For 26 years Paragon has had one primary purpose – to be the best IT staffing partner to our clients and consultants. And while that continues to be our core focus, we are excited to announce the addition of a new service line focused on leadership development.  

Thirteen years ago, several Chief Information Officers came to Paragon with the idea of offering a program to help accelerate the development of leaders within their organizations. With the help of outside leadership consultants, Paragon offered a once-a-month, professionally-facilitated Forum in Iowa, before eventually expanding the concept to three additional states – Arizona, Minnesota and Nebraska. It has been an incredibly rewarding journey that has led to life-long friendships, personal transformations and career growth for many participants. It is something we know we have done well, and something we believe we can do better.  

Over the past few years, we have received many requests for more sessions, more content, and approached about the possibility of bringing similar trainings into organizations. We believe the desire and need around leadership and culture development is so great that we have hired a full-time Director of Leadership Development to enhance our existing Forum and to offer additional programs to leaders and businesses throughout the country.  

While we will remain committed to information technology, a pain point we frequently hear is the cohesion between IT and other business functions. We foresee an opportunity to not only help technology professionals level up their leadership, but influence a multidisciplinary team of leaders with this new offering.  

So, without further verbosity, I’d like to introduce you to Heidi Bedier. Heidi comes to Paragon with over 25 years of experience in guiding leaders, teams and organizations through change management, leadership development and culture formation. She holds a Master of Science in Adult Learning, Performance and Development and is currently a PhD candidate pursuing her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership. She is a graduate of the Brain-Base Coaching Program with the Neuroleadership Institute and is a Ritz Carlton Service Excellence Culture Program Participant!  

Heidi has been shadowing Adam Carroll who has been the mastermind behind Paragon’s Leadership Forum for the past three years. We cannot thank Adam enough for always representing Paragon so well and for providing an outstanding program that keeps leaders engaged month after month. Adam has facilitated the Forum while balancing an array of other passions and full-time responsibilities outside of Paragon. He was also part of our selection process for this new role. He and Heidi share many similar passions – maybe none more so than an ongoing desire to learn and help others become the best versions of themselves.  

We believe by going “all in” on leadership development, it helps to further our purpose of being the best partner to our clients and consultants. Organizations, especially in IT, face fierce challenges to attract and retain good, quality talent. The traditional methods to recruiting and retaining talent need new thinking, new approaches and leadership that are willing to transform outdated practices. With Heidi’s help, leaders will discover how a purpose-centered approach is more effective in today's business climate.

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