Women In Technology

When No One Is Looking
Speakers:	Robert L and Carolyn N Turknett CEO & President Turknett Leadership Group www.turknett.com
Date:	Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Time:	7:30am - 9:00am
Location:	Maggiano's Buckhead 3368 Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, GA Map

Character is about who you are when no one is looking. Character is not directly observable, but an individual's behavior actually defines character to the rest of the world.

When leaders build character, they foster company cultures that encourage decency and growth in everyone. Companies with character are just like people with character: They get results, and they do it with integrity - responsibly and respectfully.

Bob and Lyn are experts in leadership and organizational development and will discuss the impetus for their recent book, Decent People, Decent Company: How to Lead with Character at Work and in Life. After over 20 years of research and individual work with executives, the Turknetts have identified the essential qualities of true leadership and incorporated them into the Leadership Character
Model ™.

Using personal stories from those who have grappled with and triumphed over workplace character issues, Bob and Lyn will discuss how building leadership character will help to create an organization in which all participants are aware of their contributions and are willing to challenge the ethics of any action. They will show how that fosters a culture in which employees take responsibility for and ownership of success, members treat each other with decency and respect, and everyone enthusiastically invests their energies.

Practical and easy to understand, the Leadership Character Model™ may be just the framework you need to:

We wrote Decent People, Decent Company because we want to help people grow. We believe that developing the character necessary for leadership can be the most rewarding and profound thing you've ever done. It allows you to accomplish more, to genuinely like your job more, to commit more fully to whatever you're doing—whether that's running a Fortune 500 company, organizing a PTA fundraiser, or managing a major project at work—and to simply enjoy life more. It allows you to lead in a way that lends integrity and character to everything you do, and to create organizations where everyone takes responsibility for the financial and ethical success of the company.

American culture is largely shaped by business, and business leaders have a huge impact on the culture at large. Influencing leaders to exercise leadership from a foundation of character is our ultimate goal. From our research and experience, we created the Leadership Character Model as the foundation of our work. We have applied this model with executives and team members for almost 20 years.

The character necessary for leadership is depicted as a scale with respect and responsibility balanced on a base of integrity. When people build relationships based on respect, have a strong sense of personal responsibility, and live with unwavering integrity, they build their own character and foster organizational cultures that encourage decency and growth in everyone. Both the individual and the company come out winners— and so does society as a whole.

Bob and Lyn Turknett are two of the leading executive leadership coaches and organizational development experts in the country, and co-authors of Decent People, Decent Company: How to Lead with Character at Work and in Life (Davies-Black, Feb. 2005).

Married for thirty-five years and business partners for twenty-five, they co-founded Turknett Leadership Group in 1987, an Atlanta-based consulting firm that concentrates on leadership development at all levels of organizations. Their joint passion is creating cohesive management teams that can build commitment, adapt to rapid change, and lead organizations to success. They have worked with such clients as American Cancer Society, BellSouth, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, and Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Lyn earned a BS in mathematics and an MA in sociology, with special emphasis in organizational sociology, from the University of Georgia. Her specialty is organizational assessment and change, executive team development, and ethical leadership in rapidly changing environments. She is an active member of several professional associations, including the Sociological Practice Association, the American Society for Training and Development, the OD Network, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the Organizational Change Alliance.

Bob earned his undergraduate degree in business and his doctorate in psychology from the University of Georgia in 1971. He is a licensed psychologist specializing in executive team development and individual development and coaching, and has served as an executive coach to hundreds of senior leaders in large and small businesses in a variety of industries. He is a member of a number of professional and civic associations, including the American Psychological Association, the Georgia Psychological Association, the American Management Association, and Atlanta Rotary.

The Turknetts are experienced public speakers and are often sought by the business media for their insights on leadership character development. They have been featured in such publications as Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution, HR Magazine, and American Way magazine.