Rene Denise Thompson
Dunmor, Kentucky 42339
****.********.*************@*****.***
https://www.linkedin.com/in/renedthompson
Summary
Dynamic trainer, creative instructional designer and respected coach. Popular and accomplished public speaker. Rene has trained diverse populations of adult learners for over 15 years. She is known for her patience and persistence in guiding individuals and groups from front-line employees to the executive suite through critical thinking, Socratic discussion, and learning. Participants complete her seminars with the confidence and conviction to apply concepts at work. Certified in interpreting the Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator (Basic) and (Facets) assessment instruments. Rene is a Certified Coach (CPP) with the Certified Coaches Alliance. She is comfortable with conversational Spanish. Rene has a Top Secret Clearance through 2017.
Careers Discovered, www.careersdiscovered.com
Dallas, Texas (work virtually)
06/2014/ to present
Career Coach, Principal
Accomplishments and Related Skills:
Designed 12-week curriculum and deliver group seminars and individual coaching sessions. Provided an innovative way for clients to discover who they are and what they are bringing to a potential employer. Use latest technology and resources to uncover client skills and locate opportunities.
Seminars delivered in workshop settings, individual face-to-face coaching, as well as virtual coaching. Help clients select a career path that allows employers to see them as a person who can perform valuable services; services that the clients find satisfying and enjoyable. Once clients have personal awareness and direction provided, they no longer struggle to find those ideal duties, that ideal job, that ideal profession.
Client Results and Feedback:
“My coach did more in 2 hours to improve my resume presentation than I could have done alone in a week.” (Client subsequently obtained Director-level position with newly established office for the Veteran’s Administration in DC area.)
“Six months ago, I would probably have turned down the chance to interview for this job. So, I really appreciate all your encouragement during this process.” (Client hired January 2016 by the American Medical Association in a senior communications position in D.C.)
“My coach was efficient, passionate, intuitive, focused and deeply committed to the outcome. The best gift she imparted to me was to instill greater confidence.” (Foreign Service Institute employee)
U.S. Department of State
George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center
Career Transition Center
Washington, DC 20522-4201
03/2012 – 03/2014
Senior Counselor/ Education Specialist- full-time 2-year contract appointment, Top Secret Clearance 2012
Accomplishments and Related Skills:
Performed coaching services for the Career Transition Center’s Job Search Program. Provided counseling directly to employees in their personal assessment of existing and potential job skills. Earned consistently high evaluations for counseling Senior Executive Foreign Service and Civil Service employees. Counseling services extended to members of service employees' immediate families to aid in their transitions as well.
Developed new course materials and revised the design and evaluation approach to existing programs for the Job Search Program. Collaborated with peer counselors in team-teaching to create and employ effective professional educational techniques.
Worked with diverse populations of learners; researched how Foreign Service officers are selected, how they are promoted, and how they are managed and rewarded to understand the reference set and values these participants bring to the classroom. Observed Civil Service employees in the classroom, as well, to understand their motivations and values in a learning environment. Doing so created understanding and trust that promoted acceptance of learning concepts leading to participants’ positive behavior change.
Designed and delivered interactive programs using experiential learning exercises, case studies, and digitally recorded behavioral feedback. Created and delivered training covering goal setting, networking, resume writing, and interviewing skills. Designed and presented programs covering use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for improving leadership skills, interpersonal skills with colleagues and subordinates, and increasing self-awareness. Certified as an MBTI practitioner.
Managed all administrative aspects of the Retirement Planning Seminars for Civil/Foreign Service employees, including selection of vendors and speakers. Created Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to improve workflow.
Program typically graduates approximately 2500 attendees per year. Considered so successful that other Federal agencies such as the Peace Corps sent employees-earning the Transition Center/Foreign Service Institute thousands per fiscal year in new revenue.
Recruited for and managed 3 Job Fairs annually. Developed linkages in greater DC area with public, private, non-profit and NGO organizations. Fairs were populated with over 50 employers and were so successfully targeted to applicant and employer needs that many job-seekers were offered jobs on the spot.
Developed electronic surveys to evaluate programs. Produced reports from feedback of surveys forming basis to make decisions regarding continuing use of vendor services. Implemented actionable information from attendee survey responses to produce seminar improvements.
Employee participant feedback:
“Excellent facilitation skills – no evident ego, thus able to deal well with FSOs.”
