How My Clients Skyrocket Into Leadership
I help leaders realize both their value and their values. My clients usually surpass their professional goals, and what surprises them even more is the enhanced personal fulfillment, happiness and “inner calm” they feel. (Yes, I am talking about lawyers…) Their results inspire others, creating a ripple effect throughout their organization.
I am the phone call worth making for busy Talent and Professional Development (PD) teams. Because I am independent, I can customize an approach specifically tailored to the needs of your organization. My clients report better-trained and better-mentored talent in their leadership pipelines, and loyal people with a greater sense of community, emotional investment and trust in another.
I offer the above with diplomacy and humor. To help you get comfortable with hard conversations, we use the many negotiation and mediation skills I honed in business school and as a litigator. I also offer to share my own hard-won wisdom: the mistakes I have witnessed could fill a book… and they more or less do! (I share my learnings freely in my Fully Human Lawyer™ columns and in my other writings and speaking engagements.)
My clients say they
value my:
- Personal leadership and bold creative ideas
- Perspective as a top-producing business developer
- Discretion and fierce integrity
- Humor, candor, authenticity, and warmth
- Cost-effectiveness – a great return on investment and worth every dime
Finally, my clients tell me one reason they trust me so much is that I am a leader myself. I have “bet on myself” many times and have (after lots of self-work) trained myself to push through fear to take smart strategic risks. My clients say my no-BS style (“yup, I know it’s scary, and now let’s consider what might happen if you decide to go for it”) helps them envision and stay focused on potential upsides, not just the risks of leaving their comfort zones.
Put simply: my track record of betting on myself, plus my sharing my own vulnerabilities and fears, normalizes YOUR fears. That makes you more willing to trust yourself. And that is what gives you the confidence to make the hard or unprecedented decisions that are the hallmark of all excellent leadership.
I’m grateful for each of my professional experiences, including…:
My leadership philosophy
Assume positive intent
Most people want to do “the right thing.” As a coach, I often get to hear the innermost thoughts and feelings of people who seek my counsel. As a result, I firmly believe most people operate from a desire to do something positive, even if it may not always appear that way. We are better able to understand each other if we recognize that the root cause of bad behavior is usually a disconnect between method and objective.
Be Fully Human™
All of us, from the head honcho to the new person on their first day, have emotions, imperfections, a personal life, and a professional life. The most effective leaders understand that we can never – nor should we – segregate our professional lives from the rest of who we are. Those leaders weave that informed judgment into the fabric of their organizations.
“I am because we are”
Whether they realize it or not, the most effective organizations operate on the principle of “I am because we are.” This is a South African philosophy called Ubuntu that the best leaders understand intuitively. They know that leveraging each individuals’ highest and best qualities engages each person fully and inspires them to give their maximum contribution.
Own your value
Each of us has a unique combination of personality, temperament, talents, and skills. Owning Your Value means identifying what those attributes are, and then deploying them to benefit an organization that needs and values them. Like an orchestra conductor who brings out the best in each player, a great leader understands how to bring out the best in each individual in the organization.
How I got here
- Included in 2024 and 2023’s top Global 100 Leaders in Legal Strategy & Consulting (Lawdragon)
- International Coaching Federation (ICF) Board member and DEI Committee (CT Chapter)
- ADHD coach training
- Nuanced understanding of “Big Law” business, culture, and leadership
- Trainer, career counselor, and coach at Volta Talent Strategies
- Top-producing legal recruiter with a respected national search firm
- Labor and Employment lawyer with leading firms and practices
- Federal district court clerkship in Philadelphia
- University of Michigan Law School
- Wharton (University of Pennsylvania’s business school)
A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, I now live in West Hartford, Connecticut, with my husband, our two teenagers, and Ozzie, our slipper-stealing Labradoodle.
< Ozzie has become one of my top leadership muses.
