Leadership is a Relationship
Successfully engaging and motivating teams starts with a focus on seeing each member for their full self. Often, leaders focus exclusively on the tasks at hand (doing), while failing to attend to the human (being) who contributes more than just task advancement. Focusing on the whole person is essential for high performing, engaged, impactful leaders and teams.
As a partner to my clients I contribute more than 25 years of experience supporting leaders – from two person start-ups to leadership teams of hundreds – in cultivating relationships that drive success.
My experience globally ranges across sectors and industries. What I notice most is that while environments may be wildly different, the human challenges within them remain consistent and persistent.
People, Purpose and Patterns
I am in my element at the intersection of culture, strategy, and interpersonal dynamics. I help individuals and organizations advance mission through strong effective team and stakeholder relationships, and a firm grasp on their own presence and impact. Noticing and addressing patterns is a critical piece of this work.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been seeing and making visible the patterns in our lives, and those of our organizations and societies. Patterns offer us an order, a rhythm, a way of understanding how we arrived at a place in time, and how to remain or move to the next.
Patterns help us recognize the cycles of beginnings and endings. This is true of patterns of individual behavior, organizational norms, external influences, and the broader climate in which we all exist. Recognizing and shifting patterns helps us call forth the gifts of transformation necessary to the health of our personal, organizational and social life cycles, and that of our planet. Patterns are both a way to be bound, and the architecture from which creativity flows.
When our patterns or rhythms are disrupted, or we face threats to our sense of self, our livelihood, our relationships, our companies, our community, or any aspect of our identity, it can be overwhelming. When we feel we can do nothing about it, it can be truly traumatic in ways that can cause us to shut down. Fostering psychological safety is a foundational skill in creating thriving organizations where individuals are healthy, resilient, and supported to make purposeful, impactful contributions to the mission..
Feedback is an investment in the relationship.
Giving and receiving meaningful and motivating feedback is an essential muscle for individual improvement of performance, and for building strong, resilient, relationships that fuel success. My work with clients explores feedback from a growth mindset. Without it, not much changes.
Anything is Possible
Given the right environment and support almost anything is possible. Leaders frequently call on me for support improving vital interpersonal and group communication skills; increasing trust; and building self awareness of behaviors that support goals, and those they need to leave behind. This includes working with leaders to effectively communicate vision, mission and strategy; and to motivate teams to achieve more than they thought possible. My deep, hands-on experience as a leader; my expertise in leadership, team and organizational development; and decades of work in culture and communication, make me a powerful partner.
Depth and Breadth
I bring a global perspective to my work with a multi-sector client portfolio ranging from Start-Ups and Fortune 500 companies, to International NGOs, Foundations, and NonProfits, as well as a wide range of government agencies.
Clients value the range of my expertise in addressing executive leadership and team development. I support their work through coaching, training, retreat design and facilitation; stakeholder mapping and engagement; organizational mission, strategy and culture evolution; communication; and in special cases, crisis management consultation and services.
Before launching my leadership development and consulting company, I served as President and a Principal of Metropolitan Group, a boutique international consulting firm. I provided senior leadership for the firm’s Organizational Development and Strategic Communication practices areas for more than two decades. Over my tenure I helped grow the company from a small local startup to one of B Corps “Best for the World” for its exceptional performance in triple bottom-line metrics on People, Planet and Profit. I sold my interest in the firm in 2018 to focus my talent in a more “hands-on” way across multiple sectors in leadership development, organizational culture and strategy.
Learning may be my favorite thing to do
Without question I’ve learned the most from my clients, colleagues, community members, and collaborators. I’ve also learned in formal and informal settings from incredible teachers and mentors. I earned my executive coaching certification from the University of California Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute; a B.S. in Public, Group and Interpersonal Communication from Oregon State University, where I served as an Adjunct Part-Time Faculty member while pursuing graduate studies in Philosophy, Ethics and Communication. My love of the “classroom” also led me to serve in an Adjunct Faculty capacity at Portland State University’s Institute for NonProfit Management. I’m certified in Empathy + Emotional Intelligence; the Science of Happiness at Work; and Mindfulness and Stress Resilience. And just for fun, I’m learning Italian.
Joie de Vivre
I love to travel and explore new cultures and experiences. Spending time with my husband, our feline family of two cats, and our large extended community of family and friends keeps me mostly sane, and happy. I love food. . . and wine! Entertaining on special occasions gives me joy. As do my many nieces and nephews across two generations. I was a skier most of my life, and pretend I still am. Most of all, I love to laugh, and can find humor in nearly any situation. As a leader, I practice what I preach through my service as a Board Director for several organizations in the US and Internationally.
