SCANNER FREEMONT / Data Analyst
Freemont is responsible for the digital conversion of survey responses while adhering to strict quality standards set forth by its managers. Freemont began its career at TruScore in 1996 as a Data Analyst and quickly became pivotal to TruScore's success. As the years passed, Freemont has slowly matured into part-time Data Analyst while also holding many positions in the work environment including On The Floor, On The Empty Desk, and Hold The Door (AKA Hodor).
RON SACCHI / Master Coach
A former Operations Manager in the High Tech Industry, Ron Sacchi brings decades of leadership and management experience to the organizational development and the executive coaching arena. An energetic thought-leader with a track record of success in all areas of Human Capital development, he has consulted and coached managers in start-ups, joint-ventures, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media. Because of his business acumen and creative approaches to behavioral change, he is respected in the HR community specifically for the ability to direct, motivate, influence and inspire leaders to improve performance.
Holding an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, Mr. Sacchi is also licensed in various management, leadership and psychological profiling tools.
CARLANN FERGUSSON / Master Coach
Carlann inspires leaders to reconnect to their individual purpose and lead with contagious energy. She ensures leaders gain deep self-awareness and eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors. Her guidance is based on coaching, training and selecting hundreds of executives across diverse companies as well as her own journey into the executive ranks.
Carlann is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Insightful Leader: Find Your Superpowers, Crush Limiting Beliefs and Abolish Self-Sabotaging Behaviors (Praeger, June 2018). She holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her thirty years of experience include leadership roles in Fortune 500s, the private sector, and the U.S. Government. Carlann has been a featured guest on ABC News Radio, Wharton Business Radio and has been cited in CBS MoneyWatch, International Business Times, Newsday and Workday.
DR CHUCH MELTZER / Master Coach
Dr. Chuck Meltzer is a Master Coach and President of the SynTECGroup, an organizational development consulting firm. As an executive coach, he draws on his training at a doctoral level in psychology, direct senior management experience and management consulting with a wide cross section of industries. He has developed an extensive series of strategies to assist leaders in creating organizational wide and personal change. Dr. Meltzer has a decade of direct senior management experience and 20 years’ experience functioning within his consulting and coaching practice. His coaching approach is solution focused and time framed. Based on determined goals, a personally customized approach to the process has enabled his clients to realize sustainable change in a manner that allows them to enhance their effectiveness and success as leaders within their organization.
Dr. Meltzer is certified and a master trainer in several coaching assessment tools that he employs within his practice.
ERIN HIRSCHLAND / Master Coach
Erin is an organization development expert with nearly two decades experience serving organizations of all sizes across industries on a broad range of issues. Working with leadership teams, she helps articulate an actionable vision and corresponding values, connecting these to organizational strategy, execution and results. Her tools of choice include senior team retreats, one-on-one executive coaching and proven survey and related instruments.
Erin’s additional expertise includes designing employee selection systems, developing performance management tools that increase performance across the organization over time and employee and customer experience metrics. An effective facilitator and coach, Erin works with leaders and their teams to build trust, commitment and results.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
SONYA D HAMILTON / Senior Assessment Consultant
Sonya is a Senior Assessment Consultant at TruScore with over 24 years of experience designing and delivering 360 feedback solutions and providing 360-based coaching, training and interpretation.
Sonya has extensive experience working with Managers and Leaders, guiding them through the feedback and development journey and providing insights and direction to help maximize their impact within the organization. Sonya’s areas of expertise include 360-based coaching, 360 data analysis and interpretation, Train-the-Trainer certifications, facilitation, survey & questionnaire design, and the design and delivery of assessment programs.
Sonya has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial & Organization Psychology from Springfield College with a specialty in Counseling and Psychological Services. She is a Master Trainer for TruScore and the Clark Wilson Task Cycle surveys receiving a Certificate of Achievement in “How to Train a Trainer”. In addition, Sonya is certified to administer a variety of other psychometric instruments including employee engagement and organizational instruments as well as the line of Hogan Personality Assessments.
KAYLEY MOTZ / Assessment Advisor
Kayley draws on her extensive customer service background to provide clients with prompt, quality support. In her role as Assessment Advisor, Kayley works to ensure clients’ needs are being met. She assists in project set up and management, as well as processing and quality checking feedback reports. Kayley also aids in the execution of the day-to-day responsibilities of the production team, such as coaching session scheduling and tech support.
