Author: Jeff
Team player exudes talent and “can do” attitude
Team player exudes talent, builds trust and makes cool courses!
One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is sharing to the world what great people we have as part of the Better Learning Systems/LearnKey family. What is even better is when newbies join the team and spread their positive energy making an immediate impact and generating positive results.
That could not be more evident than when Marian Eckley joined our Salt Lake City production team last October. From the day she started it’s been a “breath of fresh air” for the entire team. For someone who is new to a team and to build trust with the existing team members so fast is amazing. In the beginning it was not easy the transition happened fast and the team was required to not miss a beat as we were beginning full production of our Adobe CS6 rollout. What did Marian do? Not only did she “dig” in and learn what we were doing, but she also drove higher expectations and confidence to a group that welcomed it.
Here’s what her manager Liz McEuen had to say during Marians nomination:
“I have had the opportunity to work side-by-side with Marian for the last several months and she naturally embodies our core values of trust, ease and value. Anyone who works with Marian knows they can trust her to finish a project on time and with a production value. When you are working in video production problems and questions may come up but not to worry. She will solve the problem with ease and a clear understanding of what needs to happen to achieve the result we are looking for”.
We are so proud of Marian’s success as she has made several changes to our editing process and these changes have lead to a better product in a shorter amount of time making her extremely valuable to the company.
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Have a question about LearnKey training or support? I bet KJ has the answer!
At Better Learning Systems, while supporting hundreds of thousands of users, we get a lot of questions about training: how to use our learning systems, technical support, how to deliver our courses to third world countries with no internet… the list goes on and on. It really makes you appreciate those employees who spend the time to have the product knowledge and experience to answer those questions. One person who prides himself in helping people is Kevin Jacobsen our February employee of the month. It’s the one thing we can get right each and every time we interact with our customers when they ask for our help. Kevin truly takes pride in being professional, knowledgeable, respectful and courteous at all times.
Kevin’s leadership team had this to say about his nomination and selection:
“Over the past two months Kevin has demonstrated our core values in several ways. Providing great value by putting in additional hours, supporting customers’ inquires over the phones, in addition to assisting employees with technical needs internally. He is considered a Trusted resource as he will always follow through with what he is given. He has transitioned into a new role and made it easy for all parties who interact with him regarding technical support.
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There is no “I” in LearnKey or Team!
As we move into February, it’s time again for me to celebrate another employee accomplishment. This has to do with one of our Salt Lake City team members who has demonstrated not only the importance of being a team player, but one who does it on a consistent basis. Since LearnKey is dependent on everyone working together as a team, it means there is no “I” in LearnKey or team! It gives me great pleasure to welcome Rob McNeil as a Better Learning Systems/LearnKey employee of the month. You see Rob is someone who comes to work everyday, on time with the mentality of “do what needs to get done” and how refreshing it is for us to have such a steady employee. His peers VALUE his contributions as he has clearly earned their TRUST and his work effort makes it EASY for everyone.
His manager had this to say during his nomination:
“When you are working in the trenches you want someone who you can trust to get the job done. Rob McNeil is that person! Rob not only get his work done but he embodies the core value of ease. He is happy to take on a project and will see it through to completion. I value the skill set Rob brings to both the table and the trenches! He is a major asset to our studio and I am so thrilled that he is on my team.”
It has not always been easy in our Salt Lake City office. In order to get better at producing courses we had to bring on new team members, and never once did Rob question our decisions to do so. What he did do was welcome these new team members with open arms and a “can do” attitude. We are so fortunate to have Rob on our team.
Happy New Year means more great Employees of the Month!
Preparing for the start of the new year at LearnKey meant all kinds of exciting things we planned to kick off, such as just releasing a new course on how to learn online, MasterExams for IC³, A+ and Network+ courses, and our Salt Lake City and Cedar City teams are busy working on Adobe and more sales training. So what could be better? How about welcoming a new employee of the month: Michael Barker!
