Woman shapes overseas business from farm retreat

From the office in her Civil War-era farmhouse overlooking a field dotted with grazing donkeys, Linda Bower sits at her computer preparing a paper on "human performance improvement" that she soon will present in London.

From Rogersville to the world

An independent business consultant contracted by Wilson Learning World-wide to coach their business consultants, Bower is known by her Wilson clients in Europe as "The Wizard of Rogersville." Clients in Japan call her "Safe Hands."

The presentation titled "Strategy Execution is Everyone's Job" focuses on the human performance improvement concept and will be used as an in-depth marketing tool in Europe, Asia and North America.

"Human performance improvement is about asking people to commit to company success, also their colleagues' success and their own performance within the context of the highest company priorities," Bowers said.

Formerly a Wilson Learning employee, Bower now contracts with the firm to articulate its approach to HPI. She defined her talent as "helping clients execute business strategies through education and inspiring employees," and added that she sees herself as "a guide and executive coach" when she works with client organizations. "When necessary, I'll advocate change, but never force a client whose philosophy differs."

Bower's presentation quotes author Richard Koch, who defines strategy as "the pattern of decisions that intentionally or otherwise sets the long term direction of the company and determines its fate."

Bower said, "The intriguing thing about Koch's definition is that decisions make up a company culture and the company's culture guides its decisions. It is that paradox I address in my work."

Power of telecommunications

Bower's own "pattern of decisions" began with her 1979 graduation from Stephens College, where, she said, she became "the first person in the United States to earn a four-year degree in wo-men's studies." After Stephens she "traveled around Europe for two months 14 countries if you want to know and came back with $14 in the world, no job, no car and no place to live."

The native Kansas Citian eventually found work as a recruiter for a Kansas City employment agency "to better study the business market" and became "in awe of the telecommunications industry and the magnitude of change about to happen."

Excited by the emerging technology and opportunities posed by the breakup of AT&T, Bower worked her way through sales and marketing to systems integrator and management consultant with such firms as ITT, United Telecom, and Bell Atlantic. She also consulted with AT&T. She moved her career from Kansas City to Austin, Texas, to Hope, N.J., and Toronto, Canada. Now, she said, she is redefining her life's work from her rural homestead in Rogersville.

The consulting business

In her consulting work Bower has walked "the Bottoms," Kansas City's industrial area, to meet clients. In business suit and heels she has climbed ladders and "pulled wire" helping snake telephone cables through ceilings and walls with technicians in New Jersey to better understand the nature of their role within the structure of a big corporation. Her mindset, she said, is always "to look at an individual's natural abilities through lots of frameworks to help them manage a lifestyle that will enhance their performance."

One trend early in her consulting career was the influence of Japanese leadership style. "That movement of quality initiative with measured results was about a more technical and disciplined approach to business," Bower said. "It was needed, but quality' left out emotion and the human spirit. The quality of worklife is about what you can do with your work and your life. Human performance improvement gives companies a way to send one consistent message to employees about their business strategies."

She said she watches with avid interest "Europe's transition from a socialistic system to a global economy and tries to gauge the extent of Japanese and British influence on American business, as the pendulum swings first this way, then back."

She added, "It is very difficult for companies to move intentionally towards a goal when the marketplace is in constant upheaval, employee turnover is endless, and people haven't been well- prepared."

Bower said she applies a holistic approach to business strategies, based on research showing that the No. 1 reason people stay with a job is the belief that they have something meaningful to contribute through their work.

"Human behavior is a symptom," she said. "Boredom and anger mean the employee doesn't see the importance of what they do. The more confident an employee is about who they are, the better able they are to help achieve the company's goals. It is the duty of the company to help their employees achieve that confidence."

Bower said that unlike one manager who claimed employees were like mushrooms "keep them in the dark and feed them BS" her experience and research put emphasis on what it takes to drive employee capability and commitment. It is important, she said, for everyone "to be able to make choices out of informed clarity. How employees make decisions, how they act, and how they interact ... determines today's success."

Spare time pursuits

While immersed in telecommunications, Bower started her own phone museum, which she calls "Telephonom-enal." Beginning with a "frog" phone she saw at a 1983 marketing show, it has now grown into a collection of 400 novelty and character telephones and been featured on TV and in various publications. One phone, a black high-heel shoe, appeared on the front page of the "New York Times" Entertainment section to advertise a museum exhibit on how women's roles have changed with technological advancements.

The museum isn't purely frivolous, Bower said. It also is a testimony to her appreciation of "what America has been able to accomplish through creativity and innovation."

Bower also raises butterflies. To house and protect the caterpillars and chrys-alides at their various stages of metamorphosis, wire cages hang about the farm and in the kitchen when the weather gets too hot. She has spent the summer preparing the flower beds that host them.

"Lively Gardens" is another Bower business, one that arises out of her "commitment to learning" and belief that "what we do with our property matters." In this enterprise, she provides speaking engagements at garden clubs, schools and seminars on the subject "Metamor-phosis and Other Stuff."