CRYSTAL HUGHES / Assessment Advisor
Crystal leverages her extensive background in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology as she manages the day-to-day operational and tactical aspects of multiple and large scale projects for TruScore.
Crystal assists clients with setting up and managing feedback projects, and serves as the point of contact throughout the entire process. She quality checks feedback reports, and provides tech support when needed.
ELLIE SOLOMON / Assessment Advisor
Ellie manages project implementation for the entire 360 assessment feedback process and ensures that each client’s unique needs are met on time and in an efficient manner. Ellie consults with clients who use TruScore’s off-the-shelf Task Cycle® instruments as well as providing hosting solutions for clients using their own survey content, including custom processes and reports. She helps clients navigate through the TruScore® survey hosting software, having literally written the handbook that several clients are using.
She coordinates and implements all translation efforts, including soliciting bids, managing timelines, providing files to the translation companies, implementing translations for the web pages, and testing.
ULLA WESTERMANN / Software Engineer
Ulla uses her years of experience as a software engineer to maintain and add new features to TruScore's applications. She also helps with customizing feedback reports based on client needs.
HANK CURTIS / Business Development Manager
Hank manages and assists in the analyzing, planning, research, and development of TruScore’s objectives and strategic plans in order to achieve business opportunities, growth, and financial profitability.
Hank drives the expansion of TruScore’s direct sales, establishes relationships with TruScore’s clients, identifies clients, and keeps up-to-date on industry trends and client developments.
TAYLOR BRANTON / Bookkeeper
Taylor is responsible for managing payroll and employee fringe benefits programs, in addition to organizing company gatherings and outings. Taylor oversees day to day accounting needs as it relates to client invoicing, accounts payable, and general compliance requirements. She also has a hand in month, quarter, and year end reports and works closely with the CEO and CTO to furnish details necessary to make accurate business projections and decisions.
KURT BLAZEK / Design Director
Kurt uses a unique blend of strategic thinking with dynamic executions to create TruScore’s visual and interactive design. He is responsible for creating, evolving, and sustaining the company’s brand to internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums. He oversees all of TruScore’s digital strategies, along with the implementation of social media tools and techniques.
Kurt leverages TruScore’s marketing and messaging information to identify, evaluate, and apply methods to maximize the effectiveness of the search campaigns across all of the major search engines. He tracks and measures the ROI of search engine rankings, direct print, and marketing websites.
JOSH SHEETS / Chief Operations Officer
Josh is responsible for all day-to-day aspects of managing the operations and various functional areas including business development, sales and marketing, client delivery, vendor relations, human resources, and IT.
Josh helps to ensure outstanding customer service, and the administration of long-term and day-to-day business processes that complement the delivery of high quality, innovative customer-focused survey tools, assessments and hosted survey offerings.
TOM KUHNE / Managing Partner and CTO
Tom joined TruScore in 1995 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, IS Manager, and VP & CIO. In his current role as Managing Partner and CTO, Tom is the driving force behind TruScore's technology vision for the present and the future. He manages all aspects of TruScore’s information systems, ensuring all systems meet the highest functionality and security standards.
Tom enjoys working hand in hand with clients and partners to make sure TruScore® delivers the technology and advancement that has become expected of it as a leader in the online assessment marketplace.
DEREK MURPHY / Chief Executive Officer
Derek joined TruScore in 1996 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, Operations Manager, and President & COO. In his current role as CEO, he is responsible for planning and implementing the strategic direction of the company. In addition, Derek is involved in product development and overseeing the day-to-day business operations for TruScore.
TruScore founder Dr. Daniel Booth, a pioneer in the field of assessment of leadership and management skills, served as a mentor to Derek for more than a decade. During this time, Derek became certified on TruScore’s full line of management and leadership assessments. He currently uses these skills to lead content debriefings with customers and partners on a regular basis.
