Sandra Ford Walston

Sandra Ford Walston, The Courage Expert and innovator of StuckThinking™, is an international speaker and author, human potential consultant, corporate trainer and certified coach. Sandra’s expertise allows her to focus on the tricks and traps of the human condition through recognizing and interpreting courage behaviors and courageous leadership styles.

Featured on the speaker circuit as witty, provocative, concrete and insightful, she has sparked positive change in the lives of thousands of leaders each year. Sandra also provides skills-based programs for some of the most respected public and private blue-chip businesses and organizations in the world, such as IBM, Caterpillar, Inc., Institute of Internal Auditors, Hensel Phelps, Wide Open West, Agrium, Inc., Virginia Commonwealth University, Xanterra Parks & Resorts®, Procter and Gamble, Hitachi Consulting, US Bank, Healthcare Association of New York State, Institute of Management Accountants, and Delta Kappa Gamma International Society.

The internationally published author of bestseller COURAGE The Heart and Spirit of Every Woman and an honored author selected for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Sandra facilitates individuals and groups to discover the power and inspiration of their everyday courage.

The COURAGE Difference at Work: A Unique Success Guide for Women (formerly STUCK), Sandra’s follow-up book to COURAGE, is directed at any woman, regardless of title or credentials, who wishes to grow professionally by introducing courage actions at work. Her third book, FACE IT! 12 Courageous Actions that Bring Success at Work and Beyond confirms that what holds you back on the job is the same as what hinders achievement—the reluctance to face and live a courageous life. Sandra is published in magazines such as Chief Learning Officer, Training & Development, HR Matters, Malaysia, and Strategic Finance.

Sandra is a certified Newfield Network coach and certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® along with the Enneagram. She also instructs at the University of Denver.

Partial List of Highlighted Achievements (letters of recommendation available upon request):

* Denver Health and Hospitals - Designed and delivered over a year intellectual capital programs on self-directed teams and adult self-directed learners to enhance collaboration and support cross-functional teams to provide the best care possible. This project yielded accelerated synergistic production and increased team effectiveness.

* Qwest - Designed and delivered a series of intellectual capital programs for migrating teams with cross-functional representation across the country. The requested I apply the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® as a baseline to flow in and out of team assignments. The teams applied self-awareness to collaborate which diminished breakdowns and misunderstandings, retained/increased quality standards and revenue projections.

* Wide Open West - Designed and delivered a series of Enneagram leadership programs that merged the national leadership team members' courage leadership behavior patterns. Assessed and defined the courageous intentions to achieve revenue projections. Integrating courageous leadership and the Enneagram, team effectiveness increased and yielded greater efficiency.

* All Care - Designed and delivered intellectual capital to bridge the communication and time management preferences between clinical and non-clinical departments to achieve increased revenue, improve retention and morale. Coached the President/CEO to improve morale and applied the five linguistic speech acts as a cross-department communication tool.

* Nolte Engineering Associates - Designed and delivered an Enneagram program for principals and spouses that highlighted the diverse worldviews and increased principal awareness.

* IBM - Presented intellectual courage research called "Courage Leadership: Making It Work for You!" to the top executive women at their annual conference. This presentation yielded an understanding of the feminine behaviors of courage that could be applied immediately.

* Career Service Authority (City and County of Denver) - Designed and delivered a series of training programs including designing and presenting four programs (out of thirteen) to the managers' training series. This generated increased team effectiveness and unity.

* US Bank - Custom designed and delivered a program called "Human Dimensions: Maximizing Individual Talents in the Workplace Applying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®." This united the team and opened lenses to understand the human condition as it related to the internal and external customer.

Areas of expertise include:

Courage Leadership and StuckThinking™ Facilitator * Executive Coaching * Team and Organizational Effectiveness * Assessing Organizations' Level of Courage Consciousness * Building an Organization Spirited in Courage Leadership * Implementing the "Language of Courage" * Adult Self-Directed Learning *