As we all have, I have battled my share of self-doubt demons and faced down a good number of crappy turns-of-events in my life. I am an adopted child. Both my parents were alcoholics. My ex-husband and I divorced when he underwent gender re-assignment surgery. So yeah, there was that. But I was smart, went to a good school, rose through the ranks to become a successful leader. I had my share of setbacks along the way, but through it all, I learned a ton about what it meant to become a good manager, including how it was important to bring my whole self to the task.
Of all the tasks I was called on to do, my favorite was mentoring the younger producers at my company. Helping people step into their leadership was soul-satisfying to me. Many times, I asked people to take a leap of faith and try something tough, with the knowledge that I would be there to catch them if they stumbled. And every one of them was willing to take the risk. And they succeeded. Wildly.
A recent layoff and the loss of my mother to cancer brought me to seek out a life coach for some much-needed help navigating the rest of my career. That act turned out to be one of the most pivotal and happiest decisions of my life. I was fortunate to find an experienced coach who helped me understand what was truly important to me. My coach taught me how to distinguish those voices that were authentically mine from external influences.
Being coached clicked for me. I figured out quickly that I wanted to help others more directly to take their own journey to leadership and make that the focus of my work.
Now, I have the privilege of working with high achievers who have been thrust into leadership roles to help them find and develop their own brand of leadership, so that they can lead and inspire with vision and with ease.