Athena Culture
Experience Empowerment!
The founder of Athena Consultants looked around the IT consulting firm where she worked and realized that there were a handful of people who were not only good at what they did, but also empowered those around them while they did it. She wondered what would happen if you took people with this natural inclination and gave them on-boarding training to enhance this skill, turning empowerment into a company culture.
Hence Athena Consultants was born!
Athena Origin Story
At Athena Consultants relationships are paramount - we strive to empower everyone with whom we work.
Athena Guarantee
Who We Are
Annie Rayhill
Founder & CEO
Annie is a problem solver. She has the ability to make even the most complex ideas, simple!
Neysa Hess
Head of People Empowerment
Neysa radiates empathy and love. She is the perfect person to help us keep our work/life balance!
Givon Dickerson
User Experience Designer
Givon is super creative. He loves to walk in others’ shoes, and is a joy to collaborate with.
Keith Grossman
Business Systems Analyst
Keith is never happier than when he’s learning something new. He has a heart the size of Texas!
Deb Hunt
Business Systems Analyst
Deb is a joy to work with! She is knowledgeable, dependable and calm in any situation.
Tamara Foster
Business Systems Analyst
Tamara loves to bring order out of chaos. She is the newest member of the team and a delight to work with!
Our Purpose:
To help small and medium-sized businesses use technology to grow.
To allow women to stay in the work force through the different stages of their lives.
To allow women and people of color to have leadership roles in the IT industry.
Our Motivation
We believe there are companies who are prevented from growing because they can’t scale their operations but are reluctant to hire IT consultants because they fear technology and being made to feel stupid. We can help!
Technology is not rocket science, but many in our industry would have you believe that it is. The most important step in implementing any software is the definition of what it does and how it impacts peoples’ lives – in this case, how it impacts productivity and your ability to scale.
At Athena we know that, so our focus is on understanding you: your business, your goals, and how you get work done. We walk in your shoes and treat you as the experts you are in your field while building a relationship built on empowerment and mutual respect.
We promise not to make you feel stupid!
“Quality Means Always Exceeding Customer Expectations”
W. Edwards Demings
Athena Culture of Empowerment
Empowerment Training
An on-boarding training focused on actionable empowerment skills.
We empower our employees as they, in turn, empower our clients
Empowering Our Employees
Total Quality Management
We follow the Total Quality Management principles of W. Edwards Deming.
Empowerment Training
Our empowerment training is focused on three attributes:
Vulnerability
Empowering Communication
Boundaries
Our owner spent two years de-constructing what people who empowered others in the workplace actually did. From there she created actionable steps around the three categories above. These steps are taught during employee on-boarding and laced through every aspect of our company culture.
Empowering our Employees
Here are just a few ways that we empower our employees and lace our culture through our company:
We’re a profit-sharing company and share 50% of net profits each year among our employees on the basis of hours worked.
We have a “Head of People Empowerment” (instead of a head of HR), and her main focus is to ensure that our employees are finding a work/life balance
Employees sign a “Social Contract” as well as a regular contract, which details our culture of empowerment”
Total Quality Management
W. Edwards Deming was an American who went to Japan to help rebuild their industry after the devastation of World War II. He is credited with helping “Made in Japan” become a mark of quality by the 1980’s. He created a management philosophy which is still revolutionary today, called Total Quality Management (TQM). We use aspects of his philosophy at Athena, including:
No internal competition
Focus on Training, Education, and Self-Improvement
Constancy of Purpose
Continuous Process Improvement
“No organization can survive with just good people. They need people improving”
W. Edwards Demings