Department of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

It is fitting that you are ending your federal career at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC) where you contributed significantly to the agency’s achievements in increasing the level of employee engagement, introducing innovative ways of thinking and communicating , and coaching numerous supervisor and employees in effective communication strategies. Cynthia, EEOC has benefited tremendously from your skill and dedication in delivering numerous Crucial Conversation classes, and Facilitated Discussions,Team Dynamics workshops, and Strategic Workforce training to various groups of employees from our senior executive cadre to our joint labor management councils to our field office staffs. Many office directors and staff have written to applaud your delivery of these programs and the resulting effect on their workplaces.

I write this letter in strong support of Cynthia Butler. As a Commissioner and former Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), I have known Cynthia since April 2015, when she joined the EEOC’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (“OCHCO”) on detail from the Department of Education. In September 2015, I hired Cynthia as Employee Engagement and Innovation Special Assistant on my staff in the Office of the Chair (“OCH”). From the time she joined the EEOC until March 2017, when she retired from federal service, Cynthia played a key role in our internal EEOC employee engagement efforts. In OCHCO, Cynthia completed a Learning Management System analysis and purchase recommendation to enhance the Training and Development branch. She also conducted Crucial Conversations training for over 400 employees and supervisors. In addition, while in OCHCO, she conducted individual, leadership, and team coaching, team enhancement and external agency trainings. At the EEOC, we made strengthening employee engagement a top priority, and Cynthia worked with our leadership throughout the EEOC to achieve this end. She conducted listening sessions with senior leaders across the agency and helped to analyze the results of those sessions. Through this feedback, she developed suggestions for enhancing employee engagement. She also hosted an innovative series of listening sessions with first line supervisors and helped to develop a “First Line Leaders Group,” which provides a forum for advice and support among leaders and now has 30 leaders who participate. The results of this work were significant for the agency. At the end of 2016, EEOC was ranked among the mid-size federal government agencies with the largest increase in scores in the Federal Employment Viewpoint Survey on both the Employee Engagement Index and the Inclusiveness Quotient Index. Cynthia made significant contributions to EEOC’s progress on these fronts. Cynthia is also a talented educator and team builder. In her time with the agency, she provided Crucial Conversations training to the entire EEOC Senior Leadership, along with 200 additional employees that were involved in the agency’s Joint Labor Management Council. She received overwhelming positive reviews from those who participated who reported being better able to address challenging labor management concerns, as well as performance issues. She also hosted over 40 team dynamics and enhancement trainings for agency teams (both at our headquarters and in the field), which promoted employee engagement and enhanced team dynamics and communication. She also provided personal one-on-one coaching to over 100 staff and leaders from across the agency. Most recently, Cynthia conducted a training designed to encourage EEOC employees to engage with the agency’s newly launched performance management system. Cynthia also played an important role in our diversity and inclusion efforts. As part of that work, she partnered with staff in EEOC’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer to reorganize the template for a major Diversity in Government report. From a personal standpoint, Cynthia also played an invaluable role in leading retreats for the Chair's immediate office. She created a safe space for communication to assist us in building a positive and highly productive workplace team. Cynthia is a talented professional who contributed greatly to strengthening our agency. Her employee engagement and team building efforts resulted in improved outcomes, and I highly recommend her services. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email atjennyryang@gmail.com or telephonically at 202-669-0005.

It is my distinct privilege to provide a Past Practice Reference Testimonial about the training and education that me and my staff have received from Cynthia Butler. While employed at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), I had my first experience with this phenomenal trainer. EEOC had contracted Cynthia too provide Crucial Conversations training for their Senior Executives and supervisors. The training she provided taught us the skills that we needed to improve dialogue & engagement, create behavior change, and build high-performance & culture organizationally. AFTER THIS TRAINING I CAN UNEQUIVOCALLY THAT EVERYONE WALKED FROM THIS TRAINING EQUIPPED WITH THE SKILLS TO have those needed difficult conversations. My second exposure to Cynthia’s training came when I personally requested team dynamics training for my staff. This involved very in-depth pre-work to understand the individual dynamics for everyone on my team as well as the intended outcome. The need for this training was based on some very difficult team dynamics which was harming our team proficiency. This training occurred over several days and after the training the team shared with me the extreme value and usefulness of the training. Lastly I have had an opportunity to seek Cynthia’s in-depth guidance and advice on other organizational and individual relationships that have been extremely helpful! I highly recommend Cynthia for any type of entity or individual training from small to large groups. As an employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) now, I have shared my experiences with Cynthia with other DOJ senior leaders. Foe any needed training , Cynthia will be the first person that I would call.