Michael is part of our design team and is working from our St. George office. I guess you could say he’s one of our mobile workers, being that the rest of his team resides in another city. Here’s what one of our managers in Cedar City had to say about Michael:
“I’ve had the great opportunity to work one-on-one with Michael in the past several weeks and feel he embodies our core values in so many ways: Ease—anyone who has worked with Michael on a project knows that it is easy to do. He removes ego from the equation and focuses on delivering the best overall product. Though known as the Ninja (due to his quiet demeanor) he communicates concerns or questions very easily. Value—everything Michael does he does with the best value in mind, and I don’t think he even realizes it. Trust—Michael is trusted (did you see the LK certification emblem?) to do excellent work and trusts that we are the best at what we do.”
When you hear such awesome things about a team member it just reinforces the importance of teamwork and accountability. We are so fortunate to have Michael on our team and really want to wish him thanks for all he does.
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“A” Players- They work at it all the time!
At Better Learning Systems we recently announced the formation of an “A” Team within our LearnKey company who will lead strategic sales in our K-12 vertical. While we are very excited about the group during one of our conversations with a LearnKey team member Justin Walker ( a new member all of 8 months) explaining the realignment details we asked him if he had any questions. He answered “Yes” How can I be a member of the “A” team? The best part of all was when Lori and I heard that response- we both looked at each other and said that is EXACTLY what we expected to hear from Justin. That’s because “A” players work at it all the time and Justin is quickly becoming an “A Player”. He is willing and able to do whatever it takes to be a good team player for the right cause and working his “tail off” (small inside joke).
It is with great pride we announce that Justin Walker is our most recent November/December employee of the month. Over the past eight months Justin has worked extremely hard to learn the elearning industry, the “ins and outs” of selling to the education market, and most importantly do whatever it takes to be a great team player. He has demonstrated our core values making it Easy for people to work with him because he is a good listener. Second, he is quickly learning the importance of understanding what Value he can bring to not only his external customers but internal team members as well. Third, understanding the importance of patience while he builds his pipeline knowing that it takes time to build Trust, which is the trigger to successful partnerships.
Here are some fun facts about Justin so all of you can get to know him a little better:
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Lead by Example- LearnKey employee of the month’s recipe
Writing is an important part of our business. It can be objectives for an upcoming course, a workbook or projects used in the classroom environment, or even a MasterExam thats going to help a student/learner get college or career ready, all very important parts of the learning experience. At LearnKey we are fortunate to have Brittni Traynor who, as a lead agent for our Technical Writing team, makes sure all our writing activities get done on time.
Even better, is that her leadership team voted Brittni our October employee of the month for hard work and never ending commitment to lead by example. That’s right, she jumps in to help her team on a daily basis. Here is what her manager Brad Washburn had to say about her :
“As a team lead, she is very good at helping her team stay focused and motivated. She has forged a strong bond between the members of her team and turned them into a family”.
We are fortunate to have Brittni who truly does demonstrate our core values around Ease, Value and Trust. She makes it easy for her team members to work with her, shows them her support and how much she Values their work each and every day, in addition to building a level of trust that motivates them to work together and operating at a high performing capacity.
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Great People – Team Player stands out in Cedar City
There are a variety of different definitions around being a team player, but the one that stands out to me recently is the one demonstrated last month by Carole Heaton in our LearnKey video production office in Cedar City, UT. It is what made her our employee of the month for September 2012. Our team has just completed the roll out of: A+ 2012, IC³ GS4 and our Career Readiness bundle of courses (14 in total). At the last minute, we identified several ways to enhance the learning experience for A+ 2012 which meant we needed people to work overtime. When we needed help the most to meet our deadlines, it was Carole Heaton who stepped up big time.
