Valerie MacLeod, M.B.A.
Valerie MacLeod is a business consultant who helps organizations improve financial and operational results through the application of strategic thinking. She is a skilled and insightful facilitator and coach with extensive expertise in the area of organizational effectiveness. She is passionate about helping clients to “plan their work and work their plan” by guiding them through an outcomes-based process. Her skilled and dynamic coaching impacts business results by uncovering purpose, sharpening focus on “the big picture” and then providing clients with the tools they need to achieve success on their own.
“My goal is to help people find their own answers,” says Valerie. “My strength lies in asking the right questions.”
Valerie is called in when unsatisfactory results are achieved; when uncertainty exists about the direction to take and the steps to get there; when groups are struggling with contentious issues and misaligned expectations; or when a leader or team wants to hone their leadership and strategic abilities. Valerie specializes in group facilitation, executive coaching and team dynamics. The tools she marshals for her clients include: strategic planning and implementation; change management; team-building; motivation; strategy alignment; performance management; and visioning. She works with boards, CEOs, executives, managers and teams to clarify and achieve vision, values and strategies. She has coached management; developed workshops and created communication strategies to minimize the impact of major changes; assisted management to identify issues and develop solutions to achieve, and sustain, peak performance; and guided teams through the process of defining and achieving roles, goals, procedures and relationship-building.
Insightful and positive, Valerie tailors interventions to the unique needs of each organization. She prides herself on her strategic skills and ability to masterfully guide clients through the planning and change process. A natural teacher who believes in the power of optimism, Valerie has been assisting adults learn for more than two decades. She is certified in strategic planning, strategic thinking, managing change, Myers-Brigg Type Indicator and career planning. Valerie has facilitated at the prestigious Banff Centre for Management, the University of Calgary, the University of San Diego and Red Deer College; in San Diego, Cincinnati, Houston and New Orleans in the United States; in South Africa; for energy companies including BP, EnCana and Devon; for municipal, provincial and federal governments; and for associations and boards.
Valerie is proud to be a Global Partner with the Haines Centre for Strategic Management, an international team of diverse Master Consultants. Valerie is the North American Practice Leader for Strategic Planning, Global Practice Leader for Coaching, and Chair of the Executive Team. The Centre’s mandate is to assist senior executives to develop and sustain customer-focused, high-performance organizations which can successfully grow in learning and compete in today’s business environment.
Valerie was recognized by the Association for Strategic Planning (ASP) as a Strategic Management Professional Pioneer – a group of 24 planning professionals who created the ASP Standards, Certification Process and examination. Valerie also uses her leadership skills to make the community a better place through volunteering on various boards.
Valerie has an M.B.A. in human resources from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo. She published the life planning book “Get Me Off the Treadmill!: Using Everyday Magic to Live an Extraordinary Life” and co-authored the business planning book “Destination Thinking”. Valerie is working on her third book, “When in Rome…Getting Different People on the Same Page” about how to be successful working in a new team, organization or country or leading a new team.