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How do you describe what you do?

I would say my primary identity is as a business psychologist. I am one of only two that I know of in the whole state of Iowa. So I find in Iowa there is probably more explanation needed than in Minneapolis or Chicago, where there are whole firms of business consultants who also happen to be psychologists. One of the places where it’s most clear to people is in assessment. People understand that psychologists know a lot about assessment, and businesses understand that using assessments can help to hire and retain good people and good teams.

Tell me about your work with Jensen Consulting.

The first thing is consulting for family-owned businesses. Iowa is really built on family-owned businesses, and family-owned businesses are incredibly hard work. You take all the complexities of running a profitable business, and all the complexities of being a member of a family, and interact with both of those all day, every day. You can help family-owned businesses not only be profitable, but to have nice Thanksgiving dinners together – to have business relationships that don’t take away from the family relationships.

Do you already have a clientele of family-owned businesses?

I have been working with family-owned businesses for probably five or six years, ever since I started my own business consulting practice. Because there is not really a pool of business psychologists in Iowa, Jensen had been bringing in business psychologists from other parts of the country. So part of the synergy is that I’m always interested in increasing my client base, and they have lots of family-owned businesses, leaders and teams that they work with.

Are there other components of your work with Jensen?

Another component is running an assessment center, and selection hiring (of CEOs) is one of things I’m doing at the assessment center. If a company wants to hire a new CEO, it wants to make sure it’s hiring the right person. … Also, as leaders transition into more and more responsibility and strategy work, there’s a real need to increase their emotional intelligence and self-awareness. … A lot of the leadership development that I do is holding up a mirror to leaders that help them to learn more about themselves and their style and to be self-correcting because leaders don’t often get productive feedback.

Do you foresee doing many seminars on leadership development?

We are hosting a family business forum on April 29 in Des Moines. It will focus on the hard conversations that family-owned businesses need to have. And I imagine there will be other seminars; you don’t come out of teaching at the graduate level and not enjoy seminars.

How does your Chief Executive Network role complement your other tasks?

They all flow together very easily. The Chief Executive Network I find really exciting. That only happens four times a year; I facilitate groups of usually 12 CEOs behind closed doors having very forthright conversations with each other about their biggest business dilemmas. … I find that what I learn at CEN and the connections I make are a benefit to the clients that I work with through Jensen in Iowa.

What about your role with Move the Mountain?

It has really contributed to the range of experiences I’ve had; I’ve consulted with people all over the country, with large federally funded agencies, doing a lot of the same thing I’m doing with Jensen: strategic planning, leadership development and coaching, facilitating organizational change.

What do you enjoy doing outside of your profession?

I’m the mother of two girls, ages 7 and 9. I’m a closet athlete; I did RAGBRAI last year, and I did a triathlon that was a kayak-bike-run. And I love to Rollerblade. I love to travel. I am an early adopter of every fun gadget in the world. I had a Kindle about three months after they came out. I owned a first-generation iPod. I’ve been using Skype for years to read bedtime stories to my kids when I’m on the road.