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In many organizations, coaching has become the go-to tool for executive development. For many executives, an executive coach has become a status symbol or a benefit that they are entitled to. Forbes reports that spending among corporate titans, such as GE, Goldman Sachs, and Google, totals $1billion per year in the U.S. alone.[i]
Is this investment in coaching being made wisely? Most companies spend considerable energy ensuring this investment is being made with the right people. But are we making these investments at the right time? In far too many cases, precious resources are wasted on talent that doesn't currently have an appetite for development.
In many organizations, coaching has become the go-to tool for executive development. For many executives, an executive coach has become a status symbol or a benefit that they are entitled to. Forbes reports that spending among corporate titans, such as GE, Goldman Sachs, and Google, totals $1billion per year in the U.S. alone.[i]
Is this investment in coaching being made wisely? Most companies spend considerable energy ensuring this investment is being made with the right people. But are we making these investments at the right time? In far too many cases, precious resources are wasted on talent that doesn’t currently have an appetite for development.
Several years ago, I participated in an important coaching initiative for a large, global enterprise. They gathered ten top leadership coaches to work with their top twenty executives (each coach working with two executives). At the end of the initiative, the coaches met to reflect on the outcomes and learning. This was a group of masterful leadership experts, so I was blown away as I listened to them discuss a surprisingly high number of tepid or failed coaching engagements (I too had one). Many of the leaders we worked with only engaged in the process superficially and continued to lead the way they always had, having apparently gained nothing from their company’s massive investment in their development. In a moment of clarity, I could see that our results had little to do with the skill or actions of the coaches and almost everything to do with the coachee’s situation and his hunger (or lack thereof) for improvement. The window for learning wasn’t open.
Organizations have slipped into the cycle approach to development – conducting training consistently at regular intervals (for example, quarterly management classes, annual management meetings, annual development plans). But people don’t learn because the calendar says it is time to; they learn when they need to. The richest learning occurs when facing a daunting challenge and the only way to be successful is to scramble quickly up a steep learning curve.
The Research on Rookies
My research team and I studied over 400 workplace scenarios comparing how inexperienced versus experienced professionals approach a particular type of work. The results of this research showed that being a rookie – facing a new problem or a challenge for the first time – can provoke top performance. In the realm of knowledge work, rookies tend to outperform those with experience, especially when it comes to innovation and speed. And, interestingly, the highest performing “rookies” that we studied weren’t new graduates; they were senior executives who had been moved into a new, unfamiliar domain.
Certainly, those new to a task bring an increased openness to the work and are more likely to venture into unexplored terrain than get stuck in yesterday’s best practices. But more importantly, a desperation-based learning kicks in, causing them to seek guidance and feedback and work smart. In this mode, they aren’t actually risk takers; rather, they operate cautiously, taking small but quick steps, in an attempt to prove themselves and stay on track. This way of working – humble, curious, open – is what I call “rookie smarts.”
Rookie assignments not only catalyze top performance, bringing out people’s best work, but they also create open learning windows. In my ongoing coaching with executives and consulting with other executive coaches, I’ve noticed only a few scenarios where the learning window is likely to be open. People are most ready to learn when they are:
In each scenario, individuals are working without a script; they’ve encountered an unprecedented situation. Their expectations have been violated, and their existing assumptions and frameworks have failed. They are humble, hungry, and hopeful. They are in a rookie moment: desperate to succeed and open to learning.
Invest in Humble and Hopeful Phases
Intense learning and contribution can occur when people are in rookie mode – when employees and leaders are humble and hopeful – and a better understanding of this open and fruitful state allows us to rethink and refocus our talent management strategies. Consider re-directing your coaching investment where it will return maximum impact. Before you commission coaching, assess the situation to determine if the executive has an open learning window. Think twice before proceeding with mass coaching efforts or “gifting” coaching to someone who isn’t asking for help. Target your HR development dollars to those who need it most – those in a hungry, ready state prompted by a rookie assignment.
Better understanding of the intense learning and contribution that can occur when people are in rookie mode allows us to rethink and refocus our talent management strategies. In so doing, we can create a more vibrant organization for rookie and experienced employees alike.
[i] Matt Symonds, “Executive Coaching: Another set of clothes for the emperor.” Forbes, January 21, 2011.
Liz Wiseman is an executive advisor and the author of Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work and Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. She is a former executive at Oracle and has been listed on the Thinkers 50 list and named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world.
