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What People Are Saying
  • "Joel is one of the few people I've known who combines practicality and vision in balance. He also has great respect for process, people and results involved in his endeavors."– Daria Paxton, Owner, Gaia Gardens LLC

  • “I have hired Judy for personal coaching on more than one occasion and found that she has a unique blend of business experience and coaching skills. It is obvious that Judy has held very senior business and HR roles throughout her career, and is able to leverage her experience and connections to help her clients get clear on their goals and then achieve them. I have worked with a number of executive coaches over the years, but never found one that possessed this rare - and highly effective - combination of skills and experience.” – David Ingerman, Internet Marketing Executive

  • “Joel is a great guy! He trusts people and delegates authority and responsibility. He devised a unique retail space that surprised customers with its beautiful and vast selection of pottery from around the world. Joel is a good listener, follows through and keeps his word. Joel has innovative ideas and integrity.” – Rebecca Bergstrom, Owner, Yoga Desha LLC
  • “I have been working with Judy on exploring my career options, and I am impressed with her grasp of how to self-market. Her fun yet firm guidance is really helping me to shape my future career. What a great voyage of discovery!" – Kate, Career Coaching Client
  • “I came to know Joel through my involvement with Greenworks on Grove, the adaptive reuse project in which Joel and his partners turned the former World Pottery location into Montclair NJ's first LEED certified commercial space. Joel was a driving force throughout the project, championing the Sustainable aspects of the project. He led a "dream team" of partners all of whom shared Joel's vision for Greenworks on Grove. I am very grateful for the trust placed in me by Joel and his team. He is a smart, thoughtful manager, and showed great business judgement while incorprating green elements into the project and produced a unigue, gorgeous commercial space. I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again at some point. I have met few people who "walk the talk' as Joel does.” – Gerry Hazel, Owner, Sustainable Systems, LLC
  • “Working in a small, highly-leveraged team with global responsibilities, Judy was able to develop strong relationships with colleagues - down the hall and around the world. Judy also played a key role in the formation of this team. She has excellent coaching skills – and didn’t hesitate to effectively address internal team issues head on, in a supportive and constructive manner.” – Niti Badarinath, EVP, Global Direct Banking, Citigroup
  • ”It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Joel Patenaude and J2 Partners I am well qualified to judge what makes a great business coach as I currently try to manage a number of companies around the world and I need lots of help, and I have tried a few coaches along the way! Joel has sound business experience with an entrepreneurial flair. With J2 Partners you will be tapping into a wealth of knowledge and experience, with a network ranging from one man bands to the biggest corporations in America. Joel maintains a professional yet comfortable style, well suited to getting his points across without ruffling the egos of us sensitive owner types. With Joel, honesty and integrity are all just part of the package. Joel & I have jointly developed the marketing strategy for my latest U.S. venture (currently on hold due to the economy. I hope he will be available to work with me on executing it once we start up again). The strategy involves obtaining suitable customer lists, verifying them via telesales, then directing a multi media advertising campaign. He has a lot of experience in this area.” – Andy Milne, Owner and M.D., Mim’s Group
  • “Judy is a highly effective leader that balanced results leadership with a sensitivity to employee needs that created a strong following for her.” – Jim Routh, Chief Information Security Officer at KPMG
  • “Judy has always impressed me with her keen insight and strong customer-orientation. This served her well as she led strategically-important product development and marketing initiatives, but also helped make her a unique leader of people. Her ability to quickly assess her team's capabilities and then proactively support their development led to stronger organizations. Her ability to coach both people and process is a strength of hers.” – Andy Yost, Vice President, CRM, MTV Networks
  • “Judy Hoffstein is a deeply thoughtful business strategist with cross-functional experience and insight. But what truly distinguishes Judy from the hordes of talented strategists is her ability to meaningfully apply theory and experience to complex situations. Judy is especially adept at defining the interpersonal dynamics that either challenge or support a business situation and devising a plan of action and coaching strategy to cross seemingly insurmountable hurdles. I have seen Judy bring leadership, tact and insight to sensitive circumstances in order to refocus on objectives that were lost to political or cultural challenges. The ability to bring vision -- supported by credibility -- to senior level problem solving makes it possible for Judy to achieve results where others may be either incapable or frustrated to the point of surrender. Judy is exceptional...smart, capable and productive.” – Leslie Stenull, Director of Marketing, Chadbourne & Parke LLP
  • “Judy Hoffstein has a unique blend of management expertise coupled with a profound knowledge of human dynamics in a business setting that make her an excellent senior-level executive coach. Judy is particularly insightful in understanding personalities and the challenges that the business environment brings. In addition, she is exceptionally smart, she relates well and is sensitive to many different types of people and business styles, and is genuinely likable while appropriately demanding. When I reported to Judy directly, she was extremely helpful to me personally in strengthening my skillset and positioning me to deal more effectively with the business issues our team was encountering. At a number of critical junctures for the business I was managing at the time, Judy’s insight and understanding of the organizational politics allowed me to get controversial changes approved quickly through the chain of command. She is an astute, thoughtful and passionate people strategist who possesses the practical know-how and business savvy that a senior executive will demand and relate to.” – Ron Turbayne, Sr. Vice President, Card Services, Silverton Bridge Bank, N.A.
  • “I have known Judy for more than 15 years and she has always impressed me with her intelligence and strategic skills coupled with a practical ability to get things done. I first worked with Judy while at American Express. Judy was a terrific manager who was clear and direct in terms of the priorities for the team and what needed to be accomplished and when. She is politically astute and effective in working with different personality types. She is a great people manager and mentor, and is a pleasure to work with. She has been very helpful to me in providing candid and useful feedback as well as helpful suggestions on career next steps. I’ve also seen her quickly assess the key issues within an organization and then provide coaching on how to personally navigate through such issues.” – Mitch Lubin, VP Marketing, Pitney Bowes
  • “Judy is a strong and experienced leader. I have known her since 1997 and experienced her high energy leadership style and her caring for people's development. Judy also provided me with feedback that helped me grow as a leader. At one point, Judy was leading a very complex project which I was supporting as part of an extensive cross functional team. Judy was able to influence and guide the team to success, despite significant challenges. – Julia Menichilli, SVP, CitiCards
  • “Judy is a talented and seasoned executive with a strong record of success leading diverse business units. She has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills while managing complex analytic and operational areas and has shown equal adeptness in sensitive human resource situations. While overseeing a New Product Development function, she developed and implemented new processes requiring a thorough understanding of marketing, operations and technical requirements. Importantly, she recognized the need and navigated effectively through cross-functional groups, obtaining necessary support through impactful influence management.” – Brian K, EVP, American Express

