logic – Creativity & Innovation

More About Me

We all live by principles we believe in.  JIM’S GEMS are pithy to-the-point aphorisms that I have distilled to a few powerful words.  Applying them brings benefit to you and others.

Volunteer Work

In 2014, I started volunteering at the Christian Women’s Job Corp. I teach my course titled, ‘How to Improve Your Personal Influence, 9 Crucial Skills’. Women who are not in the mainstream of life because of poor computer, dress, attitude, accounting and interpersonal skills get a chance to advance their skills by attending an 8-week daily course. These ladies come in with little self-confidence and leave with a spring in their step. Many go on to find great jobs and careers.

My Interests

I am a Certified Health Coach with the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute.  After nearly dying at the age of 12 from a Hepatitis A infection, I have always been passionate about healthy living—nutrition, exercise, anti-aging studies (advocate of combining alternative & conventional medicine), paleo cooking and organic gardening. 

I wanted to get more out of my garden experience, so I decided to try something new, a wood chip garden. It has 6 inches of wood chips which help me to water less and pull fewer weeds. (Thank you, Paul Gautschi for making your Back to Eden film which features wood chips.

It is somewhat like working on a business problem, try something new if what you are doing doesn’t have good results.  Working in the garden gives me exercise in additional to my Zumba and body pump classes at the local gym. Of course, the fresh veggies compliment my Paleo/Mediterranean eating style.

Books & Publications

9 Points of Influence
for City Managers

The influence you have within your organization and with the public is most important for your success.