Hobart and William Smith Colleges

19 June 2015 Feiner 86 Authors First Book

Stacy Feiner 86, PsyD recently released her first book, Talent Mindset: TheBusiness Owners Guide to Building Bench Strength. The book coaches business owners to develop solutions to managing talent based on their own expectations for performance. Feiner brings psychological strategies that help leaders do what they say they want to do, while a strong bench of talent ultimately becomes the companys competitive advantage.

Talent Mindset was released on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions in March, and offers strategies and tips to business owners for acquiring, developing and deploying talent. Feiner focuses on how to build a strong bench of talent to advance the companys goals. Afterall, Feiner says, people drive the numbers. So leaders must know their talent as well as they know their numbers. Ultimately Feiner expects the book will help businesses especially those in the middle market build bench strength, drive strategy, and enhance value.

I think the work I do today is about improving the human condition by helping business owners achieve the success they want and deserve, and simultaneously strengthen our economy, says Feiner. Talent Mindset is about reviving business owners belief in themselves. It awakens them, and when applied, it empowers them.

Feiners approach concentrates on three corridors for creating and strengthening business talent management: acquisition, development, and deployment. These are further broken down into nine steps, or centers of excellence, that build and link the three main methods to develop a companys talent infrastructure.

Feiner targets the advice in Talent Mindsetspecificallytowards middle-market business owners, who employ the majority of the American workforce. According to Feiner, these businesses are underserved and facing unique and complex challenges which require different and more personal approaches than those employed by large corporations.

In addition to writing Talent Mindset,Feiner is an executive coach for the middle market, bringing psychological strategies to business owners to help them improve their performance and advance their businesses. She is also a director of BDO USA Management Consulting, one of the nations largest independent accounting and business consulting firms, and a national speaker. Currently, shes been promoting her book through signings and private group sessions, and has been invited to speak at conferences about her work.

Feiner says she was inspired to write the book after several of her clients insisted she put her methods to paper and reach a larger group of leaders and businesses owners who could benefit from her advice. The book, which took her about a year-and-a-half to write, drew from the strategies she has developed throughout her entire career.

My mantra is, Self-awareness is a leaders ultimate competitiveadvantage,' Feiner says. In my opinion, my approach is unique because I prod leaders to realize they can be and must be great.

Feiner earned her B.A. in sociology and education at HWS, and went on to earn her M.S. from Northeastern University and her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Illinois School for Professional Psychology. At the Colleges, Feiner was a recipient of the Ruth Young Peace Prize, and was involved in Farm Club, the Political Education Network, andDouble Visionmagazine. She also served as a resident assistant for International Students House and as a teaching assistant for Professor of Sociology Jack Harris.