coaching approach
I'm not here to fix you. You are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole just as you are. I'm here to be a guide, a sounding board, a champion.
You are the expert on your life. I believe you have all the right answers within yourself. I'm here to help you discover them.
You won't need me forever. Our work is designed to give you the skills, beliefs, and tools to navigate your current transition successfully. Then we complete. I have no intention of making you dependent on me and stretching things out beyond their natural conclusion.
I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching; instead, I take a heavily personalized approach to honor each individual's goals, needs, values, and circumstances. Every coaching relationship is unique.
Our objective is to create a trusted safe space to explore, challenge, experiment, and learn together.
Each time we meet, we will focus on your desired outcomes, explore your emotional context, surface what’s most important, uncover any roadblocks, and establish actionable next steps.
You are the expert on your life. I believe you have all the right answers within yourself. I'm here to help you discover them.
You won't need me forever. Our work is designed to give you the skills, beliefs, and tools to navigate your current transition successfully. Then we complete. I have no intention of making you dependent on me and stretching things out beyond their natural conclusion.
I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching; instead, I take a heavily personalized approach to honor each individual's goals, needs, values, and circumstances. Every coaching relationship is unique.
Our objective is to create a trusted safe space to explore, challenge, experiment, and learn together.
Each time we meet, we will focus on your desired outcomes, explore your emotional context, surface what’s most important, uncover any roadblocks, and establish actionable next steps.
To me, coaching is a creative partnership that helps you build awareness, accelerate growth, and implement sustainable changes.
Creative partnership: We are partners. I seek to build and cultivate a symbiotic relationship built on trust, mutual respect, collaboration, and growth. I’m committed to supporting and challenging you to become who you want to be and to having fun together. We get to intentionally design how we work together and will learn from each other along the way. As we get to know each other better, we continually adjust our partnership to serve you better and adjust for what's happening in your career and life.
Build awareness: Awareness is the cornerstone of learning and change. Any goal, professional or personal, requires us to first understand: Where are we now? Where are we going and why? What resources do we have? What does success look like? Awareness involves deep introspection, a willingness to uncover and question your beliefs and worldviews, and an acknowledgment that you can choose different beliefs if you choose to. A big part of our work will involve redefining success for yourself.
Accelerate growth: If you're reading this, you've inevitably experienced changes in your life, big and small. Some of those changes "happened to you", while others "you decided upon". Change is constant, and I don't doubt that you can reach your goals on a long enough timeline. To me, working with a coach helps us to better see and understand ourselves (our values, blindspots, beliefs, stories), clarifies the essence of what we want and why, and helps drive accountability for change.
Implement sustainable changes: Taking action is a large part of our work together. We focus on applying the learnings and insights we discover and consistently move forward toward the career and life you want. Often, I'll ask you to make commitments between our sessions that move you closer toward your goals. These can include everything from journaling assignments to building daily exercise or meditation habits to initiating a difficult conversation with a coworker.
Will you tell me what to do?
You are the expert on your life. I believe you are naturally creative, resourceful, wise, and whole. You bring the agenda, I bring my expertise, frameworks, and presence. My role is to serve as a guide, challenger, and supporter of your goals and growth. I typically refrain from offering prescriptive advice, first prodding you as to what you feel is important and digging in there, but I will draw on my experience if and when it's appropriate.
You own all of your commitments. It's important that you take full responsbility of the actions you commit to during our work together. At the end of our sessions, I'll often ask you what you want your next steps to be. I also frequently make suggestions based on what I'm observing and learning. As always, you get to decide what you commit to. I love the metaphor of a waiter: I may offer you coffee or tea, and you might say, "Actually, I'll have dessert instead." You own your choices, AND I will definitely push you to take on smaller or bigger things depending on the context.
We always prioritize learning and action. Yes, we will have tangible goals to achieve, but the real value is in the learning and the application of that learning toward our lives. When we work together, we orient toward growth as the ultimate measure of progress. Practically, we focused on improving both how we are showing up every day (BEING) as well as what action we're taking (DOING). Consistency of habits and conscious intention allows us to have more agency and resilience in the day to day.
Curtis Martin said, "It's not what you achieve in life, but who you become as a person due to those achievements."
Room for all of you. Sometimes, people think they need to show up to coaching sessions being all "rah-rah" positive. While there's room for that, there is also room for parts of you that may be feeling frustrated, angry, sad, upset, or anything else. I believe in welcoming all emotions, giving them room to be heard, acknowledged, and even loved. What I have discovered is that if we allow ourselves to FEEL our emotions, the part that is emotionally uncomfortable subsides more quickly, allowing us to see more clearly what is bothering us. Strong emotions often reveal when one of our values has been stepped on, which can often point us to deeper insights about what matters to us.
No topic is off-limits. So far, I have yet to encounter a topic that is not welcome. I am honored to listen and make room for what is raw, real, and uncomfortable. That is the work.
