COACHING

As a COACH, Brenda helps you become ‘the BEST you can BE’ and shines a light on your spirit/emotions, mind, body, values, integrity of strengths/weaknesses. She enjoys supporting groups and individuals to excel at their own personal goals and achieve their life purpose.  Brenda’s coaching style builds on your strengths/weaknesses, and empowers you to make choices and take action towards your passion. She helps YOU create and take the next steps that result in living your authentic life.  Brenda uses a variety of tools like the Medicine Wheel and Four Directions to live life at the centre path of liberation. " There is no better, no worse, no right, no wrong. Everything just IS. " - White Lilly.  Tools from CTI help co-active work with "The Wheel of Life and Captain and Crew Chart" looks at level of satisfaction with career, family & friends, significant others, fun & recreation, health, money, personal growth and physical environment.  

Coaching  remove blocks, saboteurs, old beliefs and habits that are not serving you well today. Brenda helps you create a new path to be able to facilitate your own personal growth and realize improved performance and fulfilled dreams.

Brenda has served as a  consultant with municipal, provincial and federal governments, national and provincial organizations plus a variety of organizations - both profit or non-profit.  With over 40 years of experience and proven skills, knowledge  - Brenda is able to consistently bring energy and a positive attitude to all projects using the following core competency areas:

• developing effective GOVERNANCE including PRINCIPLES, PLANS and POLICIES
• advancing VOLUNTARISM and FUND DEVELOPMENT
• enhancing PERFORMANCE Management  and ACCOUNTABILITY
• inspiring CHANGE and facilitating LEADERSHIP personally and within organization
• Service Excellence author for ARPA for RECREATION, ARTS, CULTURE, PARKS, SPORTS, FITNESS
   

The greatest impact comes when the individual or organization is ready, willing and able to move forward and gets prepared to challenge and update their own habits, systems and way of operating in the above competencies areas. It is key to address all areas in a coordinated and integrated renewal effort.  Single initiatives or interventions may not build a significant and sustainable result and commitment to new and better ways of doing business.

Board’s behaviours can often fail to add significant value to the organization they steward.  Even though the transition from ‘hands on’ management to ‘policy governance’ may be complete, principles, vision, policy and community accountability roles can be unclear or non-existent.  Boards know that they need to be more strategic and visionary – the two key skill sets that are difficult to do and are required for effective leadership in today’s complex operating environments.

CLARKE Enterprises can help the Board members:

• identify and respond to the trends that are shaping governance
• better understand and implement the concepts behind the shift to policy governance
• determine what type of Board structure and practice is most appropriate for their situation – there is no universally applicable model
• develop the policies, guidelines and practices required to implement the chosen model
• understand and manage challenges associated with the transition process (to the new model)
• evaluate executive and overall organizational performance (outcome/results based)
• evaluate and address Board performance yearly.

Voluntarism is the backbone and essential piece to sustainability of a community and efforts must be supported with plans, strong policies/procedures and managed proactively with care for all volunteers. As well, many charities and organizations are being left behind as more powerful fund development and advancement teams like universities drive towards new plateaus of excellence.

Fundamental concepts that created this success are now basic and commonplace: integrated, relationship based, constituency analysis (LIA), seamless development and communications, data mining and prospect research, stewardship.  To excel, an established team must invent breakthrough practices and further differentiate their unique value proposition to ‘catch up’ and get into the game.

CLARKE Enterprises can help organizations with volunteers and with increasing desired outcomes if they:

• strengthen focus on visionary outcomes and build related, magnetic Purpose Statements
• realistically assess their current situation and identify capacity building priorities
• identify fund development strategies capable of multiplying net return
• nurture a ‘culture of strong work ethic and philanthropy’ throughout the organization
• build systems that both demand and support excellence.
• incorporate grantsmanship strategies and grant proposals
• use outcome based performance management systems
• ensure HR review and system development

Results are key and organizations need to be ‘outcome driven’:  clients, funders and donors want to know that your organization is successful and makes a difference before commitment.  Unfortunately, some teams facing this new scrutiny have a ways to go provide the required evidence.  No organizations are exempt as stakeholders push for:

• increased accountability – to ensure that their agencies are responsive and responsible to the customer or stakeholder communities that are being served and/or are paying the bills
• a focus on outcomes – to ensure that programs, services and other investments are oriented towards the ends or results that are most important … not obsessed with traditional means or activities that may not be doing the job at all
• enhanced efficiency and effectiveness – to ensure that scarce resources are invested in the most important areas and used as productively as possible.

CLARKE Enterprises can help:

• define the visionary and intermediate outcomes desired and drive this down into the organization, making outcomes meaningful to each staff and volunteer team
• build and connect core business activities to these outcomes and identify the indicators that will be used to measure contribution – for the entire organization, for each unit or department, and for each corporate strategic priority
• develop performance measurement tools and procedures that are cost effective and easily implemented within budget and cultural framework
• identify ‘evidence based’ best practices and install a Kaizen philosophy of constant improvement
• build a ‘results philosophy’ into organizational culture as a way of doing business with policies, job descriptions, management evaluation, marketing, reporting in place.

The personal and organizational change leadership model used supports the achievement of vision and one’s greater potential within or with the organization; results will courage one to ‘barrier bust’ and remove constraints to change, and want to develop more ability to see and build on possibilities and new options that create a preferred future in the present.

Transition components will support the change challenge with proven ingredients that nurture individual growth and successful organizational habits and processes that work; the success factors are:

• COACHING and MENTORING your action plan and/or organization through turbulent times.
• TRENDSCANS – based on years of trend watching, there is readily available information that can help you see future possibilities, options and threats clearly  
• VISIONING to create your own life plan or to involve key stakeholders in a creative process of defining a preferred future for the organization and invented by those who have to implement it
• LEADERSHIP TRAINING - helping your management team appreciate the subtleties, challenges involved in supporting self or teams through significant transitions; will  provide perspectives, skills and tools required to help with change
• DESIGNING A CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS that will mobilize yourself or the organization and those who are ready and respect those that need more time

Recreation, Parks, SPORTS, FITNESS, arts AND CULTURE and Performing arts

Brenda has developed her skills and interest in sprecreation, sports and fitness over her lifetime along with music , acting and theater. She has a long standing commitment to recreation, sports, fitness, arts, culture, parks and the service excellence of same having facilitated the  the "BENEFITS CATALOGUE" twice and ARPA’SERVICE EXCELLENT PROGRAM’. Brenda worked with her partner to facilitate governance with many municipal councils and parks and recreation department plans all across Canada for almost 25 years.

Brenda has  significant experience with managing major leisure centers and consulting with large organizations the Canadian Paraplegic Association, Rick Hansen Foundation, Calgary Olympic Development Association, ARPA,  Canadian Parks/Recreation Association, Parks Foundation Calgary, many local boards and governments. A few examples of a leadership role with interventions designed to significantly shift the way business was done in the leisure industries are:

• personally involved in last 2 editions of the Benefits Catalogue as primary researcher and author including facilitating the move to this third online version on Benefits Hub hosted by ARPA
• provided the consulting support for management of the Advisory Team and the development of a Service Excellence Program for the recreation and parks field – defining 10 core organizational competencies, 550 practice guidelines with 5 or quality indicators for each guideline
• 2014 No. 1, International Leisure Review journal has published Brenda’s paper on “Community recreation and parks: striving for service excellence”