About Me ... Richard Skaare
My mother’s dying words to me a few years ago were simple and penetrating: “You’ve come a long way, Richard” she said.
I hadn’t thought much about that until then. But I sensed she was right. There wasn’t anything in my upbringing to suggest I had overcome hardship or setbacks. I simply saw my life as ordinary … but it didn’t have to be ordinary. The more inquisitive I became of the world, of people, of God, the more my life took definition.
Over time I got smarter, kinder, funnier, and realized that the answer to any challenge was always “no” if I didn’t ask for something or push forward into a new experience. Sure, I was afraid at times, but I kept moving forward.
And out of those early discovery years came an undergraduate degree in literature and writing, and a masters degrees in theology and also one in communication. Alcoa management then hired me as speechwriter for the top executives though I had no experience. They later appointed me to head financial communication despite not even knowing what an earnings-per-share was.
A few years later, I joined two friends and built the largest independent public relations/advertising firm in Pittsburgh. For ten years, I pushed the courage of executives at international company AMP Incorporated to correct environmental and other problems. Later I pulled together a small team of inventive and creative folks to build interactive locomotive exhibits for Norfolk Southern, coached medical directors on adjusting disruptive behaviors, and shaped an informal online learning model for a Saudi Arabian multinational. And then, in recent years, I found a new joy in co-authoring what became a popular photographic children’s book, Heronymus Heron Discovers His Shadow (and a Whole Lot More).
Yeah, Mom, I have come a long way. But what has not changed is how a dear friend described me: “You afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” That’s why I built this website: to disrupt ordinariness, affirm the overlooked, and encourage all whom I know to stretch and strut your stuff. You’re worth it. You, too, have come a longer way than you probably think. Go for it.
Business Profile
What I Have Done
I Helped Executives ...
move outside the box to better see what’s inside the box, and to rethink and re-engineer how they lead rather than jumping on what’s trendy and transient.
Specifically, I:
- Convinced and showed SABIC (Saudi Arabia) senior management how to capture and convert internal expertise into content for the company’s new learning portal.
- Globalized employee thinking by creating a communication strategy that repositioned AMP Incorporated (now Tyco) from a U.S.-centric manufacturer to a global solutions provider.
- Reshaped, through a comprehensive communication program, the profile of Allegheny International from a specialty steel producer to a multibillion-dollar conglomerate.
- Reformulated the traditional management (Tollgrade) business plan into an accountability system that linked the plan to departmental/individual performance plans.
- Imagined and created high-tech, interactive exhibits, including a locomotive simulator (Norfolk Southern), for trade shows and museums.
- Persuaded and demonstrated to management at two companies (KnowledgePlanet and Lynch) how to build pride and credibility by using employees in advertising/marketing.
- Crafted corporate messages and positions on various public issues through speeches written for CEOs and other executives (Alcoa, AMP Incorporated, SABIC).
- Shifted management’s defensive approach (AMP Incorporated) to environmental issues that established a corporate reputation for proactivity, credibility, and transparency.
- Helped ease employees through traumatic change: workforce reductions, plant closings, hostile takeover, environmental contamination, health scares, workplace violence, etc.
- Taught many executives/managers how to change media interviews from a Q&A to opportunities to communicate corporate messages.
What I Help Leaders Do
Listen to Themselves
Whether one-on-one or in a group, I convert what executives say into what they really mean. Such sessions are disruptive, revealing, and critical to effectively and realistically changing an organization.
TALK LIKE YOU WRITE
I’ll show you how to talk comfortably and persuasively with an audience rather than letting your PowerPoints overwhelm them.