Sherri Petro
President
VPI Strategies
California Miramar University (CMU) Professor
Biography
Engaging. Encouraging. Experienced.
Solutions are clearer from unusual and creative places. Sometimes you need a guide to get there. Meet Sherri Petro, positive provocateur, who has a distinctively different way of looking at the world. Years of experience has taught her that we are missing some fundamental and critical communication elements as we seek success.
Whether conducting workshops, offering humor-filled presentations or working through tough organization issues, Sherri leverages story-telling and common sense to help participants see possibilities. An analyst at heart, she can cut to the chase and illuminate the core issue.
Sherri’s research on the multiple generation workplace communication is an example. She knows we have the keys to the kingdom in our organizations. We’re not looking for answers where they can be found.
By leveraging her experience, expertise and education, Sherri can:
- Illuminate multiple possibilities
- Identify roadblocks and
- Assist individuals and organizations in innovatively achieving desired results
Sherri is the President and Chief Strategy officer of VPI Strategies where she unifies people, process and technology to create sustainable organizations. She has been practicing strategy and organizational development in her strengths-based management consulting firm since 2000.
- She is an expert facilitator and presenter with hundreds of presentations/ workshops/seminars to her credit.
- Sherri has published over eighty articles and blogs on strategy, marketing and coaching in which she simplifies complex concepts for busy professionals.
- Her presentations are fueled by her passion, work as a consultant and executive coach, working one-on-one with CEOs, business owners and executive directors.
Sherri’s mission is to create understanding and make connections in the quest for results. As a strengths-based strategist, she uses Appreciative Inquiry to illuminate possibilities and encourages the use of strategic thinking skills. While keynote presenting, facilitating, and training, she is both thought-provoking and fun. When coaching, she asks powerful and provocative questions.
Her diverse 20+ year career includes stops in customer service, operations, administration, sales, marketing and strategic planning. Sherri has worked as an intrepreneur, an entrepreneur and a facilitator and consultant in many industries. Clients range from nonprofits to for-profits, from medical device manufacturers to virtual learning organizations, from small business to divisions of Fortune 500 companies. Sherri complements her consulting by teaching the next generation of global business leaders through California Miramar University, with students in North America, Asia Pac and Africa.
Sherri earned a Master in Business Administration degree with an emphasis on Strategic Planning from Pepperdine University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Youngstown State University, magna cum laude.
Keynote Presentations
Looking for a dynamic speaker whose mission is to create understanding and make connections? Engaging. Encouraging. Experienced. These three words describe Sherri's consistent delivery and attributes. A crusader masked as a management consultant, Sherri has stories, statistics, and style that drive the content home. She is an edu-tainer.
Whether an annual conference, work event, team meeting or a unique occasion, Sherri is available to present on several hot topics.
Services
Facilitations
Are you looking for a facilitator who can create a bold, positive space in which to achieve your objectives? Sherri facilitates sessions that help the initiatives make sense. Using her pre-facilitation interview discovery process, she gets to the core issue before she walks in the room and leverages the group dynamics to break down fear and create a system for success.
Having managed for 20 years and been trained in multiple disciplines such as Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers and Neurolinguistic Programming, Sherri has both the experience and the training to provide insights, resolve core internal issues and move the needle.
Services include:
- Strategic retreats
- Meeting facilitation
- Brainstorming sessions
- Change initiatives
- Merger discussions
- Market research facilitated discussions
Training
Are you seeking hot topics with real learning transfer? Looking for edu-tainment at your offsite with a common sense and a truly applicable message? Interested in workshops on the business staples with skills that can be immediately used?
Sherri earns an average of 4.65 (1-5 scale) for her facilitative instructional style on session evaluations. Sherri offers more than 30 modules of professional, team, and personal development topics which can be mixed and matched or taken as individual sessions. She is a certified trainer in multiple disciplines. Her modules include leadership skills, communication skills, teambuilding, strategic thinking, board capacity and coaching for managers.
