Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanie Connell.
Joanie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I never imagined I would be a psychologist. In fact, I never even took a psychology class in college. I rather majored in engineering. Even though I had an interest in people at the time, I prepared myself for what I thought would be a lucrative and fulfilling career. I was right about the first part, but not the second.
After growing up in Massachusetts and graduating from Harvard, I moved to Silicon Valley to be an electrical engineer, which I did for eight years. It didn’t take long, however, for me to figure out I was more excited about people problems than electrical ones. As an engineer, I moved from design to marketing to consulting in the hopes of working more on people problems, but it was hard to escape the label of “engineer.”
People kept wanting me to be technical. Finally, I decided I had to go back to school to refocus my career.
I studied psychology at the University of California Berkeley with the goal of learning how to help technical people communicate better with each other. In the Social and Personality Psychology program I focused on Industrial-Organizational Psychology. I studied group dynamics for my Master’s degree and the differences in how people interact differently in different communication media (like face-to-face, phone, internet) for my Doctorate dissertation.
I started my company, Flexible Work Solutions, in 2005. There was a major focus at the time on bringing flexibility to the workplace, especially with the ability to telecommute. Over time, “flexible work” has come to mean a lot more than just telecommuting. The more foundational work of leadership assessment and development is the bulk of the work at Flexible Work Solutions, but we also do consulting, training, and coaching on virtual teams and, more recently, on cross-generational collaboration.
In my work consulting with leaders, a key issue has kept coming up: how are the Millennials are impacting the workplace? On the one hand, many are saddled with debt, out of work, and struggling. They need help building resilience and other life skills. On the other hand, the ones who are successful are challenging the way Baby Boomers and Gen Xers do business. In any case, one thing has become clear: all three generations need help working together.
In 2015, I published the book Flying without a Helicopter: How to Prepare Young People for Work and Life to help Millennials develop the life skills necessary to handle the harsh reality of the workplace. Since then, I’ve expanded my work to speaking to and coaching parents and teens on how to acquire life skills. I use the REAL Life model. People need to be Resilient, Empowered, Authentic, and Limber to succeed in work and life.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have run into many challenges along the way, ranging from changing careers to balancing work and life to building the right teams to developing my skills to be able to run a business.
Please tell us about Flexible Work Solutions.
Flexible Work Solutions, Inc. is a consulting firm that specializes in leadership assessment, development, and retention for all levels–executives, professionals, early career, and youth. Organizations hire us to conduct assessments to further understand people’s skills, interests, and work styles to make hiring and promotion decisions about them. They hire us to develop their leaders by providing targeted coaching and resources to improve their professional and leadership capability. And they hire us to develop flexible work strategies to meet individual needs and increase employee loyalty.
What sets us apart from other companies is that we provide the highest quality services with experienced, highly qualified experts in the fields of organizational psychology and business. We also offer unique and creative approaches to assessing, developing, and retaining employees.
Personally, what sets me apart is, in addition to delivering high-quality work, I relate well to technical people, such as engineers, I understand what makes people tick, and I have a great depth of understanding of generational issues.
I’ve worked as an organizational consultant for over 20 years. I’ve worked with some of the top companies in the world, like Apple, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Starbucks, and Wells Fargo, as well as the United States Navy SEALs. I consult in a variety of areas under the rubric of talent management—leadership development, managing across generations, flexible work arrangements, work-life balance, women leaders, and team building.
I’ve also worked as a professor, teaching business and psychology students of all ages at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego, the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, and in the Masters in Human Behavior program at National University.
Lastly, I write and speak in a variety of venues. I began publishing blog posts and articles in 2015 and went on to give keynote speeches and advise organizations on generational issues. I’ve published in Entrepreneur Magazine, The CEO Magazine, People Development Magazine, and SmartBlog on Business, and been quoted in US News & World Report, Business Insider, and Business News Daily, to name a few. I speak regularly at conferences, industry meetings, corporate events, schools, and non-profits and have a radio and internet presence.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I think often about what I would have done differently in life. I like to say I would have gone with my true passion in college, instead of doing what I thought was practical, but I don’t know if that would have given me a better result.
It’s easy to second-guess decisions in hindsight, but the problem with that is not fully comprehending the context in which the decisions were made.
I think the one thing I would have done differently is talking to more people, including my parents, about what I wanted to do and the constraints I felt I had at the time. I would have looked for more guidance instead of figuring it out on my own.
That lesson holds true throughout my career. When I have reached out to others to get help, I have been much more successful than when I have thought I could do it all on my own.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flexibleworksolutions.com/
- Phone: 619-807-8165
- Email: jconnell@flexibleworksolutions.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LessonsfromtheWorkplace
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnellLessons
- Other: www.flyingwithout.com
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