About Us

We specialize in maximizing leadership and personal potential, especially for technical leaders. Our purpose is to improve both the workplace for workers and workers for the workplace.

ClientsOur Story

We work with companies to attract, develop, and retain top talent. We work with individuals to improve their success and happiness in their careers. We offer leadership, team, and personal assessment and development for people across job levels, ages, and industries.

For professionals, parents, and teens, we help people discover what strengths and interests they have to select a career and we help younger people develop the life skills to succeed at work and life.

Our Mission

We specialize in maximizing leadership potential, especially for technical leaders. We work with companies to attract, develop, and retain top talent. We work with individuals to improve their success and happiness in their careers.

Our Values

We are flexible and nimble. We provide high quality solutions. We treat people with respect and dignity. We create customized solutions for people in all industries and for workplaces of all types and sizes.

Our Vision

To develop people to be more successful in the workplace and to improve the workplace for people. To provide leadership and personal assessment, development, and retention strategies for all levels—executives, professionals, early career, and youth.

Our Story

Flexible Work Solutions started out in 2005 as a business partnership and evolved into partnering with other businesses to provide our services. That lets us be more flexible to meet client needs. Our initial offerings focused on helping organizations and workers develop and implement flexible working arrangements, hence our company name.

Our purpose has always been to develop people to be more successful in the workplace and to improve the workplace for people. We serve for-profits and not-for-profits, individuals and organizations, young and old, on-boarding employees to seasoned executives. We provide high quality solutions and treat people with respect and dignity.

About Our President

Joanie Connell earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in Engineering from Harvard University. She is also a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach.

joanie's bio

Meet Our Team of Experts

Dr. Joanie Connell

President

Dr. Joanie B. Connell is an organizational consultant, author, and leadership coach who is passionate about helping people maximize their leadership and personal potential. A former engineer, Joanie works

Bernardo Ferdman

Diversity Equity & Inclusion

A world-renowned expert on inclusion and inclusive leadership, Dr. Bernardo Ferdman works with organizational leaders and employees to foster inclusion, to develop and implement effective ways of using

Tracy Ward

Human Resources

An accomplished HR executive, Tracy Ward is passionate about developing strategies and programs that achieve company objectives and fulfill a sense of purpose for team members. Beyond helping companies achieve their 

Vladimir Baranov

Executive Coach

Using his technical and business expertise, Vladimir Baranov helps CTOs and CEOs understand each other’s perspectives to better communicate with and build collaborative relationships

Michelle Beauchamp

The Champ Group

With 25 years+ expertise in sales and leadership and 12+ years as an entrepreneur, Michelle Beauchamp helps companies and entrepreneurs develop their teams to produce bigger results. As an Executive Director

Deborah Rocco

AlignWise Consulting

Leveraging her 35 years of senior HR leadership experience in government, higher education, and private industry and her passion for the intersection between well-being and performance, Deborah Rocco is committed 

Bill Magill

The Interprize Group

A professor of entrepreneurship and reformed Silicon Valley venture investor, Bill Magill developed a new concept of interpreneurship—the art of uncovering grand life ambitions and pursuing them with passion 

Meet Our Team of Experts

Dr. Joanie Connell
President
Bernardo Ferdman
Diversity Equity & Inclusion
Tracy Ward
Diversity Equity & Inclusion
Vladimir Baranov
Executive Coach
Michelle Beauchamp
The Champ Group
Deborah Rocco
AlignWise Consulting
Bill Magill
The Interprize Group

Books

Dr. Joanie B. Connell shares her expertise on how to consult to technical leaders and what it takes to survive in the real world of work in two incredible books. Both books draw from her 20-plus years of experience in the workplace, parenting and engineering experience, and decades of research in academic literature and the media.

Consulting to Technical Leaders, Teams, and Organizations provides guidance to organizational consultants and students who are or want to better understand and work with leaders in STEM.

Flying without a Helicopter advises parents, young adults, and adolescents on what is important to help produce healthy, independent, self-reliant adults who will thrive on their own.

GO TO BOOKS

BOOKS

Trusted Business Partners

We partner with these companies to offer our clients the best comprehensive services available. 

Gallup
CliftonStrengths

Joanie is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, and we employ the CliftonStrengths assessment in many of our coaching engagements for people to leverage their natural abilities to solve problems and get things done.

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Rady School of Management

We partner with the Center for Executive Development at the University of California San Diego to provide leadership assessment and training for executive leaders. Various courses and programs are available.

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Positive Intelligence

We partner with Positive Intelligence to provide Shirzad Chamine’s method of mental fitness assessment and coaching to help clients weaken their inner saboteurs and strengthen their mental muscles.

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7 CTO's

We partner with 7CTOs to offer peer coaching for executive-level tech leaders. Joanie is a forum facilitator, presenter, and a coach for 7CTOs. View their page for more information on their methods and techniques.

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Success Stories

Career Coaching with an Engineer:

Ken was frustrated and demoralized because he was working for yet another bad boss. He was an exceptionally smart and capable engineer, but he had a habit of working for bosses who criticized him incessantly and assigned him boring tasks that underutilized his talent. He turned to us for career coaching to help him not make the mistake of choosing another bad boss. Joanie worked with him to identify what a positive boss, team, and job looked like and how to spot and avoid the “red flags” when searching and interviewing for jobs. He is now happily employed in a team of smart, supportive colleagues with a great manager who values Ken’s contributions and personal development.

Executive Coaching with Technical Leader:

Pranit was referred to us by the VP of HR at his life sciences company. Pranit was a gifted scientist who had moved into a director position, but he was running into trouble in meetings. He would argue with people and stop participating when others didn’t agree with him. This was creating conflicts with leaders of other teams, and it was impairing Pranit’s ability to influence and lead his own team. His boss, the VP of Development, wanted to get some help for his floundering director. The VPHR set up an executive coaching engagement with Joanie, our expert in technical leaders, to help him develop his interpersonal skills. It didn’t take long; Pranit was a quick study! Once he had the tools and personal insight he needed, he was able to learn techniques to lessen his defensiveness, accept feedback, and value collaboration. Shortly after the engagement, he was promoted because he had such strong leadership skills.

Strengths-Based Leadership Training for Business Leaders:

Jennifer was a huge fan of the Gallup StrengthsFinder/CliftonStrengths assessment instrument. She used it with her team to learn what strengths each person had and how to best manage them. She came to us because she wanted to introduce it organization wide, starting with the top-level leaders. We customized an executive-level Strengths-Based Leadership program to both educate the leaders and develop relationships among them. They liked the program so much they asked us to offer it to cohorts of leaders to strengthen leadership and build relationships across the organization.

Clients