Brooklyn's Progress
June/July 2005

By Harold Egeln

New possibilities. New skills. New perspectives. These are concepts consultant Lisa Bing, a leadership and organizational development coach, brings to businesses and cultural institutions in need of improved performance and efficiency.

"It's all about the ability to see new options and to be
enthusiastic about it," said Bing, speaking in her home office, on St. James Place between Pratt Institute and Fulton Street, about the core of her business.  "Responding to new perspectives in the workplace, the work environment shifts and new possibilities emerge. That makes for a significant change."

Doing what she loves and building on what she has learned from her business experience, Bing has created a unique consulting service which both fulfills her working vision and that of her clients.

Those clients have told her that they appreciate what she does with business groups and their meetings, as well as working one-on-one at times with executives. "I help people to learn how to call on their strengths, while being aware of their weaknesses but not dwelling on
them," noted Bing, accentuating the positives over the negatives.

Bing is a longstanding member of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Board of Directors and is the Membership Committee Chair, bringing her energy, excitement and experience into the Chamber's work.

Two years ago, Bing, who was president then of the American Society for Training and Development's New York Metro Chapter, led a team of 20 volunteers and conducted a five-day workshop which led to more jobs, as
part of a pilot project. That project was due to a partnership of ASTDNY-Metro, HSBC Bank and Small Business Services.

Bing's strong family roots, education in Bedford-Stuyvesant schools and Boston University where she earned a degree in Special Education have been guiding lights for her.

"When I was a child, I had three interests in what I wanted to be when I grew up: being a teacher, ballerina or nurse," Bing said. "I was always interested in education and that is essentially what I do today, also helping people to learn."

She grew up in the same house where she lives in today. But she has lived in Boston, getting her first job at IBM there, and later moving to New Jersey, living in South Plainfield, Edison and Holmdel, where she worked many years for Prudential in the 1980s and 1990s.

Even though she has a degree in special education, it was by the time of her junior year at Boston University that her career focus changed. "I wanted a different lifestyle. As a child I sold lemonade on a stand outside my home here on St. James Place, encouraged by my parents, so the taste for business was in me then. Halfway through the university I decided that I wanted to make my own way."

Moving to New Jersey, she entered the Management Intern Program at Prudential in Holmdel in 1983, starting out with accurals and underwriting, and then getting involved in start-up operations. Bing helped in new marketing strategies for Pru-Homes Property and Casualty's department.

Her start-up work included Prudential's International Reassurance Subsiduary in places like London, Hong Kong and Brussels, as well as administrative management with budgets and technical assistance. All this she reported directly to the senior vice president.

It was during this time that she developed and honed her skills in leadership coaching, bringing that to her current work. "I always focus on the people, especially when I saw that people were not working cohesively and communicating well," she said. "In  business leadership, I
looked at how executives could innovate and solve problems."

In her work then and now, she first brings people into a situation where they view things from a different, new fresh perspective. "I ask, slow down and take notice in how the environment has shifted, opening new opportunities," Bing said. Noting that we are all learning, she then asks what a leader needs to learn, too, and then, finally, "to get the
job done."

Bing used that in coaching Prudential executives to help them develop strategies. "Other people there took notice of my work," she noted, and they gained interest in her coaching techniques. This all enabled her to fine-tune organizational development strategies. "My dual
interest in education and business came together there," she said.

One way the organizational development at Prudential happened was for her to organize with other employees a departmental picnic in only three weeks, which was her idea. "The whole department got involved in
planning the picnic and it worked!" Bing said.

"What this brings out is new possibilities, new options, new skills and new knowledge. This way you get more talent into play and develop talent management," she explained. "With business meetings, there are always little tricks that can be used to run meetings efficiently and
creatively."

Presidents and vice presidents of businesses are often expected to "know everything," which puts pressure on them, Bing noted. "But they are learning, too, because learning and gaining new knowledge never stops. Once this is realized and acknowledged, it creates less stress and anxiety for them. They feel safe and those who work with them feel safe, and this creates more accessibility with leaders."

On meetings, instead of worrying about another meeting and even dreading it, a meeting can begin beforehand with communication among those attending. "The meeting really, then, begins there before everybody comes together at the table. This can result in shorter, more focused meetings, and, besides, the meetings can then end on time, too,"
Bing said.

Bing enjoys her consulting work very much. It shows in her smiling face and demeanor as she describes what she does. "When you can love what you do, it is because you are being who you really are," she said.

"Here I am, now, fulfilling my childhood ambitions of being a teacher, a ballerina and a nurse, all rolled into one," Bing said.

"Besides teaching leadership and organization, I take care of the people I work with, like a nurse. And conducting my work with people in businesses and cultural institutions is like dancing, what a ballerina does."

At her church, the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bing is engaging her positive and development growth skills, talents and experience with a six-week program with parishioners.

Bing shares her consulting knowledge with students at a course at New York University, where she teaches classes of about 30 students at the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies. "It's a wonderfully diverse and lively group of students, from all over this country, Turkey, Japan, India and Italy. This remarkable diversity also creates new perspectives."

Bing's consulting work involves a number of clients, five or six at any time, and can take up to a year with each, such as with leaders and a team at a bank last year. At the Brooklyn Public Library she has helped develop a successful program while working with a group there.  Clients come by word-of-mouth, she noted, and through referrals and networking.

To contact Lisa Bing Consulting, call 718-398-8516, or email Ms. Bing at lbing@bingconsulting.biz. The Web site is at http://www.bingconsulting.biz/