We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jen Croneberger. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jen below.

Alright, Jen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

Where do I start? They weren’t perfect. They did a lot wrong. And I think that is what they did right They didn’t hide behind the idea that everything was always great. It wasn’t. They were authentic and genuine and loving regardless. They taught us how to show up in the world. And they always always always stood for those who couldn’t stand for themselves– The voiceless, the broken, the unseen and unheard. They taught us to use our voices for good. I thank them every single day for that.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have my masters degree in Sports and Human Performance Psychology. My career begain working with professional athletes, college players and little kids as a sports psychology consultant. And what I found was it was all the same stuff. It was all about how we showed up every day, how we recovered after mistakes, our confidence, our ability to trust, perfectionism, overthinking, social approval. The list goes on.

What I realized was this is what affects all of us not just athletes and so I brought these topics into the corporate world and it just made sense. And from my beginning as a motivational speaker, traveling the country delivering 130 to 150 keynotes and workshops a year, I have shifted my focus to the core of what I realize makes the biggest impact. Around that center, I have developed a basic framework we call B.R.A.V.E. Human Leadership. We live at the intersection of Culture, Leadership and Performance

We work with companies and organizations who are recognizing that their greatest asset will always be their people. Through COVID-19, through the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, The Great Disconnection… it’s all the same thing… Your people are hurting.

YOUR people are OUR business. Our mission is to understand what your greatest pain points are, your hurdles and obstacles. Your engagement and culture surveys are telling a story. But how many leaders in your company are actually listening?

We have solutions to rewrite those stories and we are seeing results in the relationships we are building.
Our proprietary tools give us leverage others in our industry don’t have.

-Some of these include:
Our B.R.A.V.E. Human Leadership Index, which is an assessment tool around our B.R.A.V.E behaviors and competencies.
-8 week B.R.A.V.E. Human Leadership accelerator course that helps leaders dive into their own abilities to foster these behaviors.
-B.R.A.V.E. CONNECTIVE COACHING cohorts that tackle real issues in culture and help to build B.R.A.V.E. cultures and B.R.A.V.E. leaders who can sustain them.
-6 month and 12 month quarterly workshops and leadership round tables to continue the conversations.

We know that you don’t walk into a gym on Tuesday morning at 5 AM, pick up a dumbbell, move it around for five minutes and walk out a weightlifting champion.
It doesn’t work that way.

Maybe it’s time to stop doing the same thing with leadership development programs and culture. This is not a one time, take a course, check the box, and now we know all we need to know solution to what are huge problems. There has to be consistency and commitment in wanting things to change.

We know that real change is made when you are creating behaviors that become habits, and those habits are what strengthen organizations wide and deep. We know we can walk alongside you as your trusted advisor to make real change happen. We know, because its all we do every day.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I can’t imagine most of us don’t have a COVID-19 pivot story. And as a speaker, those stories were awfully scary.

March 10-13, 2020 I was in D.C. and a couple offices in Virginia for three separate client events. I was speaking for some big companies at their spring initiatives, around women in leadership, culture, and change.

We were starting to really pay attention to how we greeted each other. As I walked in the room for the first time in each of these places, we kind of did an awkward nod and smile. And we even practiced our elbow bump for the first time. It was strange. I’m a hugger, so it was really strange to keep such a distance between me and my clients. But we went on and did the events as planned even in the strangeness that hovered over the room.

As I got in the car to leave the last one on Friday, March 13th, I saw rumblings popping up on my phone about some sort of shut down. And I was curious as to what that would look like. They talked about a week or two and that’s the last thing I read before my 4 hour drive home.

By the time I arrived home and took my laptop out of my bag and logged back on, I had almost 20 emails regarding events on my calendar for the upcoming weeks and months.
In the matter of my 4-hour drive home, my entire speaking calendar was wiped out for the foreseeable future.

Two weeks turned into two months turned into two years. I don’t have to tell you, you lived it too. What was so fascinating to me during that period of time was the fact that I was already working on some relationships and longer-term agreements with clients who I had already spoken for previously. These were organizations who wanted to go a little deeper and spend more time together in order to help culture and leadership take a turn for the positive.

Those agreements being in place, I had a little less nausea at the site of my calendar being wiped out than many others did, yet the mindset shift very quickly around how to continue my business with a completely different model had to happen in that first week.

The consulting that I had been doing ongoing needed to come center stage and the spotlight on the stage that had me in front of large groups needed to dim for a while. I had to get really good at figuring out how to take myself off mute and how to share my screen, without opening up the wrong things at the wrong time. Somedays, that is still a struggle.

Life as we know it changed and what changed for me became what has grown my business exponentially. From a speaker on the road 150 days of the year to someone who can have an impact with clients through a screen. It’s about human connection, and I believe strongly, maybe more than ever, that our ability to really connect with each other and build communities will be the thing that saves us in the end.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

This one feels simple. Real, authentic and genuine connection. I am in the business of building relationships. It is through those relationships, truly getting to know others and their needs and desires, that I can help them shape and build out their vision not only for their organizations but for themselves. Every single person in this world wants to be seen and listened to… it validates our human existence. It fuels our sense of belonging.
My check in to make sure I am doing these things every day is what I call the LIGHT principle.
Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humor (or Honor), and Truth (or Trust).
Our commitment is one thing, our follow through is another.
Anyone who knows me knows, when I say I am going to do something, I always follow through.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teamjlcg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlynneconsulting/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jencroneberger/

Image Credits
Sandrien B Photography