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

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

This question is easy for me to answer: Monique. Before working together I’d thought Monique might be a bit too detail-oriented for me and that perhaps I was a bit too head in the clouds–but after 4 years of being managed and coached by Monique, I can say it was our differences that made us the perfect match. What sets Monique apart is her reliability–there were never “oh gotcha” moments (we’ve all had them with a boss). When Monique said she would do something, 100% of the time she did it. Having a boss that consistently showed up for me as a leader, and as a human, is something that I’ve not experienced in many places. Her consistency built a culture of trust and transparency–with Monique nothing was the end of the world because I knew our relationship could weather any storm.  I often think of Monique as an example of how I can be a better leader. One of the simplest, but most powerful, things you can do is to show up and do what you say you are going to do.

Jennifer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a culture strategist, coach, and goofball. If you haven’t worked with me before you may be scratching your head asking “What exactly is a culture strategist?” I know that strategic plans have the power to build empathetic communities and that culture is intentionally created or healed. Simply put: culture doesn’t just happen, it’s designed and nurtured with a lot of strategy and planning. That’s where I come in, I help translate the talking about culture into doing it.

An educator by trade, I started my professional career teaching elementary-aged students across the Bay Area. I loved working with children but realized  I enjoyed working with adults even more. I left the classroom and transitioned into a teacher coach and trainer. And, I have never looked back.

During the pandemic, I was able to fulfill a long-lived dream of mine by venturing out on my own and founding Jennifer Tschetter Consulting, LLC. It is both terrifying and exhilarating being a small business owner, but I haven’t regretted the decision as I get to learn new things and meet new people every day. At the end of each week, I’ve done work that I’ve never gotten to do before.

My sweet spot is working with teams that are just starting out, teams that need a reset, and teams that need some extra love. I primarily work directly with team leads so they can execute learning with their teams. Managers hold the keys to setting up teams with robust and productive cultures. Culture isn’t just the fun stuff–swag is great, and that new hoodie you got may keep you warm at night, but it won’t help when your manager treats you unfairly or your team can’t function. Culture is so much more… it’s how we do check-ins, give feedback, navigate challenges, and work on projects. There are so many layers of complexity! Right now I’m enjoying learning more about how multi-generational teams work together.

San Francisco is home, but I like to spend as much time as possible in Colorado with my family. I love exploring outside with my dog Neville Longbottom and getting into debates about the accuracy of varying science fiction.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It isn’t uncommon to see people pitted against one another (especially women) for praise, promotions, new roles, etc. I’ve spent much of my career with one eye open and not wholeheartedly celebrating my female colleagues when they’ve outdone me. I internalized that their success came at the cost of mine. Growing my company only happened because of the many people who were willing to work with me, share part of their market, and go to bat for me. It’s taken almost two years, and I’m sure it will take much longer, to totally unlearn the concept that someone else’s success means there is less success for me. I’m consistently surprised at the support I get when I ask for help. What could be possible if we all asked for help without shame?

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

In the hybrid (or totally virtual) world of today, I see a lot of people making a similar mistake: trying to do what they did before and forcing it into a virtual setting. There are some big assumptions here: one, that the way we did culture work before was successful (most of the time it wasn’t), and two, all of the things we did have a virtual replica. A mentor of mine once said that culture is like cake–you’ve got the frosting (the swag, the parties, the hoopla) and you’ve got the cake (how you work together). You need both to make the cake just right. When we talk about culture a lot of people just think about the frosting–it’s fun to talk about the hoopla. But if you’re putting those fun strategies on a cake that’s crumbling it doesn’t matter. It is important to note when we’re talking about morale,  actual cake (or cocktails) are also pretty nice.

Contact Info:

• Website: tschetterconsulting.com
• Instagram: jtschett (personal)
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-tschetter/

Image Credits
The water & outdoor shots are taken by Erin Ashford.