Press Release
For Immediate Release
February 1, 2012

CONTACT: Frank Sessions
TITLE: President - Graystone Associates, Inc.
PHONE: 508.485.5590
FAX: 508.624.4782
EMAIL: frank@graystoneassociates.com

Bill McQueen Joins Graystone Associates

Marlborough, MA - Frank Sessions, President of Graystone Associates, Inc., has announced that Bill McQueen, former President/CEO of Anderson-McQueen Family Tribute Centers based in St. Petersburg, FL, has become a partner in their funeral management consulting firm. "Bill is one of the leading minds in the death care profession. However, not only being recognized as a deep thinker of our profession, Bill's track record exemplifies that he is an innovator and doer as well as a successful funeral home operator", said Sessions. "We are thrilled to add him to our team of professionals and welcome him as a partner in our firm!"

"Growing up in funeral service, it always has been a love of mine so I am excited to re-connect with the profession by becoming a partner in the leading management consulting and training firm in funeral service. Graystone's client list reads like a Who's Who in Funeral Service. Our profession has been good to my family through the generations. Now, with my various talents and work experience, I not only can help teach and mentor each quality family-owned funeral home that our Graystone team serves throughout the United States and Canada, but I view this as being given a much better and bigger platform to provide additional positive impact on the focus and future of our profession," says McQueen.

Following his father's untimely death, McQueen along with his siblings owned Anderson-McQueen Funeral Homes and served as its President/CEO from 1994 to 2010. During his leadership tenure, the firm grew both organically and through acquisitions from one funeral home to five funeral homes, two human crematories, a cemetery and a pet cremation division. Furthermore, he oversaw the successful implementation of several well-known innovations, including its Cremation Tribute Center, Pet Passages pet cremation services, Life Celebration reception centers, ALifeTribute FuneralCare discount funeral operations, and its various Family Tribute burial and cremation packages. McQueen also led the initial phases of the firm's initiative to install and operate the first alkaline hydrolysis system in a funeral home.

McQueen is well-known and involved in the funeral profession on a national and international basis. He is a highly sought after presenter for various association and industry meetings in the United States, Canada and Asia. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) for 7 years and was their President in 2009-2010. He is recognized as a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner (CFSP) and has served as a spokesperson for the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). Bill is certified as an expert by the Florida court system for cremation liability cases.

"Being a former funeral home owner, licensed funeral director, C.P.A. and attorney-at-law, Bill brings many unique perspectives and understandings to the business side of the funeral profession," commented Sessions. "He has first-hand experience in growing a family funeral business, implementing change and improving its quality standards…all in one of the toughest U.S. markets. I know our clients…and the profession as a whole…will benefit from his knowledge and insights."

Press Release
For Immediate Release
October 2010

CONTACT: Lisa Streiff
TITLE: Business Development Manager
PHONE: 773.620.0786
FAX: 847.387.3462
EMAIL: lisa@graystoneassociates.com

GRAYSTONE ASSOCIATES, INC. ANNOUNCES NEW TRAINING COURSE

Frank Sessions, Principal at Graystone Associates, recently became certified in facilitating Leading at the Speed of Trust, a workshop offered by FranklinCovey, the leading global professional services firm providing solutions for today's business world. As a leader in the training and assessment field, Graystone Associates, Inc. specializes in empowering funeral service industry professionals to provide exceptional customer service to their client families. In addition to their expert analysis of market trends as well as individual and team performance dynamics, Graystone is now partnering with FranklinCovey to offer this cutting-edge workshop as part of the diversified selection of services currently enjoyed by Graystone clients.

Trust…a nice-to-have "social virtue" or a measurable, economic driver that impacts performance and stakeholder value? Research clearly shows that customers buy more, buy more frequently, refer more, and stay longer with organizations and people they trust. Plus, these organizations actually outperform with less cost. As Columbia Business School Professor John Whitney says, "Mistrust doubles the cost of doing business." Because trust is the one thing that affects everything, it is, without question, the most important strategic lever we can focus on. Since this is the case, it is critical to understand the impact that trust is having on our organizations so that we can do something about it.

What would you give to know how the trust dynamic directly affects your employees' productivity and the overall way you conduct your business? We can quantify and measure organizational trust in three specific domains or categories:

1. The trust level inside the organization (trust levels): Most organizations don't formally measure trust. Those that do, tend to measure it in this first category but then stop there. Nonetheless, measurement in this category can be helpful in that it creates awareness and a starting place. While some organizations ask general 'trust' questions using various methods, our analysis is that a very effective question is to ask "Do you trust your boss?" to employees at all levels of an organization. But to only measure trust levels and not to measure the trust components or effects is to limit our ability to solve the problem or run with the opportunity. Usually, most people already know when the trust is low and we don't need an employee survey to tell us that. What's valuable is for us to know why so that we can begin to behave ourselves out of a problem we may have behaved ourselves into.
2. The observable behaviors that create or destroy trust (trust components): When individuals, teams and organizations live the 13 Behaviors of High Trust Leaders, trust is created. The 4 Cores of Credibility—Integrity, Intent, Capabilities and Results—will correspondingly increase. When the opposite of these behaviors or the more common 'counterfeit' behaviors are displayed, trust erodes and the 4 Cores will decrease. Going beyond the general and focusing on which specific 'trust' behaviors are strengths and which are deficiencies is very valuable. We can then focus our training, communication, processes, systems, etc, to strengthen the behaviors, and ultimately the Cores, that create trust.
3. The economic impact of the trust level inside the organization (trust effects): Wouldn't it be great if "trust" showed up on the financial statements as either a 'tax' or a 'dividend'? Organizations would then use resources to eliminate the tax or create a larger dividend! Although a high trust or low trust culture doesn't literally show up on financial statements, it does show up in the following ways, which are measurable, observable and economically relevant (all of which make a strong "business case for trust"):

High trust companies elicit far greater loyalty from their primary stakeholders. Evidence for every one of these relationships is clear.

• Employees stay longer with high trust organizations.
• Customers remain customers of high trust organizations.
• Suppliers and distributors stay partnered longer with high trust organizations.
• Investors hold their investment longer with high trust organizations.

Best selling author and creator of this program, Stephen M. R. Covey, has said, "As trust is manifest in each successive wave, the effect of trust becomes cumulative and exponential."

Graystone will assist your organization to reach its maximum potential and acquire new market share. With the expert guidance of Graystone Associates, your business can be well on its way to targeting roadblocks and turning them into positive gateways.  Please contact Lisa Streiff at lisa@graystoneassociates.com for additional information on Graystone Associates, Inc.