Pam Holloway

Who is Pam Holloway?

Intelligence gatherer, Toolmaker and Teacher, focused on all things people: Markets, Customers, Organizations, Teams and Individuals.

Co-founder and chief mind maven of About People and author/coauthor of 8 books, including The Credibility Advantage, Axis of Influence and Face Values. For more information on Pam’s books, go to About People. 

What I Do

1. Help organizations better understand markets and customers and use that knowledge to attract, connect with and build sustainable customer relationships.
2. Help sales professionals better understand people dynamics, prepare presentations and create real “value add” with their customers.
3. Help organizations effectively attract, utilize, develop and retain top talent.
4. Help organizations assess their brain drain/knowledge loss risk and develop strategies for capturing and leveraging vital know how.
5. Elicit, organize and package critical tacit knowledge so that others in the organization can benefit from it.
6. Create, deliver and provide ongoing support for Human Factors-based Safety programs

What I’ve Done

1. Co-founded About People (in 2000) and successfully navigated the firm through challenging economic conditions.
2. Trained and coached hundreds of sales people, entrepreneurs and business professionals.
3. Delivered organizational development services to companies in a variety of industries and geographies
4. Partnered with Larry Wilson in the development of Knowledge Harvesting methodology and delivery of Knowledge Harvesting services.
5. 17 years in Corporate America, mostly for Mobil (pre-ExxonMobil) in a variety of internal consulting and management roles (Business Analyst, OD Consultant, Global Process Consultant, Training Manager, Knowledge Manager).
6. Authored/co-authored 8 books
7. Delivered keynotes and workshops to audiences in Europe, The Pacific Rim, Latin America, Canada and the US.

Click here for Traditional Resume/CV PDHResume2011
Click here for Non-Traditional Knowledge, Skills and Talents Overview- Who is Pam Holloway

Who I am

Personality, Strengths & Talents

• Gallup Strength finder – Maximizer, Intellection, Connectedness, Ideation, Input
• Myers Briggs – INFP
• Social Style – Analytical

Backstory

I went to 4 different schools in 5 years, which taught me how to reinvent myself, a skill that’s proven quite helpful of late.  I was a good student, borderline nerd. I was funny and fun, so I got to hang with the hip crowd.  My parents scrimped and saved to send me to private school (for which I am eternally grateful), but I was often amongst the poorest kids and often felt “less than.”  I dealt with it by being creative and funky, yet another skill set that served me well later in life. I dreamed of owning a British Racing Green Austin Healy (too many James Bond movies I suppose).  My pop got me as close as he could – bought a 63 Ford Falcon and painted it British Racing Green, put in bucket seats, a wooden dash and racing steering wheel. It was quite fetching.

I went to Clemson University, where I graduated with a degree in English Literature. I had intended to become the next Mark Twain or Nikki Giovanni, but strangely enough couldn’t find a job that called for that particular skill set. I was however able to use my portfolio of poems and short stories to land a job as a technical writer, which although terribly boring, ended up opening a lot of doors for me.

I moved to Dallas in 1979 and worked for E-Systems, IBM, and Mobil.  I took a little detour from Corporate America for two years and worked as a rock and roll writer and photographer, but when the magazine I worked for folded, I went back to Mobil, where I became an employee and stayed for 16 years.

My work at Mobil enabled me to travel the world, which I loved.  Experiencing new environs and cultures was very much “on purpose” for me.  The variety of jobs I had during my 16 years helped me learn a lot about business, about people, and about myself.  In hindsight, I’m not sure I was a good fit for Mobil, but both Mother Mobil and I did our best to make the relationship a productive one. I wouldn’t change the experience for anything.

In 2000, I left Mobil and started my own company with husband Michael.  We called the company About People because that’s exactly what we were “about”.  His background was marketing, and customer psychology. My focus was organizational dynamics, right person right job and knowledge transfer – internal psychology.  Although it has not been an easy 11 years, our About People work has been purposeful work for us and enabled us to live a great life.  In 2005, we moved to Spokane (from Dallas).  We have a beautiful home surrounded by evergreens. We have frequent visitation by deer, moose, turkeys, and a variety of small varmints that keep Woody (the Jack Russell) and Eva (the lab) on their toes.  Life is good. 

 Passions, Interests & Things I Like

• Gardening
• Mosaics (Tile, paper, wood, metal, and pretty much anything I can find)
• Photography
• Cycling
• Boating
• Reading
• Favorite Authors (Fiction): Pat Conroy, John Hart, Reynolds Price, Somerset Maughn, Milan Kundera, Ayn Rand
• Favorite Non-Fiction: Malcom Gladwell, Thomas Friedman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Bill Bryson
• Favorite topics: Mind-Brain, Connectedness, Synchronicity, Healing, Culture
• Technical Trading – Love looking at charts and finding patterns.  Love both the predictability (pattern following) and the unpredictability (“black swan”) nature of the market.