{"id":936,"date":"2011-04-21T18:04:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/community\/?p=936"},"modified":"2011-04-21T18:04:04","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:04:04","slug":"consulting-scrappy-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/04\/21\/consulting-scrappy-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting, Scrappy Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

In one of her many speaking engagements, Kimberly Wiefling \u201984 holds a rubber chicken at shoulder height, releases it, and lets it drop to the floor. \u201cWhat caused the chicken to drop?\u201d she asks the audience. Some say gravity. Others say, \u201cYou released it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Wiefling, the rubber chicken illustrates an important point about leadership. The audience members who said gravity was responsible for the chicken\u2019s plummet to the ground represent those who blame circumstances, rather than their own actions, for what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what a leader does,\u201d said Wiefling. \u201cA leader focuses on their contribution to the problem and what they can do to change the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiefling gives her audience little rubber chickens as a reminder of this lesson. They love them in Japan, where Wiefling spends about 50 percent of her time, consulting to Japanese companies on leadership, communication, and project management.<\/p>\n

Her company, Wiefling Consulting, was formed in 2001 after Wiefling spent 10 years at Hewlett Packard followed by a few turns at several startup companies. Wiefling admits that she began her business \u201chalf-heartedly, with one eye on a real job.\u201d In spite of the initial rough spots and growing pains, Wiefling would eventually realize that she had found her calling in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I had a client where I could do something extraordinary or I could help them make a real difference, I knew that it was right for me,\u201d she said. Partnering with Japanese companies over the last five years provided further validation.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapanese businesses, as a whole, are embracing the work that I\u2019m doing so enthusiastically,\u201d Wiefling explained. \u201cThey are so embracing of my enthusiasm, my passion, my commitment, and appreciative of my knowledge and the broad wisdom that I bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiefling\u2019s collaborations with Japanese companies developed out of \u201cpure luck.\u201d She was teaching in the project management and corporate programs at the University of California\u2013Santa Cruz when a group of Japanese business leaders came to the school\u2019s English Language Institute. Little did she know that sitting in the back of her leadership workshop was Yuko Shibata, an executive at ALC Education, Inc., in Tokyo, Japan.<\/p>\n

Shibata invited Wiefling and three other colleagues to travel to Japan to present a similar program in Tokyo. The workshop was so well received that it eventually evolved into a full-fledged program on global leadership and management. Wiefling and a team of seven other people now travel to Japan on a regular basis to teach these seminars.<\/p>\n

\u201cKimberly is personally inspiring as well as professionally extraordinary,\u201d said Shibata. \u201cThe impact she has had on our clients\u2014global Japanese businesses with employees from dozens of different countries\u2014has been profound. She is truly an agent of transformational change in organizations, including our own, ALC Education, Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it is an American or Japanese audience or a group of business executives from around the world, Wiefling\u2019s mission remains the same. \u201cWe help people learn how to do what seems impossible but is merely difficult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also counsels people on how to overcome the fear of failure. \u201cFailure is not fatal,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to be a great innovator or leader if you think like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cScrappy\u201d Kimberly\u2019s words of wisdom <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wiefling\u2019s commitment to helping others achieve their fullest potential led to her book, Scrappy Women in Business: Living Proof that Bending the Rules Isn\u2019t Breaking the Law<\/em>. It is a collaborative work between Wiefling and 11 of her \u201cscrappy gal-pals\u201d who share their stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to write a book that tells other women it\u2019s OK if your life and your career are not unfolding in perfect clockwork fashion. If your life is lurching fitfully this way and that and you\u2019ve had kind of a bumpy ride, that is normal. Please don\u2019t feel inferior in any way, because all of us have, too,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Published in August 2010, Scrappy Women in Business<\/em> joins the series of six Scrappy<\/em> guides produced by Wiefling. Other titles include: Scrappy Project Management<\/em>, Scrappy Information Security<\/em>, Scrappy Business Contingency Planning<\/em>, Scrappy General Management<\/em>, and Scrappy Project Management in Japanese<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Scrappy Women in Business <\/em>was also Wiefling\u2019s own personal statement against the glass ceiling many women encounter. \u201cI\u2019m a little tired of seeing the disparity in how women are contributing in our business world,\u201d she confided. \u201cI think people need to understand that we cannot afford to keep half of our population from contributing fully to solving the business problems that we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiefling said she has not encountered any gender bias during her work in Japan. Rather, she has experienced an environment of openness and respect that reminds her of her days at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never suffered any gender bias when I was at Wright State, which didn\u2019t prepare me at all for the realities I would face in graduate school and the real corporate world,\u201d said Wiefling, who graduated with a dual degree in physics and chemistry. She also has a master\u2019s degree in physics from Case Western University.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a woman over 50, I\u2019m through pretending it doesn\u2019t matter to me that women are still not contributing and participating fully in the business world,\u201d she added. \u201cI am determined to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top 3 “Scrappy Tips” from Kimberly Wiefling<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In her books and workshops, Kimberly Wiefling provides \u201cscrappy\u201d tips that apply to anyone at any stage of life.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Tip #1\u2014What you think is impossible is probably only difficult.<\/strong>
\n\u201cYou should never limit your options just because something temporarily seems impossible,\u201d said Wiefling.<\/p>\n

Tip #2\u2014Don\u2019t kill other people\u2019s ideas just because you don\u2019t know how to achieve something. <\/strong>
\n\u201cEach of us, as smart as we are, only knows less than one percent of everything in the entire universe,\u201d Wiefling explained. \u201cSomething in the 99 percent that we don\u2019t know could make someone else\u2019s idea possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tip #3\u2014Everything in life does not have to be neat and clean and tidy. <\/strong>
\n\u201cYou can do what you need to do\u2014it can be messy, lurching fitfully in the direction of your goals. It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect,\u201d she cautioned. \u201cYou make mistakes. You fall down and stand back up. You keep going. Being perfect is not the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of her many speaking engagements, Kimberly Wiefling \u201984 holds a rubber chicken at shoulder height, releases it, and lets it drop to the floor. \u201cWhat caused the chicken to drop?\u201d she asks the audience. Some say gravity. Others … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4827,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}