Dawn Schliesser

Location: Dallas, Texas, USA

Job: Instructional designer

Club Member Since: 2009

Favourite Feature: Tool Talk in the forums and podcasts

Dawn Schliesser's colleagues keep telling her that she's more laid back than she used to be.

"I'll chalk that up to ‘more organized'," Dawn clarifies, crediting her membership of the Mind Tools Club with the change.

"I think it's given me an overall confidence when I'm dealing with people and more maturity in my work. I find myself able to deal with curve balls better. I find it's a much easier road to go, even if the tasks are challenging I don't have a lot of the hiccups that I had even six months ago," she says.

Dawn joined the club in 2009, when she had just been promoted to a management position.

"I felt completely out of my depth," she admits. "Mind Tools was a great way to dive in and start digesting all these bits and pieces that managers do, or should do, that I could then take and either use to coach other people or use to help with some of the struggles that I had, as I was growing in that position."

She gives a perfect example.

"I read an article on communication styles because I was having a hard time getting my ideas across to a particular co-worker. It was the Dealing With Difficult People article," Dawn recalls. "I read that and pulled a couple of things from it that I saw that I could immediately apply. Then I took those and started cross-referencing it with books that I had, with other training or classes that I've had, and formulated a plan with how to deal with this one person. In this case it worked well and we now have a good working relationship."

Dawn has a clear message for anyone considering joining the club.

"If you really want a jump start, this would be the place to get it," she says. "It's like people always tell you, you should dress for the job you want not the job you have. Well, your knowledge should be gathered for the position you want, not the position you have. I think Mind Tools is perfect for that because you can set yourself up on a path, like I want to be senior management in eight years. I need to know how to do X Y and Z to do that. Mind Tools will give you an introduction to that and you can start phasing in those skills. You can get all of the support that you need if you have questions and then you can dive in deeper if you need to supplement that knowledge. I would recommend it very much."

Listen to Dawn talking about the Club:

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