Coaching
Ready to work with someone who already believes in you? You are whole, resourceful, and creative. You have more answers than you are aware. Success comes from the inside out. An objective party committed to the best outcome, it is Sherri’s job to ask powerful questions and provide insights on a professional level and illuminate answers on a personal level. She was trained by ICF-certified Master Coach, Dr. Wilson Bullard, and has been coaching in an official capacity since 2002.
Decision Support
VPI Strategies provides the quantitative and qualitative research and analysis you need to answer complex business questions. 20 years experience. Multiple industries. We articulate your concerns, perform the research, provide the analysis, generate recommendations and report on findings. The answers? Practical, Clear, Objective, and Defensible.
Strategy Development
Using a strengths-based process, VPI Strategies creates a workable, owned, dynamic strategy that provides focus and direction. Start-up? Established organization? We provide practical options to create and maintain a sustainable advantage.
Performance Support
VPI Strategies provides support and an objective perspective to insure your decisions, strategy, intentional design and capacity-building is executed successfully to agreed-upon metrics. We assess the current state, offer solid recommendations, propose and deliver training solutions and coach individuals through the change. With a sound methodology of keeping the objective in mind and asking tough questions, VPI uncovers and offers solutions to remove the obstructions to your organization’s optimal performance.
Speaking Topics
Whether it be an annual conference, work event, team meeting or a unique occasion, Sherri is available to present on several hot topics.
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Work with Me! Communicating Across Generations
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Are You Prepared for the Generation Leadership Shift? Understanding Tomorrow’s Leadership Landscape Today
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Leveraging Generational Knowledge to Accelerate Marketing and Sales Success
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Interpreting the Signs – What’s Your Strategy for the Next Workplace Revolution?
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Women and Leadership: What’s Next?
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Hope, Prince Charming, and Other Leadership Lessons
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Me Management
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Strategic Slips: Lessons from the Trenches
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Why Aren’t We Getting Along? Lessons Learned in OD Interventions
Publications
“From Jitterbug to Twitter” White Paper
“Equine Facilitated Coaching” White Paper
Recommendations
“Reliable and precise on her delivery - Sherri's innovative ideas, expertise, skills and understanding of internal dependencies and the challenges of the utility market made projects a dream to work on with her. As a facilitator, she is genuine, engaging and flexible, while creating a non-judgmental and objective environment that guarantees client success. If you want positive, sustainable results, Sherri is the right person for the job!”
- Shannon Fricilone, Program Manager and fellow OD professional at San Diego Gas and Electric
“Sherri has been an absolute joy to partner with! She is an outstanding facilitator and knowledgeable in many subjects. She is always prepared and brings real-life experiences to the classroom to make the learning real and applicable for the participants. Her background in organizational development and strategic management has brought the courses we offer to a whole new level!”
- Melissa Steeg, Human Resources Organizational Development & Learning, San Diego Unified Port District
“I had the pleasure of participating in a series of Seasoned Leader Workshops facilitated by Sherri. Though the workshop participants were from varying organizational backgrounds, Sherri tailored a custom program rich in introspective exercises to ensure all participants received substantial and valuable take-away practices. I strongly recommend Sherri as an excellent resource for any person or organization seeking to enhance their organizational development or professional management capacity.”
- Kevin Pease, Designer/Marketer for Non-profits & Public Service
“Sherri is one of the most knowledgeable and competent business coaches I have known. She focuses on RESULTS, not just talk. I highly recommend you consider her if you want to take your business to the next level.”
- Barb Hill Behar, Master Coordinator and Distributor of Shaklee Products # 1 Natural Nutrition and Green Company in the US
“Sherri is absolutely committed to staying and playing on the leading edge in order to create the next generation workplace. I have never met anyone so dedicated to each individual's success within their organization as she is. It is her passion.”
- Amaya Gayle Gregory, Tools for Transformation
“I never hesitate to refer Sherri to clients or colleagues because I know they'll always be impressed. Her keen business insight and her ability to understand and explain the multi-generational workforce allow her to be a true asset when helping organizations thrive and grow.”
-Jeff Toister, CPLP, PHR, Author of "Service Failure"