Everyone in our Cedar office had been working overtime hours, everyone was tired. These projects needed to be delivered on time and Carole was willing to go the extra mile and work practically around the clock to help us meet our deadlines. Here is what her manager had to say when he nominated her for employee of the month:
“It seems like I can come into the office at just about any time, day or night, and find Carole either at her desk or online on my IM. She has put in more hours over the last month than any other member of her team. She is always willing to do whatever is asked of her as soon as it is asked, which has provided that level of Ease in getting fixes and files done on a tight deadline. I can always Trust that her files will look good and the fixes she is asked to do will be done correctly. She is always a positive force in the office, despite doing the lion’s share of work, and she can always be counted on to have a ready smile and a laugh available.”
Everyday in some way shape or form we communicate about our core values – Ease, Value and Trust. Carole clearly demonstrated all three of them by making it easier for us to meet our deadlines, valuing the importance of these courses and what it meant to get them out on time, and trusting the broader team that these improvements did merit being implemented for the benefit of our customers/learners. I thank you Carole for all your efforts.
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Big Picture & Team Player – Sounds like Sarah!
When you merge companies you spend a lot of time educating employees and existing customers on the benefits and big picture as to why these companies have decided to come together. Its great to see when customers and employees really “get” the value and do see the big picture. In our company, there has been no better demonstration of that than from Sarah Blik, our August Employee of the month and Sales Champion for Predix. We call her the ultimate team player, or as her leader put it, “She will play on anyone’s team to help them with their goal our objective.”
Demonstrating our core values around ease, value and trust is something Sarah does everyday. Value comes from understanding the big picture and being able to demonstrate that to our customers – she does that with Ease and has earned the Trust of every BLS employee she comes in touch with. Patience and process is something you will always get from Sarah, and she demonstrated some serious patience when she and Lori Coruccini were staying in Nashville with the Gaylord explosion earlier this year. That experience enabled her to remove sleeping in the Grand Ole Opry for one night off her life “bucket list” too!
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When employees find better solutions- You know you have a winner!
LearnKey’s Colby Carter is someone who takes pride in his work and is always looking to make this better. That is why he is our July employee of the month! In addition to carrying a large workload the past few months, Colby made sure his internal and external customers were taken care of with each and every call. For those of you who don’t know Colby, he’s our technical support expert and member of the LearnKey client services team. His amazing patience and professionalism during this period did not go unnoticed. Demonstrating our BLS Core values loud and clear. Everyone in LearnKey, Trusts him because he does what he says he is going to do. Making it Easy for anyone who needs his assistance.
In addition to maintaining his cool while we were short staffed in technical support, he took it upon himself to explore a better way to deliver LearnKey content through flash drives, creating more Value in our distribution options. Here’s what his manager Kim Johnson had to say:
“Colby did not wait to be asked, he just did – coordinating calls with internal stakeholders and our IT support vendor. He was prepared, did his due diligence and paved the way for helping LearnKey continue to be a leader providing our learning content in many different ways. Because of his efforts there are potential clients in third world countries now asking for our content in that delivery method.”
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Can do, will do – watch me do it!
Once again one of our super star employees demonstrates a “can do attitude” by willing to take on additional duties without even thinking twice. Our leadership team has seen it and I witnessed it too. That’s because Chip Ehlers, LearnKey’s Employee of the Month for June, is all about being a team player. When we needed him to take over all of our shipping and trade show coordination activities, “No problem.” Then we asked him to take on additional duties supporting accounting and order entry, once again “Can do”. That is the sign of a true team player and someone who demonstrates our core values. Here’s what his manager Chad Stocks had to say about Chip….
“Chip has taken on a lot of extra duties over the last several months with a “can-do” attitude. He never complains or shows any kind of bad attitude. Chip demonstrates our core values of Ease, Value and Trust in everything he does. Chip makes work-life easier for those around him from Wendi and myself to supporting the sales team in entering orders and supporting trade shows. We all benefit from the value he brings from his experience and the previously mentioned willingness to take on extra duties without complaint. And finally, everyone knows that they can trust Chip to get the job done. We can rely on him to be here when he says he will be here and to do what he says he will do.”