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Is there anything more hopeful in a business day than a fresh Post-It Note pad?  It offers so much potential for greatness, important items remembered, quick messages shared.  It’s handwriting…so it’s old-school and personal.  It’s colorful…so it’s fun!  It has special gummy stuff which makes it stay where you put it, and some days that’s the most control you have.  However, it also moves, and really, it’s the moving and reorganizing where the magic begins.

I’m a sucker for Post-Its, stickers and flip charts, and it’s not just that I love office supplies.  (I do, but that’s another story.)  I love collaboration, inspiration, and innovation.  I love getting great ideas on the table among people I respect, then sorting through the gems in ways that help people feel respected and heard.  After all the stickers are affixed, the Post-Its organized, the flip charts digested and typed, I love seeing brilliant ideas become a plan, and a plan become a success.

Welcome to my website.  My goal is to provide deeper and more colorful information about my background.  And like the colorful Post-It notes, hopefully it will reflect what inspires me.

Post-It is a registered trademark of the 3M Corporation.

This is a purely personal website. Any statements, views, or opinions expressed in it are solely those of the author and site owner, Melissa Jones, and not of any other person or business entity, including, but not limited to, Ms. Jones’ current or past employers (who have no affiliation or involvement with this website or any responsibility for its content).

About Melissa

As I reflect over twenty-five years in human resources, the moments that stand out are the moments where I walked beside someone who had a big decision to make.  Do I stay?  Do I leave?  Do I try something uncomfortable?  Do I do something unpopular or risky?  Do I push? Does this have to be… Continue reading About Melissa

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Articles

Attending a seminar about LinkedIn, I was inspired to begin writing articles.  Below are a few I have written on professional and personal interests. The Work of Networking The Birth of the Respect Journal

“chaos into clarity”

One of the biggest challenges I have in owning and running my martial arts school business is finding the right staff members, managing them for their personal and professional growth, and leadership development.  I had the privilege of Melissa Jones offering to coach me on how to improve my process of staff selection.  Mrs. Jones was quickly able to identify multiple areas of improvement in my process, including how to better identify the type of individual who would want the type of position I had to offer.  She taught me how to develop questions that would reveal insight on a behavioral level each candidate’s true personality, fit, ability, experience and decision making skills.  Because of my work with her, I was able to identify that I needed two part time employees rather than one full time.  I quickly found people that wanted the positions I had to offer and were a good fit for them (after having struggled for almost 6 months to hire someone on my own).

 

I was also overwhelmed in the daily functioning of the business, and was not spending time on planning the future of the company or on the development the staff.  I was missing clear ideas of what each staff member should be doing, and my school manager and I were both trying to take on far too many responsibilities on our own, rather than developing ownership and skills within our staff.  Mrs. Jones took us through a creative and fun process that helped us identify key issues we had neglected, how to prioritize our focus and that we needed to clarify job descriptions.  Her process helped us to identify some big holes in our structure.  It helped us to identify areas where we were underutilizing our staff, and created a system to support us in keeping clarity and focus in a meaningful direction.  She coached us on how to communicate better with our staff, how to understand and address their behaviors and how to maintain a long term outlook of the business, with a structure that has allowed us to prioritize our focus.  She took areas where we felt like things were out of control and she helped to create a clear, workable structure.

 

Since our time together, I no longer have the overwhelmed feeling that I once struggled with daily.  I have made some positive choices regarding the direction of my business and the management of my time.  She turned my chaos into clarity.  Mrs. Jones has been invaluable to me and the future of my business.  

Susan Gross, Owner and Chief Instructor, Inspire Martial Arts, Ashland, VA

“extraordinary and exceptional”

I have worked with many search consultants on both sides of the hiring equation and in my work for HR consulting companies. So I feel well qualified to state that Melissa Brooks Jones goes about her business in an extraordinary and exceptional way one rarely encounters. In an era when incivility is considered an asset, and rudeness is justified by flimsy excuses, I am most pleased to have encountered someone who is able to do an excellent job of serving her client and her employer without abandoning the simple courtesies of business. She asks intelligent, challenging and effective questions, and actually listens to the answers. Melissa provides the most thorough description and background for an available position I’ve ever seen. She defines a schedule and sticks to it. And Melissa’s courtesy, warmth and interest in the candidate is very rare and very welcome.

Philip Viener, PSV Consulting