My expertise is rooted in my 25-year career as a manager in the national security sector, where leaders face complexity, ambiguity, and volatility every day. I understand organizational life from the inside.
As a coach/consultant in private practice since 2010, I have coached hundreds of teams and leaders, from CEO’s, flag rank military officers, and senior public sector executives to aspiring supervisors.
My broad experience as an organization development professional enriches and informs my coaching work with senior leaders and their executive teams. If leaders get it “right” at the top of the organization, they earn credibility and trust with the rest of the organization, and change is exponentially more achievable. While it is possible to drive change from the middle or with grass roots initiatives, there is no substitute for starting at the top.
I work best when I am working in true partnership with my clients: you are invested in the work, and I am invested in you.
Click here to learn more about Valerie’s experience as a learning professional.
On the final day of my first year-long coaching program, the name of my business popped into my head.
The double helix – abstracted in the logo’s tree trunk – represents the simultaneous process of learning and unlearning that happens in coaching, as we let go of old habits to welcome new ones.
The double helix is also the shape of DNA, which encodes all life and growth. Learning is my source of growth and life.
The tree represents rootedness and flexibility, branching out and reaching for the sunlight.
What I want most for my clients is an experience of learning and reach, inward and outward.
Oh, and the tree also represents my own roots: my maiden name was “Baum,” the German word for tree.
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