A Reintroduction to Your Friend In Leadership

Greetings, friends,

While I’ve been engaged in communications, facilitation, and leadership development work for nearly 30 years, the way I approach this work has evolved over time. I’ve got a team, now! With that in mind, It’s my pleasure to introduce / reintroduce myself, my team, and what we do. 

As the J.Marie of J.Marie & Associates, my passion is centered on helping people become more intentional and effective as leaders, collaborative teams, and communities. While this work is useful for everyone, my team and I focus on supporting public leaders, especially leaders who serve smaller local communities. You can read more about me on my bio page.

I am still doing this important work, now with a team of highly-qualified professionals. It gives me a great deal of joy to work with strong thought partners, all of us focused on service to our clients and the communities they serve. Together, we have over 300 years of experience, and many of us are national level experts in our fields. You can learn more about the rest of the team here.

Our team has a special focus on public schools, with experience in leadership, school boards and school board policy, parent engagement, strikes and union relationships, levies and bonds, and all aspects of school communication and leadership. We also have worked with fire districts, ports, libraries, and public utilities, especially in smaller communities, where organizations may not have this kind of expertise on staff.

We offer consulting as well as training services and can help you by walking you through the steps to resolve the issue in front of you and/or by training your staff to tackle the challenge directly. We pride ourselves on not just meeting clients’ immediate needs, but also helping to build leaders’ skills for the future. Our goal always is to leave you better equipped for the next time.

I am excited to be working with this talented team and will be sharing more about the J.Marie & Associates team and expanded offerings in the weeks to come, We’ll start these introductions with our newest colleague: Aidan Fox-Bailey will be handling communications for our team. A recent graduate of Western Washington University in Journalism and Public Relations. Aidan is knowledgeable in content management and brand growth; and will be overseeing the reinvigoration of our public presence. He is delighted to join the team, and looks forward to furthering our goal, assisting organizations in being the best they can.

As Jane Goodall says, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” 

Friends, who you are and what you do matters. It is our pleasure to help you do your very best work on behalf of the communities you serve.  

This blog will be a companion to the Your Friend in Leadership podcast.

In future episodes, we’ll talk about leadership strategies and communication skills, how to build trust, and deepen connections. Much of what we’ll cover is useful for everyone in their daily work and life. People often tell me the things they learn in my trainings not only apply to the workplace, but serve them well at home, and in faith, hobby, and athletic communities.

While what I offer is useful for all of us, my focus will remain on public leaders, folks who have chosen to step into positions of local leadership, such as public schools, libraries, fire districts, and utilities. Public leadership is hard. We are a people with broad ideas about what matters, and we each have our own limits and expectations. Reaching agreement on how to do things collectively is difficult and messy. I admire people who choose to step into that messiness and help move things forward. I want to support you to be even better at reaching across the full continuum of your community’s perspective and at deepening connections and building trust with the people you serve. 

Before I go … here’s a taste of what you can expect … a quick tidbit to whet your appetite:

One of the best ways to improve your communication is to shift your focus.

To communicate effectively, you need to be clear about who your audience is. Next time you speak to a gathering, take a moment beforehand to bring to mind one of your constituents and figure out why what matters to you — your personal vision, your team’s goals, your organization’s mission — matters to them. 

All communications that follow from that understanding will be more powerful. Your ability to get things done is in direct correlation to your understanding of your constituents’ and audience’s goals and values. The better you tie those together, the more powerful your ability to influence others will be. Jane Goodall once said, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

******

J.Marie is a seasoned communications strategist and leadership trainer who helps public leaders build trust, communicate with clarity, and strengthen community connection. Explore the full range of practical, real-world J.Marie & Associates trainings at jmarie.associates/trainings.