We were lucky to catch up with Chanel Keyvan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Chanel , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Keyvan Consulting started with a deep desire to simply help people spend their time towards what fulfills them. Throughout my experiences as a teacher and administrator, my greatest joy was seeing the way a person would radiate pure happiness when talking about one of their passions. Whether it was a student showing me their artwork or a teacher finding success trying out a new lesson, their excitement was contagious! Similarly, my experiences in the consulting realm showed me that entrepreneurs and business owners equally light up when sharing their business visions and accomplishments. In today’s work culture, taking the time to celebrate any amounts of time devoted to our passions is sparse because it’s often overtaken by the required tasks that drain us. Because it brought me so much joy to see others striving for their goals, it was my mission to remove as many barriers as I could, so that they could focus as much of their time on what mattered. Every workspace has it’s collection of challenges that drains us, and we can fall into tedious routines. In my leadership roles, I strived to reimagine the workplace by implementing inclusive systems and prioritizing the humanity of people. This mission is so near and dear to my heart because I believe that every single person deserves to be valued, heard, and loved, especially in a world where hardships are so prevalent. Ultimately, I hope that Keyvan Consulting can usher in a new wave of healthy workplace cultures that truly anchor in community, celebrating people as whole individuals, and uplifting the joys of following our passions!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hi! I’m Chanel Keyvan (she/hers) the CEO of Keyvan Consulting. My background spans a range of roles including school administrator, educator, project manager, consultant, and facilitator, and I bring over a decade of experience, combining all of my knowledge and insights to my work.
The primary focus of my business is supporting district and school administrators create a positive school culture through effective school systems and processes. There’s a gap in the industry where strategies to improve school culture are often vague or don’t really address the root of the issue. So, I developed the 3D School Culture Model that highlights the three elements necessary for a strong school culture. The three dimensions of the model consist of Personal Leadership Pillars, Current State Insights, and Effective Systems and Processes. Our services revolve around assessing and strengthening each of these dimensions to help enhance and elevate school cultures. We offer training and workshops, coaching programs, and infrastructure assessments. Because our services and approach are anchored on this model, we can really uncover the challenges with school cultures and provide specific solutions tailored to each context!
The secondary focus of my business is around supporting entrepreneurs and business owners with project planning. Often times, it’s difficult to take an idea and actually make it happen. As entrepreneurs, likely there’s only one to two people who are working on these projects, and it can become overwhelming having to complete everything a team of people might complete on your own. That’s where Keyvan Consulting comes in! We help create project plans and map it out, so that all business owners have to do is execute it. We also offer project management and time management coaching for those seeking to strengthen their skills.
What I’m most proud of is the deep partnership I feel with my clients. We are invested in each other’s success and genuinely care about making a positive impact in the world. Often times, my clients don’t have spaces where they can share their celebrations and give themselves credit for all of their efforts. When working together, I work to cultivate a space where working through challenges head on and celebrating any level of success are equally valued. I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to work with my clients!
Have you ever had to pivot?
My most significant pivot was going from working as a school administrator into consulting. It was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make. Since I was in preschool, I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and my passion for teaching only grew year after year. The fulfillment and fun I experienced as a teacher is one of the hallmarks of my life. Unfortunately, I devoted all of my time to teaching, often working over 80 hours weeks. I felt such a large responsibility to provide the best possible education I could to my students, that I would tirelessly revamp and perfect lesson plans, develop partnerships with parents, and volunteer on various school teams. Once I transitioned into a school administrator, I was able to work a typical number of hours per week, and all of the love and care I felt for my students expanded to the staff I was leading. Unfortunately, I was an administrator during the first 2 years of COVID, and between navigating the unknown without guidance plus all of the daily crisis situations, it was a recipe for burnout. I found that most of my time was going towards tasks that drained me, and it was a battle to do anything else. Among other personal challenges, I found myself needing a complete break from the school system and decided to take some time off from working. When it reached a point for me to decide my next job position, I couldn’t bring myself to include working in education as an option because I knew I would end up in the same cycle. It was honestly very scary to think about pursuing a career out of education because it was all I’ve ever known. Throughout many conversations with friends and family, I came to realize that all of the parts I loved about education could still exist in a consulting capacity! Ultimately, I liked being a mirror for others to see just how capable and incredible they are. Although education was a perfect environment for that, it wasn’t the only one. This pivot really taught me to dig deeper when defining my passion and to get creative with how my future can look like!
Any advice for managing a team?
Ultimately, I believe a leader’s responsibility is to minimize what drains people and maximizes what fulfills them. This requires that you really have to get to know your team and implement solutions that support their workflows and who they are as people. Something as simple as an onboarding survey can be very helpful to start learning about your team. Before I conducted teacher evaluations, I had teachers take a survey, so I could learn more about them. One question I included was about how they like to receive feedback. Some shared that they liked feedback to be direct and not sugarcoated while others shared that they liked to receive constructive feedback in writing before any meetings, so they had some time to process it. It really helped with managing team relationships and communication styles!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.keyvanconsulting.com/