AREAS OF EXPERTISE: 
Workplace Diversity, Interpersonal Communication, Conflict Resolution, Teambuilding, Leadership, Anger Management, Personal Empowerment

BIOGRAPHY / SERVICES
Cathy Harris' keynote speaking, training, and consulting work is recognized for producing impressive results by helping executives, managers, supervisors and staff to identify and implement the best changes for their growth. Clients are impressed with Cathy's highly interactive, dynamic and humorous presentations. They also appreciate her ability to design support systems that afford them continuing results long after she has completed her programs. Her clients have recognized her for her communication, diversity and conflict resolution accomplishments. These include Chevron Chemical Company, the U. S. Department of Agriculture and other government organizations, Ryder Truck Rental, Louisiana State University, and the New Orleans Peace Foundation who awarded her their coveted Peacemaker Award. In 1996, Cathy received the George Washington Medal of Honor from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

In the area of communication, Cathy has captivated and educated audiences across the country. Participants love her authenticity, humor and down-to-earth style. This, combined with experiential and highly interactive activities and exercises, allows her to successfully present tough topics (diversity, conflict resolution, communicating across cultural lines). Her thought-provoking stories instantly connect her to the challenges faced by members of the audience.

A critical aspect of communicating - especially in dealing with tough issues - is being able to negotiate. Ms. Harris owned and managed an automotive business for which she negotiated a loan of nearly ninety thousand dollars using junk cars as collateral.

Her programs are filled with practical easy-to-implement ideas that Cathy has used successfully. Cathy has seventeen years experience as a small business owner and entrepreneur. She is co-founder, past president and board member of Each One Save One, a cutting-edge mentoring organization that recruits hundreds of mentors and volunteers for schools in the New Orleans Metropolitan area. Cathy also serves on the Board of Directors of the Advocates for Science and Math High School. She was involved in the design and development of the Just for Boys program at Vorice Jackson Waters Elementary School.

Harris is past president of the National Speakers Association/New Orleans Chapter and an active member of the American Society for Training and Development.

Energize your next conference, in-house workshop, or seminar with a Cathy Harris presentation. Engaging * Insightful * Interactive * FUN!


PROGRAM TITLES

Communication That Works!
Eliminate misunderstandings, communication errors and confusion. Improve your ability to respond to your customers' needs, earn repeat business, and increase profitability. In a lively exchange with Cathy, participants learn how to improve the quality of their relationships and achieve harmony in their relationships at work and at home.

Diversity Strategies That Pay Off!
This program combines diversity awareness, skills and strategies to help increase productivity, improve morale, and create unity among workers in your organization while realizing breakthrough profits. It will also help eliminate time-consuming claims, costly EEO complaints, grievances, and lawsuits as well as guide participants through the steps to resolve disagreements before they become conflicts.

Position Yourself to Win
This assures employers a confident, courteous, well-mannered and empowered staff who takes responsibility for their personal success as well as the success of the organization. This translates into increased productivity and profitability. Employees learn how high performance, effective workplace communication, suitable behavior, a pleasant attitude and professional presentation lead to career advancement. They walk away with insights, strategies and guidelines that can result in a rewarding, more productive work environment

Teambuilding for Leaders
The program offers new approaches to making teams more effective. The format is informal and based on a series of teambuilding challenges. It examines concepts of leading teams with high performance demands. Participants identify team issues and help the team produce creative solutions. They learn how to use the principles of action learning in solving real-life team challenges and improve skills in conflict resolution and communication. They discover how to build trust in team members through meeting challenges and develop a plan of action based on program insights. Mini lectures, informal activities and exercises. Fun!!!

Creating A Harassment-Free Environment
Employees want and deserve to work in an environment that is as safe and welcoming as possible. Knowing you are respected as an individual allows you to contribute more productively to your company. This happens because you spend less time second-guessing how to interpret behaviors and consequences. Company leaders have a responsibility to assure a safe environment for everybody. It pays off in many ways.
Preventing harassment also adds to profits by lowering the cost of employee turnover, absenteeism, and low productivity due to low morale. For a free copy of Managers' Responsibility in Liability Cases, go to cathyharris.com/managers' liability
Learn steps to safeguard your business and your employees from sexual harassment and avoid costly legal settlements.

Managing for Excellence: Leadership Development and Performance Improvement for Managers
This program will allow you to apply your management talents to directly acknowledge conflict areas. You will learn steps to increase productivity by coaching performance. In this fun, interactive session, you will discover tools to improve relationships with employees performing below expectations. You will gain the respect and increased productivity from your high performers for doing so. Take action today on your performance management challenges. Get through them and move ahead with Managing for Excellence

Resolving Conflict Effectively
How would you like your employees to resolve disagreements before they escalate to conflicts? Do your co-workers see each other as friends or foes? Do they think only one person can be right or win? Is the term "negotiation" not a part of their vocabulary? Are you experiencing low morale or low productivity? Let Cathy Harris help you minimize conflict and increase harmony. This program increases cohesiveness and improves team performance.

Performance Matters
Poor performance hurts the whole work unit/company. This interactive workshop allows participants to consider their performance in a variety of perspectives: how it influences their personal lives, how to confirm that their performance expectations and their supervisor's are in agreement and how their performance affects the general growth of the organization. We examine expected organizational procedures seasoned with a dash of reality. Attendees learn how to stay positive in a chaotic, pressure-filled workplace. They also learn strategies for beating negativity and ways to take charge of their lives by taking charge of their attitudes. They walk away with insights, strategies and guidelines that result in a more rewarding work environment. Participants will acknowledge their strengths and learn to prioritize the actions needed to use those strengths.

Able to Succeed
This program is designed to broaden participants' awareness about different abilities and to increase the understanding of how people with disabilities contribute as employees. The outcome of this session is the enhancement of the organization's diverse work force that will interact to improve organization-wide performance. Another outcome is the enhancement of communication among employees regarding disability and reasonable accommodations.