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Betsy Sanders  

Betsy Sanders is a business consultant dedicated to improving corporate organizational efficiency and individual growth.

Ms. Sanders began her experience leading winning-edge organizations when she joined Nordstrom as a sales apprentice.  She moved quickly through the ranks, becoming Nordstrom’s first female store manager.  Ms. Sanders and her team made retail history building the new southern California business to $1 billion in annual sales over a twelve-year period, quickly becoming Nordstrom’s largest and most profitable region.  While developing Nordstrom into a business partnership with their customers, this team, under Betsy’s leadership is credited with having set the industry and international standards for service.

Her book, Fabled Service, has been a sustained top-seller since its first printing in 1995.  Now available around the world in several languages, it has become the handbook of choice for numerous established businesses and budding entrepreneurs alike.

Ms. Sanders earned an undergraduate degree in German, studying at the University of Munich, under the sponsorship of Wayne State University. She has a Masters in Secondary Education from Boston University and a Certificate in Management from the University of Washington Graduate School of Business.  She is a dedicated lifelong learner, holding certificates from numerous seminars and programs, all of which have added greatly to her understanding of the dynamics of highly functioning, customer-focused organizations.

Ms. Sanders holds director positions with such prominent corporations as: Wal~Mart, Wolverine World Wide (Hush Puppies), Washington Mutual, Advantica (Denny’s), and WellPoint (Blue Cross).  In addition, she serves on advisory boards for several privately held companies and as a personal mentor to executives in various customer-focused businesses.

Speech Topics


Leadership Lessons in the Age of Obama

President Barack Obama stands at the forefront of a transformational leadership model that is generational, collaborative, and technological. As chief operating officer and senior advisor to the Obama for America campaign, Betsy Myers had a front row seat to history in the making. Through lessons learned from the campaign and President Obama's leadership style, she helps leaders in both the public and private sectors apply those elements to their own organizations. Betsy outlines the tenets of respectful leadership and offers tactics for leaders who seek to improve personal and organizational success. Through compelling behind-the-scenes insight, Betsy helps audiences understand how to empower teams to take initiative with personal responsibility and how to gain credibility from teams by talking truth to difficult issues.

Rethinking and Reshaping Your Personal Leadership Agenda

Betsy Myers explores the fundamental leadership skills of personal and interpersonal leadership development. She believes the hardest person you will ever manage is yourself. In this presentation, Betsy uncovers the key tools to use while thinking about and exploring personal leadership effectiveness. Her remarks focus on personal authenticity, how to seek out and understand your personal and organizational effectiveness, developing a personal advisory board, establishing critical listening skills, and the importance of appreciating and acknowledging yourself and your team.

Women in Leadership

In this provocative presentation, Betsy Myers discusses important research and thinking around women in leadership. She explores the history of the movement for equality and shares insights gleaned through her work with Gloria Steinum, Betty Friedan, and Bella Abzug. Tracing her own career path from the financial services industry to her roles in the Clinton Administration and the Obama campaign, Betsy brings perspective from her experiences as a successful female leader. She helps audiences understand what it will take to continue closing the confidence gap, how to confront the balance question (is it really possible?), the different leadership styles of men and women, and leadership in the new generation of women.

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