Steven M. Darter
Brand Mentor & Advisor to The Giftedness Group®
Ed.S. Counseling, SUNY Albany
M.S. Education, SUNY Albany
B.S. Sociology, SUNY Oswego
We’re proud to announce that Mr. Darter will serve The Giftedness Group® as Advisor, Mentor, and all-around influence as we enter new seasons of growth.
Mr. Darter brings over 45 years of experience helping people discover and live out their giftedness, bringing purpose, direction, and profit to more than 5,000 lives.
About Steven Darter
Since 1976, Steven Darter has focused his consulting on helping organizations improve results through a better understanding and positioning of people and helping people make good decisions about their life and work. He specializes in executive and management development, career development, team development, selection, succession, and consultation on issues related to job fit, performance, and the effective utilization and management of strengths. He has extensive experience evaluating and advising people, ranging from CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations to troubled teenagers, on work, career, and life issues.
During his long career, Steve has interviewed close to 5,000 people. In each interview, he used SIMA® (The System for Identifying Motivated Abilities) to understand the person's unique motivational design {Motivated Abilities Pattern® (MAP®)} and best paths for success; and in some cases, what had gotten in their way. This vantage point gave Steve an unusually close-up view of how peoples' lives unfolded, including their successes and failures, and the impact of decisions they made, actions they took, beliefs they adopted, course corrections they made, regrets, feelings of disappointment and failure, and satisfaction.
Steve is a recognized expert in helping people understand the implications of SIMA and MAPs; and is known for his dynamic and engaging presentations, workshops, seminars, and team building sessions.
Authorship
Steve has been writing and speaking about motivated strengths and SIMA® and the impact it has on individual, team, and organizational productivity, effectiveness, and work satisfaction since 1976. He is the author of several articles and three books:
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Lessons from Life: Four Keys to Living with More Meaning, Purpose, and Success which has been ranked by one media company as the #1 “profound book about finding yourself"
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Inside My Mind: Thought-Provoking Poems about Love, Life, People, Aging, Moving On, and God (2024).
Timeline
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1976, started consulting with People Management Inc. (now SIMA International)
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1984, appointed Senior Vice President & Head of Executive Search and Selection with SIMA®
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1990-2005, President of People Management Northeast Inc.
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1996-1999, Chairman of People Management partnership organization
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2005, Founder of People Management SMD, LLC
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2012, semi-retirement but he does take on a limited number of speaking engagements
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2025, Mentor & Advisor to The Giftedness Group®
Teaching Engagements
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St. Joseph College - Career Counseling (graduate-level),
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University of Hartford - Managing to Strengths (MBA Advanced Practicum)
Honors
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The New Career Makers - One of North America's top executive recruiters (based on survey results of CEOs, senior HR executives, and other business leaders.
“We’re indebted to Mr. Darter for his expert-level advisory to our company as a whole and each of us as individuals. His insight, wisdom, and humor are enriching our lives as leaders and we’re confident the leaders that we help will have been impacted by Mr. Darter’s giftedness, as well."
- C. M. Rippey
CEO, Principal Consultant
The Giftedness Group®