Executive and Life Coaching
Scalable, individual leadership development for leaders and teams
Forward-looking, strengths-building, data and research based
Whole person approach
Focused on creating and sustaining real development and results
What is Coaching?
The foundation of coaching is a working alliance between the client or team and the coach, built on trust, respect and a willingness to learn and grow. This working alliance is the basis for truly transformative work.
Coaching isn’t about “fixing” people. Coaching isn’t therapy or mentoring or teaching. Rather, coaching is about developing great leaders in the areas it matters most. Coaching is primarily a future-focused endeavor. It’s a process of self-inquiry focused on helping the client identify and strive for an aspirational goal, and understanding how best to get there. In coaching we are focused on sustainable change and growth, starting from the premise that the client is infinitely resourceful and has a myriad of strengths and her/his disposal.
All clients come to coaching with challenges and changes they want to explore in their lives, and we look at these challenges and changes with a holistic, whole-person approach and developmental frameworks that consider the whole person. Coaching is about challenging conventional views and the stories we tell ourselves, identifying blind spots, and exploring what’s possible to create the growth and change someone wants to see at work, at home, or an any other domain. It’s about creating and sustaining meaningful change both for ourselves and the systems within which we operate.
What is our approach to Coaching?
We believe that with coaching we are helping leaders be the best versions of themselves they can be. We are not fixing or problem-solving as much as empowering, broadening understanding, and supporting people be the best versions of themselves. We start from a position that this is hard work, but positive, exciting and potentially life-changing work that yields increased impact and success. We always operate from a place of unconditional positive regard for the client and the work she/he is willing to undertake, and respect the amount of work and commitment clients need to put in for coaching to be successful.
We typically engage in short to medium term engagements. We believe that the client should be ready to do both inner work and outer work, and open to learning, challenge, and committed to the process of change.
We typically start with an initial conversation to assess coach-ability and whether the coach is the right fit for the client. Here we seek to get a basic understanding of what the client might want to work on, and we talk about the approach and methodologies behind coaching, how coaching is different than mentoring, teaching or therapy, and what this particular coaching engagement might look like, including what success might look like and how we might measure if we’ve been successful.
A typical coaching engagement will last between three and six months, of periodic sessions lasting between one to two hours. These are either done in person or by video conference or phone. As the coaching evolves, we sometimes rely on tools, models or other methodologies for expanding knowledge and understanding and to gather outside data and inputs that might be useful in coaching. We create, iterate and execute on plans for change.
About My Coaching Certifications
I earned my coaching certification through the Hudson Institute of Coaching. I have also earned the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential. I continue coaching training through various programs, including the Strozzi Institute, BeAbove Leadership, and Ornatista Conscious Creation.
The Hudson Institute of Coaching is one of the oldest, most respected, and most rigorous coach training programs globally, and is focused on developing the self as a coach and a mastery of multiple coaching methodologies and competencies. The Certified Hudson Institute Coach program is one of the only programs whose requirements also meet or exceed the requirements of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
The requirements to obtain the Certified Hudson Institute Coach credential are spread over a year, and include:
125 hours of instruction
Multiple in-person coaching labs with master coach and peer feedback
Mentor coach feedback and evaluation of multiple recorded coaching sessions
Virtual coaching labs
15 hours of coaching received during the program
Minimum 50 hours of coaching provided during the program
Completion of a longitudinal case study, a changing habits journal, a leading development plan and a learning portfolio, that includes reading logs for the 15 books and articles that form the basis for the program
Successful completion of an oral exam and a written exam