What Makes Us Different?
Engage Leadership Consulting (“ELC”) empowers leaders to identify and apply their strengths within their organizations, teams, and communities. ELC is based in Austin, Texas and was founded by five partners who collectively have over 60 years of experience in leadership development. Their experience spans various sectors, including: corporations, government, higher education, legal, military, and non-profit.
Common Questions We Answer For Teams:
According to data collected by Gallup from more than 140 countries, 63 percent of employees are "not engaged"—or simply unmotivated and unlikely to exert extra effort—while the remaining 24 percent are "actively disengaged," or truly unhappy and unproductive.
Why would it matter if employees and members of teams are unsatisfied or disengaged? And what can an organization/team do about it?
ELC knows that disengaged team members hold back the performance of their team and can act as an economic drain to the organization. Additionally, being disengaged at work can lead to an individual feeling undervalued and can have a personal health and wellness implications. Therefore, ELC takes care in developing the right workshops and interventions to help your team develop a strength's based approach to optimize the team's function and productivity.
ELC believes that lasting change begins when individuals understand and know how to effectively leverage their strengths. Only then can a team elevate to its highest potential.
The ELC Team
JON ARNOLD - Jon Arnold is a Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) veteran with 10 years of direct interaction with wounded warrior programs, disabled veteran organizations and patient advocacy groups. He is a member of multiple veteran organizations, constantly sought after to speak to veterans and their families regarding transitioning from the military and using their military skills. He brings 10 years of military intelligence experience with a focus on project research and communication. He has Masters degrees in Policy from the University of Texas at Austin and Social Work from the University of Southern California. He brings a multi-disciplined approach to leadership, emphasizing evidenced based, strengths driven, and positive psychology approaches to organizational leadership. Jon is married with three children and can be found watching football, spending time with his two shih tzu terriers, hiking, or reading.
Strengths: Analytical | Learner | Intellection | Input | Context
DANIELLE BARTZ - Danielle Bartz has been maximizing people’s strengths for over a decade. As an award-winning collegiate athlete and later as a coach at the University of Texas, she used her energy and strengths to build highly competitive teams and was awarded the 2015 CRCA National Coaching Staff of the Year. She did project management in the private sector before getting her Master’s of Public Affairs Degree from the LBJ School, where she focused on management and leadership. She has been teaching young women about government and citizenship for fun since 2003, and she is a founding partner of Engage Leadership Consulting. She currently serves as the Director of Boards and Commissions for Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner. When she is not at work, she is binge watching period television shows like Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and The Americans.
Strengths: Strategic | Maximizer | Activator | Woo | Communication
KAREN LANDOLT - Karen Landolt has been teaching, coaching, and leading in nonprofit, legal, and academic settings for over 20 years. Equally obsessed with pop culture and coaching others to find engaging careers, Karen finds creative ways to integrate service, experiential learning, and YouTube clips into her teaching. Professor Landolt teaches Business Law, Behavioral Ethics, and Entrepreneurship at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. She served as Director of two UT Austin career services offices (HireTexas Interview Center and the Career Design Center for the College of Natural Sciences) and is a founding partner of Engage Leadership Consulting. In her spare time, Karen can be found reading YA books with her Forever Young Adult book club, gluing tiny objects to wood (creating found art mixed-media collages), and indulging in her obsession for pop culture by attending film and television festivals.
Strengths: Input | Developer | Relator | Activator | Learner
KATIE PRITCHETT - Katie Pritchett, Ph.D. is an educator at heart. Over the past six years, Dr. Pritchett has specialized in researching, teaching, and designing programs that give students access to real-world opportunities to sharpen their leadership skills, personal efficacy, and professional abilities. As part of these efforts, she led a global business service-learning trip to rural Belize for business students to teach social entrepreneurship and job skills to residents at the Belizean Technical and Vocational College. In addition to consulting, Dr. Pritchett currently holds a faculty appointment in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She has prior work experience in Washington D.C. working for the U.S. Department of Education in policy implementation and for a private Fortune 100 company performing market research. She is passionate about helping individuals and teams reach their full potential!
Strengths: Individualization | Activator | Maximizer | Positivity | Significance
MIHA VINDIS - Miha Vindis is originally from Slovenia, but grew up in Thailand. He attended university in Germany and earned his B.A. in International Business Management and English. Miha also earned a Master’s Degree in Global Policy Studies and a Ph.D. in Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. His research involves leadership, civic engagement, and digital technology. Miha spent the bulk of his professional career in Shell and Deloitte, working on a wide range of projects in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Miha has been involved in leadership and management consulting since 2010 and is a regular speaker and lecturer at leadership conferences, classes, and workshops. He currently teaches at an executive education program (LBJ School of Public Affairs) and entrepreneurship for finance majors (McCombs School of Business). He is also a board member of Habitat for Humanity Texas and an adviser to a number of young entrepreneurs.
Strengths: Connectedness | Relator | Communication | Individualization | Strategic
Our Approach
There is no shortage of books, assessment tools, speeches, and TED Talks for managers and teams to sift through. But ELC knows that teams do not have time to halt their daily operations to read/vet these best practices and find ways to make them actionable. ELC distills this process for you by:
Assessing your team's needs,
Customizing a workshop to fit those needs,
Delivering what you need in an interactive format, and
Assessing the impact and providing you with results.
ELC can scale workshops for your team in any time increment ranging from 3-hours to running full 3-day retreats.
Most Popular Workshops
Our team adapts all content to an organization's individual needs. The list below includes some of our more popular workshop topics, but please send an inquiry if your team has an individual need or interest.
Building a Strengths-based Team
Designing a Team Talent Map
Communication Strategies for Teams
Organization Peer Leadership
Conflict Resolution
Bases of Power
Role of Improvisation and Communication in Team-based Work
Ethical Decision Making
Creating Team Buy-in/Engagement
Engagement for Geographically-based Teams
Successfully Navigating the Four Stages of Team Dynamics
Leading from Your Position
Conversational Turn-Taking
Safety & Vulnerability in Teams
Organizational Change / Change Management
Gamification and Leadership
Overcoming Toxic Multitasking
Conflict as a Gift
Our Clients
ELC serves clients in the following sectors by focusing on teams of 5+
Business
Education
Health Care
Military
Non-Profit
