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Featured Affiliate - Jeff McCollum
By: Sarah Stockslager
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Affiliate Jeff McCollum having dinner
with his wife, Jennifer. |
As a student
who attended college between the Eisenhower era and the “radical
sixties,” Jeff was an avid observer of human and organizational behavior
which led him to his career in organizational development. Beginning his
professional career in line management, Jeff quickly moved up to a
managerial position. That transition is something to which he credits
his success in consulting; it has helped him to have both subordinate
and superior perspectives while consulting. Jeff functions in this intermediate space
every day. He works with an assessment center that is hired by large
organizations to come in and identify outstanding salespeople who could
potentially be excellent managers. Jeff said,
“What happens when you promote your best salesperson to manager is that
you lose your best salesperson and you gain your worst manager. We
prepare people for that transition and understand that it is important.” He said it is
fun work because those who are being promoted are at a point in their
careers when they are still excited and willing to learn. From his
occupation he has seen many large organizations that “stifle ingenuity,
creativity, and engagement.” What Jeff is finding more frequently than
10-15 years ago is that large bureaucratic organizations are working to
make a change to the principles presented in Peter Block’s Flawless
Consulting, and the Empowered Manager. Companies realize that they need
to make a change and that the time to do it is now.
Now, more than ever, the Designed Learning principles are readily
applicable and desired in organizations. Jeff has recognized a deep
cynicism in some participants because of what they have experienced in
the workplace prior. People are ready to make the change, but because
some have been “burned a time or two” there is an underlying reluctance
at the beginning of the program. However, at the end of Jeff’s
facilitations, the most surprising response that he receives on the
feedback forms is in the response to the question, “Where do you think
you’ll apply Flawless Consulting and what you have learned?” Many of the
responses are, “Asking for what I want.” Jeff believes that it has
become a common misunderstanding among employees that it is not okay to
ask for what they want, that the organization is supposed to be the
almighty parent. What Flawless Consulting does is give a voice to those
who do not believe that they have one, or haven’t had one in their
workplaces.
Another reason why Jeff advocates Flawless Consulting is due to the fact
that it is an empirical model rather than a theoretical model. The model
came out of everyday practices and was developed from experiences rather
than a theory which predicts what should happen. This is one of the
qualities that Jeff brings to his workshops as well. Jeff uses humor
about things that arise in the workplace to help people relax and feel
comfortable to share similar stories.
In addition to humor, he follows Carl Rogers’ acronym, GUVA. It stands
for genuine, understanding, valuing and accepting. Once those four
factors are in place he believes that it is then time for learning to
commence. His main goal is to bless people with information rather than
to impress. Jeff sincerely believes that when the student is ready the
teacher will arrive, and that we must take learning to heart or it will
not work. His passion for learning throughout his life has been a
driving force behind all that he does.
In the business of consulting it is easy to slip into the role of taking
care of a client. By taking care of a client, the caregiver is not
allowing room for that person to make necessary mistakes that are
crucial to his/her development. The process of caring for someone ought
to allow a person to remain autonomous while learning through everyday
blunders and provide support by way of a network of people.
Jeff plays golf with his wife and enjoys reading. He has made an oath to
himself to read one book a week, and has been successful most of the
time along the way. He reads books that help him keep up to speed in the
field of organizational development by authors like Steven Covey, Bob
Quinn, and Carl Rogers. On the lighter side, he reads books by Carl
Hiaasen for the pure escape of diving into a story. These are the things
Jeff does to provide care for himself.
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