Four Letter Consulting

Whether it’s the health and effectiveness of your senior team, working with the unforeseen forces that influence your culture, or engaging your workforce, we are committed to work being a place where everyone wins – the business thrives and employees are at their best.

Culture

Listen.Engage.Evolve

Culture isn't ping pong tables and free food. It is reflected in the actions, words and attitudes of every employee. We help you be deliberate about defining and creating the culture you want. When culture works, it can be your biggest asset. 

Leadership

Vision.Practice.Perform

The qualities of a great leader
differ in each organization. Using a combination of coaching and facilitation, we help you identify
what leadership means for you and your organization and work with
you to develop great leadership at every level.

Change

Anticipate.Manage.Thrive

Organizations continue to evolve and grow at a rapid rate, and change is inevitable. We work with you and your people to manage change and ease your workforce through it so you can move forward stronger and more resilient.

Dare to Lead

Based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown, this powerful workshop is your invitation to become a braver leader as you learn the four empirically-proven skills sets of courageous leadership that are teachable, measurable, and observable.
Click here for more info.

We are fortunate to do great work with great organizations.

Our team

Through a strengths-based approach, we help leaders, teams, and organizations
harness the power of their people.

Laurel Smylie, Managing Partner

Laurel believes that work can be a place where we develop intellectually and emotionally, build lasting relationships and make meaningful contributions to the world around us, all while businesses thrive.  

Over her 15 years working in organization development, Laurel has supported household names like Hyatt and Bridgestone Tires in evolving their cultures, has partnered with organizations like SAG-AFTRA and VRBO in developing and rolling out their organizational values and has developed everyone from C-suiters to front line employees on impactful leadership in everything from large groups to 1:1 coaching. Prior to starting Four Letter Consulting, Laurel established the Organization Development and Internal Communications functions at Beachbody, where she established new flexibility practices, increased parental leave offerings and established a brand new intranet with high utilization from the jump, while offering team interventions across the organization.

Laurel believes that where you start does not predict where you can go, having supported “toxic” leaders in their transformation to brave leadership, just as she has helped some of the strongest leaders continue to refine their capabilities.

For more about Laurel, click here.

Janelle Coleman

Janelle has over 10 years of leadership coaching and culture design experience with a specialty in strategizing dynamic change to deliver high impact results. An authentic approach with emphasis on the importance of the human component, Janelle has successfully led private, government and public service organizations through change initiatives. Her strength in communication and ability to draw unseen connections have made her an architect of strategic systems.

Janelle has a unique perspective built on the understanding that one change has a ripple effect throughout an entire organization, no matter what size or kind. As a co-founder and managing partner of Four Letter Consulting, Janelle optimizes workplaces by offering leadership and executive development coaching for all levels, builds organizations' ideal cultures and executes change tactics to align teams and resources to make it a reality. Bottomline, she knows that change is hard, but her positive approach builds on teams and leaders' strengths so organizations can confront issues and overcome obstacles.

For more about Janelle, click here.

Danielle Bowditch

Danielle has over 10 years of experience helping organizations with communication, change, and navigating difficult conversations. Anchored in her M.S. in Organization Development, she comes alongside leaders to find the latent potential in their organizations.

Hailing from Washington D.C., she's partnered with private and public organizations like TSA and Girls Scouts and spent the last four years in Los Angeles with entertainment and sports powerhouse, Creative Artist Agency. 

Her approach is grounded in working with executives and their teams to uncover missed opportunities hidden by entrenched norms and unhealthy behaviors. 

She believes, “change is not possible without facing the uncomfortable, which means the key to making it through –is keeping the payoff in view.” Most change work fails for two reasons; (1) it didn’t go deep enough to dig out the roots of the problem and, (2) the change wasn’t directly connected to how the organization makes money (or drives their mission).

Once leaders are ready to be honest with themselves and their organizations, a partnership with Danielle is the natural fit.

For more about Danielle, click here.

Lindsey Sands

Lindsey Sands is a seasoned Learning and Organization Development professional with over 10 years of experience working for some of the entertainment industry’s most lauded companies.

Lindsey brings a relationship-driven approach to culture change and team development. Her perspective on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is influenced by her global consulting experience in countries such as France, Costa Rica, and South Africa. She designed tailored solutions that took into account the specific cultural elements of each region for international companies.

She believes in the power of a customized approach to change and is passionate about DEI as a means to create the most effective and innovative companies.

Lindsey was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a focus in Mass Communications and holds a Master of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Her thesis research explored the best ways to create successful and impactful Diversity and Inclusion initiatives in entertainment.

For more about Lindsey, click here.

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