Who We Are
Our Company
Our Vision: We help individuals, teams and organizations make the connection with their full potential in a way that leads to significant impact with themselves and their business results..
The word Connect represents our philosophy that each individual, team and organization can reach its highest potential through connection. When we connect to and are aware of our strengths and challenges, we can move forward with intentional action and choice. What is an organization if not the connections and interactions between the people? By focusing on these connections, we can help you make an impact to the larger organization.
The dual spiral was selected as a symbol of CCC because it is said to be one of the most frequent and basic building blocks in nature, and represents a formative building block. To us, it reflects our belief that all things are inter-related and if we find the appropriate connection to work on, this has a positive impact and percussive effect on the larger organization. The dual spiral has been found on artifacts as much as 24,000 years old, and across a variety of cultures and ages – making it an archetypical symbol of connectedness across time and culture.
At Connect, we believe in working with individuals, teams and organizations to make meaningful connections that are the building block of significant results, we hope we can be of service to you.
Stacey Sargent
Stacey Sargent has a passion for helping leaders and teams connect to higher levels of performance! She has been coaching and consulting, helping clients face change, improve performance and have positive impact to business results for 17 years. Clients often refer to Stacey’s ability to bring an authentic and approachable manner, to ask the right questions, bring focus to leverage points and to help create accountability and business results in the work she does. She works in partnership with her clients in a direct, open and respectful manner. She uses emotional intelligence, communications and paradoxical and systems thinking as ways to create a higher return on investment in life and work for her clients.
Stacey has worked in several key industries performing leadership, strategic, design and vision roles in business, accounting and finance, consulting, client relations, design and development. She understands business – the people, the numbers and the systems – that can be connected together in ways that transform. She has worked across industries with clients like Microsoft, PeopleSoft, and The Polyclinic, in higher education, government & municipalities, and manufacturing. She has worked internally and externally with Microsoft for more than seven years, most recently coaching senior leaders in Expo programs and facilitating for Management Excellence. She is able to communicate across hierarchy, industry and focus so that people can come together to achieve high performance. Stacey traveled the USA, Latin and South America helping organizations deal with change and challenging their processes to gain more efficiency and effectiveness. She has been a speaker at many conferences delivering energetic, inspirational and informative talks.
Stacey holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Finance from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.
"Stacey has a wonderful gift: using just a few words she can help you a lot when you really need it. I saw her working with Microsoft managers who came from more than 10 different countries and it was impressive to see how she dealt with different cultures and backgrounds. She’s smart, analytical and approachable."
~Ezequiel Glinsky, Architecture Group Manager, Microsoft
Zan Stafford
Zan Stafford brings over 25 years of business experience with her that ranges from sales executive to president. For the last 15 years she has worked as an executive coach and leadership development professional all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. She recently returned from Israel where she successfully facilitated a five-day conflict seminar between a group of Palestinians and Israelis. Zan has a passion for addressing the sticky challenges that keep clients from achieving their full potential. She is known for giving top leaders the tough feedback they need to assist them in reaching even greater levels of success, and for her ability to have direct yet supportive conversations. Often working on the edge, she quickly impacts both performance and business results.
Her clients include Microsoft, The Polyclinic, Molson Breweries, GiftCertificates.com, Employment Security Department, FareStart and Bug Music/Windswept. Zan holds a BS in Business from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Masters in Applied Behavioral Science in Executive Coaching and Organizational Development from the Leadership Institute of Seattle, and she is currently pursuing a Masters in Facilitating Conflict and Organizational Development at the Process Work Institute.
“In leadership development and as an executive coach, Zan is the total package, A+.”
~Paul Trause, Director, Department of Labor and Industries, Washington State
Jan Gelman
Jan Gelman is a leadership coach and organizational development consultant who combines compassion, inquiry, understanding and directness to help leaders get to the heart of their challenges. Whether working with CEOs or front line personnel, Jan believes that her clients are fully capable and that her role is to help them rise to their potential. Jan’s approach is to link individual and group behavioral development to business results. Based on her passion and experience traveling around the world, she keeps an eye out for how cultural differences impact relationship dynamics and performance.
She has been an internal leadership consultant at Washington State Labor & Industries; and an external consultant with organizations such as Microsoft, Whitepages.com, CarDomain, ShareBuilder, King County Metro Transit, FareStart and Gage Academy of Art. Her consultation draws upon more than 20 years of experience as a leader in business, communications, media, technology, e-commerce and product development. She has managed sales, service, and product-related teams; and been through reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions. She has held executive positions in small and large companies, including GiftCertificates.com, Sierra On-Line, and Capital Cities/ABC. Jan holds a Master of Arts degree in applied behavioral science (focus on coaching and consulting in organizations) from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University and a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Working with Jan Gelman is both an expansive and clarifying experience. Jan somehow manages to get me stretching while she is simultaneously keeping me on point. Her skill set for framing challenges and possible solutions sets seems endless. And Jan’s strong commitment to my success is palpable. With Jan I find myself eager to do the hard work of change.”
– Kathy Koss, King County Metro Transit
Mitch Shepard
Mitch Shepard has worked in the wilderness of the outdoors and the wilderness of organizations – helping people reach the edge of their capacity and bursting beyond it to new levels of influence, leadership and transformation. Mitch’s unique style is to combine interactive, experiential sessions with cutting edge organizational and leadership methods and tools. She uses this creative approach to help leaders and teams recognize the dynamics that both promote and hinder their success. Mitch has worked with and in a wide range of settings. She does facilitation, training, coaching, strategic development and team building to help clients reach beyond their own vision.
Mitch has worked with many different industries including high-tech, airline, insurance, educational institutions, banks, and resort hotels. Some of her clients include Safeco, Microsoft, and Starbucks. Mitch spent 12 years leading teams on wilderness expeditions and facilitating ropes course programs for management teams. Mitch enjoys sharing these lessons learned with the organizations she works with, and has a special knack for helping individuals and organizations navigate their way through difficult transitions. Mitch holds a bachelors degree in Business Economics and Accounting from UC Santa Barbara, and a MA in Applied Behavioral Science from Bastyr University.
“Mitch’s combination of keen insight into self, others and systems is awe-inspiring and her ability to articulate these insights with concise clarity is remarkable.”
– Program Manager, large Insurance company