Bill loves to talk!

Dr. Bill Wittich is a speaker, consultant and coach in the field of leadership motivation.  Bill earned his doctorate from the University of Southern California, and taught for 31 years at California State University, Long Beach. 

I heard first heard him speak at a Chamber event on the topic of Generational Divide. This is an interesting and thought provoking topic - at least it was for me.

Here's Dr. Bill's story:

Bill loves to talk! He also likes to share his love of helping people.  Luckily, he gets to do both through his company - Knowledge Transfer - and he gets to do it 250+ days a year.

My assumptions was that his audience was typically large corporations and organizations but in fact, he helps non-profits more than he does large companies.  Why is that?  Because non-profits seem to have more interest and need in people retention, as well as funds available to support the training.  Bill helps them understand how to respect a volunteers time, and communicate more effectively so they are able to retain these individuals who give so freely of their time without expectation of pay.

When Bill was just starting his company, he realized that the non-profit sector didn't really have a training opportunity and they were probably more in need because of the volunteerism factor.  He got into this field a little bit by osmosis - he was very involved in fund raising while at USC and found he could easily get by the "rejected" syndrome so many sales people face and difficulty with.  That morphed into speaking engagements (as a professor at USC, he had public speaking down pat!" on the subject of marketing and presentation.  Since he was also running a video/audio production company at the time, the two fields merged and he was off!

If you have the opportunity to hear his presentation on the Generational Divide, I strongly urge you to attend.  I personally was taken back by the accuracy of the 4 generations - and of course really identified with my own "Baby Boomer" sector.  I also had an opportunity - the very next day - to experience a Millennial's world and their impression of the work world.  This 18-25 year old group wants enjoyment and life balance first.  The individual I encountered was out of work, but wasn't going to get just any job - he wanted one he could enjoy.  I, being of the Baby Boomer age, had a little difficulty getting around "But what about retirement?  What about the mortgage?"  But, I'm "optimistic" he'll figure it out.  Those in the "Mature Generation" group would be wondering about this kid's loyalty when, after 1.3 years with his first employer, he would be looking for the "next" best thing in life.  The "GenEx" group would be saying "skeptically" - "Don't waste your time, you'll adapt - don't look back". 

To see more of Dr Bill's adventures, opportunities and recommended reading, go to his website Bill Wittich.

Fun Factoid about Dr. Bill:
He was politely (or not) asked to leave his Catholic SoCal High School at age 15 because every text book he opened also had a hot rod magazine in the middle and he wouldn't focus on his education (according to their standards.)  He went on to a community college (after misstating his age and graduation status) to study auto body and fenders.  A teacher interested in his success, suggested he go on to study industrial arts, which he did.