Health & Medical
Straight talk
How Sharon Daniels uses integrity and solid communication as the foundation for leadership at AchieveGlobal Inc.
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Tampa Bay | November 2008
Page 1 of 3
When Sharon M. Daniels first started as a
senior executive, she thought that all of her
employees would just walk in her office
and tell her what was going on, just as they
had before she became the leader.
However, that wasn’t the case.
So, when she became president and CEO
at AchieveGlobal Inc. in 2004, she set out to
show everyone she had integrity, and she
used her communication skills to guide her
more than 1,000 employees.
Daniels spent a lot of time getting feedback from customers, suppliers and
employees about the state of the company,
an international provider of skills training
and consulting services in customer service, sales performance and leadership.
“I spent a good, solid month just doing
nothing but listening to people and talking
about how we were,” she says. “I think that
was the springboard, if you will, for how I
started being a leader here and getting really engaged with all the elements of it. I
think that helped me from a credibility
standpoint because then, when I started
communicating or sending bigger messages, it was clear. I didn’t say, ‘I talked to
50 customers or whatever,’ but I could say,
‘I’m learning from customers that these
things are happening,’ or, ‘Here are some
things that are really important to our
organization.’”
Those communication skills have served
Daniels well in establishing an environment where employees and managers can
speak freely with her about ideas. Through
her actions, revenue increased 13 percent
since she became president and CEO, and
the company posted approximately $150
million in 2007 revenue.
Here’s how Daniels uses integrity and
communication as her foundation of leadership to take AchieveGlobal to new heights.