“Great one on one. Great patience with diverse group. Willing to meet individual needs. Consummate professional. Warm. Caring and concerned about all we needed.”
“Rene is very dedicated and we developed a nice group attachment, so this was a fun session. I appreciated that Rene gave us an opportunity to talk about our Foreign Service experiences. We all have so many stories to tell and it was good to share.”
“Excellent coach-catching what I was doing during role play- rapidly and efficiently. Focused, direct and supportive.”
imtc-InterACT
North Las Vegas, NV
05/1995 - 02/2011
Training Consultant
Created and delivered internal training department programs over a period of more than 10 years for over 40 organizations. Consulted with internal training and HR departments to establish defined learning objectives for training programs considered critical to organizational success. Using the ADDIE Model, consulted with executive leadership, middle management, subject matter experts, front-line workers, and external customers to create behavior-based training that aligned with strategic initiatives.
Trained leadership of North Dakota’s largest lender over a period of 2 years. Designed and delivered workshops training how to effectively support the vision and mission of the organization. Trainees of first-line supervisors through executive levels learned how to motivate and drive employee performance through this major culture change.
As a directive of executive management for the 3rd largest mid-size bank in the country- taught principles of adult education and how to train adults to all levels of management over a period of 10 years. Creating manager coaches was essential to fulfilling CEO’s vision of building a “learning organization” from the ground up and through the ranks of the institution.
Key Areas/Training/Instructional Design Expertise
Leadership Skills Programs:
Transformational Leadership
Situational Leadership
Communicating to Influence
Presentation Skills-Inspiring Performance
Collaborative Leadership-Communicating with your Team
Achieving Organizational Goals- Motivating Employees to Perform
Coaching and Counseling
Generational Differences in the Workplace
Resolving Conflict
Management Skills
Management Fundamentals
Managing by Objective
Front-line Supervisory Skills
Training Managers to Train
Team-Building
Job-related skills
New Employee Orientation
Sales Skills
Customer Service Skills
Product Knowledge
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), manuals and job aids
Personal career development
Industries
Federal Government
Financial Services
Universities
Hospitality
Telecommunications
Retail
Medical Clinics
Insurance
Manufacturing
Client Organizations’ Evaluation of Training Outcomes:
"Results were easily measured within the first couple of months. Staff immediately became more enthusiastic about their jobs. There was less employee turnover, less membership cancellation, and positive feedback from members."
“The programs you developed have helped our company greatly. We put in place our WOW Service Culture and our Service Improvement Teams, our standards and our measurements are a part of our daily life.”
“ Your Presentation Skills for Project Managers was the "best of series", reporting a perfect performance score of "5 out of 5" in all response areas for content, instructor, and learning environment.”
Education
University Of San Francisco San Francisco, CA
Master's Degree 06/1997 Major: Human Resources and Organizational Development
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA
Bachelor's Degree, Major: Music Education, Concentration in Voice
Certifications/Training
Leadership Training: U.S, Dept. of State, Foreign Service Institute, Arlington, VA, Coaching: Foreign Service Institute, Arlington, VA
Certified Coach: Certified Coaches Alliance, International Coaching Federation, Canada
MBTI Qualified, Linda Behrens Institute, Huntington Beach, CA
Needs Analysis, Instructional Design, Platform Skills: University of California, UC Berkeley Extension Program
DiSC Instructor Training Certification, Romano & Sanfilippo, San Diego, CA
"Cool Tools for Training" U.S. Department of State, Arlington, VA
Thiagi Workshop: "Designing Training Faster, Better and Cheaper Using Games and Activities that Engage Participants
Presentation Skills Workshop: Mandel Communications, San Francisco, CA, Presentation Skills Workshop: Decker Communications, San Francisco, CA
Currently learning e-learning software: Captivate
Public Speaking
“Make It Happen Service!” Leadership Conference: Gate City Bank, Fargo, North Dakota, 100 attendees
"Lights, Camera, Action! Creative Training Techniques for Trainers"; California Trainers' Roundtable, Costa Mesa, California, 40 attendees
“Mixing Up the Generational Pot” 29th Annual Women in Business Seminar, Kankakee Illinois Regional Chamber
Commerce, 500 attendees
Professional Associations
ATD (formerly ASTD), San Francisco Chapter; V.P. of Program Development, member; Las Vegas Washington D.C. chapters