Demonstration Projects on Trust

Friday, May 14th, 2010

This is a project in development out in the open!

It goes to our focus on west Africa.

Our starting premise is that the lack of trust in Africa makes everything go slowly, that until you’ve tried doing business in Africa, where the smallest transaction is seen as a leverage point by individuals seeking something for themselves, you’ve never experienced slow.

This is true not only where one expects it – from civil servants and at police roadblocks – but also from professionals, often within business settings, from small offices to factories to corporate organizations. The people one encounters can be indecisive and use their positions to promote personal agendas over doing the job. African worklife can be petty.

In Africa everyone expresses concerns about trust. Into this we inject the notion of thin trust. As opposed to the thick trust between blood relations, thin trust is what makes society function. You hand a shopkeeper money and believe he will hand over the items you have just paid for. You sign a contract and believe the other party will live up to their end of the bargain. You trust that things will be as people say they will be – because they or others like them have come through in the past as promised. People believe that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and if you are unknown to them they are wary.

Trust depersonalizes transactions, and allows business to flow unimpeded and we want to make this explicit — and remind people what they may know but never practice — that trust speeds activity. It might also lessen control but that is okay — society is healthy and there is plenty for everyone.

Trust and trustworthiness go beyond honestly to competence and professionalism. It is pertinent to individuals and to organizations. With trust, things happen — without it, nothing happens.

We at J2 Partners are planning a business-oriented public education effort that emphasizes trust in the private sector businesses most likely to create jobs — high growth or medium sized businesses. An immediate focus is on developing demonstration projects to highlight the benefits of trust. We invite all to contact us on this interesting issue.

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