Coaching Programs

I coach in many areas of leadership, with a particular emphasis on how thoughts and beliefs influence behavior, style and results. In all cases, my coaching programs are designed to yield tangible results in such areas as executive presence, leadership credibility and respect, team leadership, relationship building, and cultures with increased psychologically safety, accountability and inspiration.  While these might be the external outcomes, the process develops internal capacities of self-awareness, presence, self-confidence, connecting to others, empathy, and self-care.  

An important distinction I make in my coaching work is between a skill and a way of being. A skill is something that we learn to do, while a way of being is a mindset or attitude that we embody (that influences the skills we bring to bear). In my coaching work, I am more committed to an approach focused on supporting a shift in a way of being because in my experience, that shift will create new opportunities for new skills to be demonstrated, while developing (just) a skill is not as transformative.

 My personal development has shifted from holding my own expertise and intelligence as my primary value, to also including the wisdom I can offer from tapping into my heart and gut. I sometimes say that I used to be “a neck up” consultant. I’m grateful to now embody a presence that reflects an integration in myself that allows me to offer something more profound to my clients.  

As a coach, I straddle the continuum between pure coaching where the coach asks questions and serves as a witness for the client, to an expert model where the coach is more of a consultant who provides expertise. The balance matters. On one side, a coach can become so reflective that the client doesn’t feel enough support, and on the other side, she can become too forthcoming with advice and limit the client’s personal growth. My intention is to be a partner and confidant in service of my client’s development; where I am a curious and supportive listener while also offering my perspective, feedback and relevant experiences. Clients tell me that they appreciate my active engagement, presence, caring, and my keen insights.

My coaching methodology is creative and customized. 

The first phase of the coaching process is focused on data collection, analysis and program design. Key tasks in this phase include our initial meeting, conducting interviews from a 360-degree viewpoint, analyzing findings and presenting a custom-designed coaching program that includes feedback, a compelling narrative about this moment in your life, and a proposed purpose and a set of development objectives for our engagement.

The second phase is program implementation. During this phase, we meet face-to-face (semi-monthly for 90-minute sessions) to deepen self-observation and learnings, resolve challenges and build traction on practices. The results of this phase are a sense of mastery around the objectives that we have set, a plan for continued development, and feeling prepared to be self-sufficient.