I bring all of me. Yes, I’m an ICF-certified and CPCC-certified coach, but I’m also a trusted advisor, program manager, product developer, martial artist, father, husband, son, brother, meditator, skydiving coach, community leader, and more. You’re getting my almost 40 years of lived experience, 15+ years of corporate and startup experience, and hundreds of hours of professional coaching experience. I draw on all of these parts depending on what you want or need.
I'm not attached to being right. Part of my superpower is leaning on my intuition. That means that sometimes I'll have a question, idea, image, or phrase pop into my mind. I will strive to share this with you immediately in service of our conversation. I am not attached to being right; meaning, you might say, "Leland, it's not quite that, it's actually this." And that's perfect. Just because I'm wearing the "coach" hat doesn't mean I'm correct. The wrong things I may put forth almost always lead us closer to what's true, so feel free to disagree, push back, and question me. That's the whole point of a thought partner.
You own all of your commitments. It's important that you take full responsbility of the actions you commit to during our work together. At the end of our sessions, I'll often ask you what you want your next steps to be. I also frequently make suggestions based on what I'm observing and learning. As always, you get to decide what you commit to. I love the metaphor of a waiter: I may offer you coffee or tea, and you might say, "Actually, I'll have dessert instead." You own your choices, AND I will definitely push you to take on smaller or bigger things depending on the context.
We always prioritize learning and action. Yes, we will have tangible goals to achieve, but the real value is in the learning and the application of that learning toward our lives. When we work together, we orient toward growth as the ultimate measure of progress. Practically, we focused on improving both how we are showing up every day (BEING) as well as what action we're taking (DOING). Consistency of habits and conscious intention allows us to have more agency and resilience in the day to day.
Curtis Martin said, "It's not what you achieve in life, but who you become as a person due to those achievements."
Room for all of you. Sometimes, people think they need to show up to coaching sessions being all "rah-rah" positive. While there's room for that, there is also room for parts of you that may be feeling frustrated, angry, sad, upset, or anything else. I believe in welcoming all emotions, giving them room to be heard, acknowledged, and even loved. What I have discovered is that if we allow ourselves to FEEL our emotions, the part that is emotionally uncomfortable subsides more quickly, allowing us to see more clearly what is bothering us. Strong emotions often reveal when one of our values has been stepped on, which can often point us to deeper insights about what matters to us.
No topic is off-limits. So far, I have yet to encounter a topic that is not welcome. I am honored to listen and make room for what is raw, real, and uncomfortable. That is the work.
I bring all of me. Yes, I’m an ICF-certified and CPCC-certified coach, but I’m also a trusted advisor, program manager, product developer, martial artist, father, husband, son, brother, meditator, skydiving coach, community leader, and more. You’re getting my almost 40 years of lived experience, 15+ years of corporate and startup experience, and hundreds of hours of professional coaching experience. I draw on all of these parts depending on what you want or need.
I'm not attached to being right. Part of my superpower is leaning on my intuition. That means that sometimes I'll have a question, idea, image, or phrase pop into my mind. I will strive to share this with you immediately in service of our conversation. I am not attached to being right; meaning, you might say, "Leland, it's not quite that, it's actually this." And that's perfect. Just because I'm wearing the "coach" hat doesn't mean I'm correct. The wrong things I may put forth almost always lead us closer to what's true, so feel free to disagree, push back, and question me. That's the whole point of a thought partner.
How do we work together?
How many clients do you work with?
What is the value/benefit that coaching truly provides?
Personally, as a direct and ongoing recipient of my own experience with my coaches and mentors, I can say wholeheartedly that I would not be the same person without these people in my life and in my corner. Beyond the many professional and personal goals I've achieved, what I truly value is how I have increasing access to an inner place of peace, wisdom, creativity, courage, and calm that guides me through life's many ups and downs. Please see my writing as an ongoing journal of my own growth.
For the amazing people I work with, feel free to peruse their comments on my impact page. If you'd like to speak with any of them about what it's like to work with me, let me know and I can put you in touch.
The magic happens between sessions. The time we spend on a call together can be transformative, but the real application of that work is between sessions, when you're at work or with your loved ones, and you choose to implement what you committed to. That is the real impact of our work together -- the conscious choices that you make to become a better person, day in and day out.
For the amazing people I work with, feel free to peruse their comments on my impact page. If you'd like to speak with any of them about what it's like to work with me, let me know and I can put you in touch.
The magic happens between sessions. The time we spend on a call together can be transformative, but the real application of that work is between sessions, when you're at work or with your loved ones, and you choose to implement what you committed to. That is the real impact of our work together -- the conscious choices that you make to become a better person, day in and day out.
How can I get the most out of the experience?
Some parts will be hard, others uncomfortable. My role is to both challenge and support you in your growth to unlock more and more of your potential.