How I Add Value
Coaching is not intended to “fix” a person or provide recipes for change and success. Coaching is to provide space and time for you as coachee to figure out how you can build on your strengths, be aligned with your values, further develop yourself and enjoy your professional life.
We were all born as perfect human beings, but into a world that is not perfect and is becoming more and more complex. If I coach you, I stand with you and beside you to help you reflect on your work experiences, relate them to your whole person, including your values, and gain clarity on where you want to focus your impact. With that clarity, you will become more intentional on how you are spending your time and notice whether what you are doing (or not doing) aligns with your vision of yourself and your best self. I will work with you on the mindsets and habits that are getting in the way of your focus and vision. Together, we will explore experiments that you can undertake in your daily life to try out different versions of yourself. Other experiments might help you to shake up your assumptions of how you should live your life.
You might not feel quite comfortable with the culture of your workplace. We will explore together your values and the values of your workplace to help you gain clarity whether you are aligned with that culture. If you are not fully aligned, we might explore what it might take for you to be aligned enabling you to lean in and contribute your authentic self to your employer’s work culture.
You might battle with self-confidence and an impostor syndrome. I will help you discover your value-based strengths, your capabilities that you developed to-date and contributions that you already made to your workplace and culture to convince your inner saboteur self that you indeed earned your place to be where you are and find your voice to speak up for what you stand for.
You might have a mental model that might hold you back. Mental models shape how you look at the world, how you see yourself in the world, how you analyze and solve problems and relate to other people. You acquired your mental models through your life experiences, sometimes when you were quite young. Mental models are like two sides of the same coin. They can serve you, drive you and support you, but they can also be traps that have consequences and cause missed opportunities.
For example, your mental model might be that you must deliver results all the time, and at all costs. This mental model might have driven you to high performance professionally with all the rewards that come with it. At the same time, your mental health and work relationships might have suffered amid the constant performance pressure you applied on yourself. Also, you might not have taken care of your mental health and feel you are burning yourself out. We will explore together how this mental model might have served you and how it might have stood in your way, and how you could reframe it to support your development into your best self.
Having spent 30+ years at a big law firm, starting as a junior associate and developing all the way to being a Managing Partner of the largest US office, and having mentored and coached many colleagues on their journey to partnership, I appreciate what it takes to develop expertise, competence and self-confidence and how each employee can contribute to an inclusive work culture. I have benefitted greatly from being coached at several crucial stages of my career, when I first became partner, when I assumed the role of managing partner and as part of my coaching journey.
As part of my participation in Northwestern's Organizational and Leadership Coaching program this past year, I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the theory behind learning and coaching and coach Northwestern students, business executives, non-profit executives and law firm partners. I have observed and experienced in my coachees and in myself what a significant impact coaching can have on one's personal and professional development and life satisfaction .
I look forward to paying it forward by helping and supporting you in your personal and professional development!