Developing leaders. Designing change.
I spent over a decade in behavioral health learning to read what people do, not just what they say in a meeting or write in a survey. That skill turned out to translate directly into business, because a disengaged team and a resistant client show up the same way: in behavior, not in what gets said out loud. I use that same read to find what’s actually driving (or killing) motivation and performance, then build hiring, training, and change practices around it.
Build the people side of your business
Choose one service or combine them. Every engagement is scoped to your team, your timeline, and the results you need.
Talent Acquisition
Hiring is a behavior-prediction problem before it’s a paperwork problem. I build interview processes that get past the rehearsed answer and onboarding plans that set people up to actually stay, because a good hire who quits in month four isn’t a good hire.
- Role clarity and job description design
- Structured interview guides and scorecards
- Hiring manager interview training
- First 90 days onboarding plans
This is for you ifYour team keeps hiring people who look great on paper and burn out or bail within the first few months, and you want hires that stick and perform, not just fill a seat.
Training & Learning Design
I’m finishing my M.Ed. right now, focused on personalized and mixed-modality learning, which is a fancy way of saying not everyone learns the same way, and a one-size slide deck proves it every time someone zones out. I build training people actually retain and use, because the point was never the training, it was what changes after it.
- Training needs assessment
- Curriculum and workshop design
- Live facilitation, in person or virtual
- Follow-up tools to measure what stuck
This is for you ifYou’re tired of checking the training box every year with nothing to show for it, and you want learning that shows up in how people actually work, not just a certificate.
Leadership Development
New managers don’t need more theory, they need to understand what’s driving their team’s behavior and what to do about it. I coach leaders on reading their people accurately, what’s motivation, what’s burnout, what’s just a bad week, so they respond to the real thing instead of guessing.
- New manager readiness programs
- Leadership cohorts and 1:1 coaching
- Strengths and behavioral assessments
- Feedback and difficult conversation skills
This is for you ifYou promoted your best performer into management and she’s now leading people who report to her for the first time, and you want her leading with confidence, not just surviving.
Change Management
A rollout succeeds or fails in the hallway conversations that happen after the official announcement, not in the announcement itself. I plan for that, mapping how people will actually react so the plan accounts for real behavior, not the behavior you wish they’d have.
- Change readiness assessment and stakeholder mapping
- Leadership communication strategy
- Manager guides and staff messaging templates
- Implementation timeline and check-ins
This is for you ifSomething big is changing soon and you want people bought in and moving with you, not quietly checked out and waiting to see what happens.
Shakirah Forde, LCSW
Before I was running leadership development programs, I was running clinical treatment teams, the kind of work where you learn fast that what someone says in a meeting and what they actually do are often two different things, and your job is to catch the gap before it becomes a crisis.
That instinct is the backbone of everything I do now. I hold an LCSW and spent 14+ years in behavioral health leadership, I’m finishing an M.Ed. at UGA in Learning, Leadership & Organizational Development, which is a formal way of studying how people actually learn, and somewhere in there I picked up a Human Capital Management certificate because apparently I like collecting letters after my name. What I bring to the table isn’t a framework off a slide, it’s a trained eye for what’s really going on with your people, and the tools to do something about it.
Based in Atlanta. Available in person or virtual, depending on how far you want me to drive.
From first call to lasting results
Discovery call
A free 60-minute conversation to understand the challenge and confirm we’re a fit.
Assess
Interviews, surveys, and a look at your current systems to find what’s getting in the way.
Design
A tailored plan, program, or toolkit with clear deliverables and a timeline.
Embed
Rollout support and check-ins so new practices hold after we’re done.
Ready to calibrate your team?
Start with a free 60-minute discovery conversation. Send me a note at Hello@CalibrateChange.com and we’ll find a time.