Stanford MBA Teaches Executives How To Master The

Stanford MBA Teaches Executives How To Master The
"Soft Skills" That Drive Bottom Line Results
Andrea Corney, Principal of Acorn Consulting
Speaker and Author of
"Management Shorts" a newsletter on the everday challenges of leadership
Recovering Attorney
Andrea Corney is the secret weapon in the pockets of executives nationwide. A
dynamic, informative and insightful speaker, Andrea keeps her audiences of all sizes
riveted. Since 1995, Corney has been helping high tech management teams get
traction on the critical issues that impact their bottom line. With a JD/MBA from
Stanford, she brings a solid business focus and understanding of strategic issues to
the work of helping executives and management teams meet the challenges of
leadership, management, and working with others. Clients range in size from early
stage start-ups to large public companies and include: AccelChip, Allstate, Cisco, Evite, HP, Stanford
University, Sun Microsystems, and Virage Logic. She keeps her group skills sharp as a senior
facilitator for the popular Stanford Business School course "Interpersonal Dynamics", and is also a
Master Coach in Stanford's new Leadership Development program for first year MBA students.
Prior to founding Acorn Consulting, located in Menlo Park, CA, Andrea was a corporate and
employment lawyer at Heller Ehrman and at Wilson Sonsini. Her undergraduate degree is a BA in
psychology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Association and General Audience Programs
Andrea speaks, teaches, consults, and writes on issues of emotional intelligence that are fundamental
to the success of any leader or manager (or the consultant who works with them). Formats range from
45 minutes to 2 hours and vary by client needs. Her most requested topics are:
I Care Enough to Say the Very Worst –
The Formula for Performance Enhancing Feedback
Providing feedback to a member of your team can be an unnerving task. But what if there was a way
to create a culture where giving and receiving feedback was a positive and productive experience?
There is! During this one hour presentation Andrea Corney will share a powerful approach to feedback
that drives performance while also strengthening working relationships.
Emotional Intelligence and Professional Success
While every professional needs a solid education and strong analytical skills, research on Emotional
Intelligence suggests that it is the “soft skills” that differentiate those who are highly successful from
those who “just get by”. Through presentation and experiential exercises participants learn how they
can be more effective in their work relationships.
"Thanks for speaking at the NAAAP (National Association for Asian American Professionals) national
convention in San Francisco. Your session received rave reviews from all 80+ attendees that filled
the room to overcapacity. People enjoyed the interactive exercises, learned something valuable, and
left wanting to find out how to continue the learning process." -- Amy Koo, NAAAP Speakers
Committee
Book Andrea Corney to Speak. Pro-Bono Events Available Upon Request:
[email protected] - (650) 329-8923
Turning Conflict into Consensus: How to Manage Conflict on a Client Team
Conflict on the client team can drain your energy and enthusiasm for a project very quickly and can
ultimately doom your project to failure. During this 1 hour presentation, Andrea Corney will teach
Consultants her Decision Making Model for Success- a tool for managing conflict on a client team.
Using this model, consultants will learn hands-on techniques to turn conflict into consensus for better
results.
"Thank you so much for your talk at South Bay Women In Consulting. You obviously know your
subject and we all benefited from the information you shared. Your real world examples illustrated
the principles you were explaining and really drove the points home."-- Carol Martin, Speaking
Coach & Presentation Skills Trainer
Corporate Level Presentations
Senior executives value the unique combination of Andrea's business acumen with her expertise in
interpersonal and group dynamics – an expertise that is essential when teams are in the habit of
spinning on important issues.
GETTING TRACTION: How Management Teams Can Spend Less Time
Spinning & More Time Getting Things Done
A big source of managerial churn is lack of clarity around the decision process with the biggest source
of confusion being the "team decision". During her presentation, Andrea will discuss the
"METADECISION" Model and the 4 Decision Modes. Participants will leave with a language and
framework that can be immediately implemented. Learn how one start-up used this approach to
increase accountability and scale the management process during rapid growth.
Fighting your Way to Success: Productive Conflict on Executive Teams
Most management teams are faced with complex issues that have no obvious right answer.
Intellectually we all know that healthy debate is a good thing in this situation, and yet a "good fight" is
often hard to find. There are plenty of teams that are characterized by rancorous, interpersonal conflict
and, on the other end of the spectrum, even more teams where there is false harmony and a tendency
for people to hold back their opinions in favor of being nice. During this one hour presentation,
Andrea Corney demonstrates how you can get people to speak up with dissenting views without
tipping over into the destructive form of interpersonal conflict.
"The company offsite you facilitated for us has had a lasting impact. It greatly accelerated the
integration of a large number of new people and got everyone on the same page around company
goals and priorities. You even convinced the skeptics that an offsite can be valuable and productive!" -Frank Rockwood, President & CEO, Vectiv Corporation
Prior Speaking Engagements:
• Corporate Engagements Including: Stanford, Hewlett Packard, SUN, KIPP Foundation, and
Pacific Community Ventures
• Professional Associations Including: Institute for Management Consultants, Women's
Technology Cluster, South Bay Organizational Development Network, Women in Consulting,
FWE CEO Forum, and Filipina Women’s Network
"Wanted to let you know that was an excellent talk you presented -- and a great discussion you led -with our monthly IMC group in July. It was informative, interactive, interesting, and very practical.
Everyone I talked with really appreciated it. Great job!" -- Rob Elmore, Program Chair, Monterrey
Bay IMC Group
Book Andrea Corney to Speak. Pro-Bono Events Available Upon Request:
[email protected] - (650) 329-8923