RALEIGH — Shelby Bickel always struggled with accepting her office persona. Working as a delivery executive at The Select Group (TSG), a technical service offerings, she worried about coming off as unapproachable or aggressive.
Not anymore.
As one of the graduates from company’s first Women in Business leadership program, she has learned to change all that.
“I’ve learned that the assertive, passionate and direct person that I am is a strength, and not a weakness, and this is what makes me uniquely successful in this industry,” Bickel said in a statement.
The Select Group recently announced its 2018 graduating class of the Women in Business leadership program.
Headed by Chief Services Officer, Jill Harlamert, the program spanned seven months, focusing on enabling and equipping women at TSG to envision and implement a path to “long-term personal and professional success”.
“Our Women in Business program is designed with the purpose of increasing engagement and empowering TSG’s women employees to grow both personally and professionally. We have seen leadership development in each individual that has come out of the program and we are very excited about the level of participation,” Harlamert said in a statement.
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TSG’s Women in Business program was launched in January 2018 by Missy McCormick, Director of Talent Acquisition, and Leigh Wallace Dodd, Corporate Trainer at TSG. Open to female employees of all levels across the company’s North American footprint with a tenure of at least one year, the program provided participants access to small group coaching, webinars lead by Fortune 100 female business leaders, and action-learning projects supported by TSG’s executive leadership team.
The 20 program graduates were coached on specific traits essential to professional success, enabling them to be a top performer in whichever role they choose. These traits included being assertive, disrupting the norm, developing management skills, gaining confidence to empower themselves, and advancing strong business acumen.
During the action learning segment of the program, each small group focused on one topic given by members of the executive team. These included real world business challenges and innovative research ideas for which each group developed creative and flexible strategies around. The solutions were presented to each group’s executive sponsor and the outcome resulted in company-wide process improvement and transformation.
Women in Business is just one of the progressive programs TSG provides its employees. Other intensive programs include IDEAL leadership – a development program for future leaders, and High-Performance Experience weekend – an event organized by CEO & founder Sheldon Wolitski teaching participants how successful leaders take care of their mind, body, and soul.
“TSG’s commitment to the long-term success of its high-performing women leaders is clear through the investment in the Women in Business program. Missy McCormick and Leigh Wallace Dodd, with the support of executive leadership, have designed an incredible approach to building community, increasing retention, and improving performance of these talented leaders. They are setting an industry standard for leadership development, and I’m proud to be a part of the program,” says Lydia Schimmelpfenig, Executive Coach and Organizational Effectiveness Advisor.
Not only is TSG enlightening its employees, they are involved in advancing the community through programs like Back to Business – a program designed to coach women who are re-launching their career, and award recognition like the Catalyst for Change award from Connected Women of Influence – whose vision is to see women lead the way in business.
This is the vision Wolitski had for the company when starting it in 1999. While working for an industry competitor, he noticed a lack of focus on people and the experience being provided. “I want to be known as someone who has built a company and helped every single person in that company be their best selves and achieve their dreams and aspirations. If my gift is to help The Select Group elevate people, then I’ve done my job.”
Almost 20 years later, TSG is consistently ranked one of the fastest-growing and largest firms in the industry, continuing to devote an enormous amount of its resources towards people and experiences – making them a competitive force in the technical services provider market.
TSG is set to launch its second year of the Women in Business program, opening to new participants, in early 2019. Alumni of the 2018 program will serve as mentors, providing guidance for personal and professional development to employees across the organization.
Founded in 1999 by CEO Sheldon Wolitski, The Select Group is headquartered in Raleigh, NC, with branches throughout North America. The company offers managed services and staff augmentation to businesses of all sizes, as well as a dedicated government services division for meeting federal, state, and local government needs.
