Our Resident Coach, ‘Cheerleader,’ and Trainer 'Retires'

For nine-and-a-half years, Tess Fyalka has served as O'Shea's resident coach, “cheerleader,” and trainer, a.k.a., director of employee development, and it's a role she's officially "retiring" from. According to Mike O'Shea, Tess was instrumental in creating an exceptional employee experience for the O’Shea Team.

"At the time we hired Tess, O'Shea didn't have an employee development infrastructure. She developed and implemented a successful employee experience by improving the hiring and onboarding process and creating a system for setting expectations, goals, and reviews for employees. Most importantly, she was instrumental in creating and delivering training and leadership development programs for our team."

For Tess, this new employee development role fit perfectly with her experience and philosophy, and she convinced Mike to give it a go.

"Technically, I started in June of 2014, part-time. It was an 'experiment' that we would try for the summer. In August, I made the case to Mike – (talked him into it, really) that O’Shea needed a fulltime person in what would be a new position – Director of Employee Development. The strategic plan called for a focus on developing people – a passion of mine – but there was no such role in the organization, and no one had time to include that as their 'other duties as assigned,'" Tess said.

When Tess got hired, she immediately set up the Employee Development infrastructure.

"Because O'Shea was a people-focused organization, I really zeroed in on the development side of Employee Development, and I wanted to do everything I could in my role to help foster an environment in which team members were set up to succeed and felt valued and appreciated. Happy employees make for happy clients, plain and simple," Tess said.

As O'Shea grew, it became too much for one person to handle, and in the fall of 2018, Josh Frye joined the team to help with recruitment, hiring, and develop more HR systems. Tess focused her attention more on people development and coaching, such as the O’Shea LEADS program, Farm Team, PE Pathway, etc., which is where she says her "heart truly lies."

As Tess closes the book on her career with O'Shea, she recalls her favorite memories. "I loved the Outrageous Games because they're, well, outrageously fun and silly and a great opportunity to strengthen ties across the organization. My favorite though was every time I got to step into O’Shea University to deliver a training or alignment session. That, for me, was where the magic happened – the joy of getting to work with Team O’Shea was always the best!"

Tess' passion and joy for her job and O'Shea will undoubtedly be missed, and Mike expressed the same sentiment. "Whenever you see Tess, she was Team O'Shea all the way. Her enthusiasm for our team and culture at O’Shea will be missed."

While Tess' passion and enthusiasm will be greatly missed, she plans to stay busy managing her coaching business.

"It was pretty obvious I loved my work at O’Shea, working one-on-one with team members, project teams, and function areas, was pure joy for me. And I’m not RETIRING, I will continue to work, but I will be working less. I have my business, Angle Coaching & Communication (www.anglecoaching.com), and so I will continue to do what I love."

In addition to Tess' business, she also looks forward to traveling, cooking, exercising, reading, and singing at funerals (“The dearly departed aren't particularly judgmental," she said).

Best wishes to Tess and her next great adventure!