ABOUT BOB

My
Background

The foundation of authentic courage is vulnerability and to own your story without being owned by it. It’s being transparent about who you are, what matters to you, and why you do the things you do. Beyond building the trust and true commitment of your teams, it’s the only way to scale and enable them to make the right decisions and model the right values when no one is watching.

Embody Your Courageous Spirit

  • Make decisions more confidently and quickly
  • Advocate with more conviction, precision, and success
  • Increase empathy and trust on your teams
  • Gain more loyalty and commitment
  • Build creative, resilient, and agile organizations

Working With Me

The picture on the top left was taken during my first Tough Mudder race back in 2012 when I was a young 52. I believe leading others starts first with the journey of leading oneself. Working from the inside out. This means pushing through fear and re-examining your own limiting beliefs, mentally and sometimes physically. What happens on the other side is that you find a new and redefined experience of courage as a leader, perhaps one that you never knew was possible. After all, courage never happens in the absence of fear, and all successful people always play outside their comfort zone. I’ve experienced this repeatedly (maybe too repeatedly) in my own career as well as in other adventure races and in practicing martial arts.

I’ve been truly blessed to work with so many leaders who’ve been willing to do this courageous work, and it has been humbling to learn about their early life experiences, the ups and downs of their lives, inside and outside of work. By surfacing these stories, however, they find a level of ease and confidence in fully embracing who they are and what they have to offer as a leader. 
>> Read more about my Coaching Approach

Why Do I Coach?

The thing I most enjoyed about leading teams in my career was helping each individual grow, inside and outside of work. That seemed to give me as much pleasure as achieving the goals that we set out to accomplish as a team. I hope that if you spoke with anyone that I managed at my past positions, they would say that they appreciated my leadership in that regard. From time to time, I led very technical teams, way beyond my technical expertise. But I was smart enough to know that when you hire smart people, set the direction with their help, and hold their core aspirations close, you have a great chance for success and fulfillment. This was one of the core lessons I learned at HP as it was one of Bill and Dave’s most important guiding principles. I experienced first hand the idea of courageous and “giving leadership,” long before it was a thing.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO PROVE?

This is a question I often ask coaching prospects. My clients are already very successful when they come to me for coaching. I’m interested in knowing what they have left to prove. I ask this provocative question because I know that our success will be about having the courage, humility, and discipline necessary for a successful coaching engagement. Leadership coaching with me is a deep, introspective, mental, and physical experience. It can also be a lot of fun.  But it does take commitment and work. 
>> Read more about Coaching Success

My Life Before Coaching

Prior to starting my coaching business over 15 years ago, I spent 20 years with many technology companies: Hewlett Packard, DEC, Clarify Inc., and Nortel Networks. What my clients find valuable about my background is that I have direct experience in all of the areas that they face on a day-to-day basis – Calibrations, Performance Reviews, Hiring, PiPs, and of course, Firing. I know what it’s like to be in Product Reviews, Executive Reviews and have personal experience with the quiet internal fear that arises when you just got asked a question by a senior executive that you don’t have a good answer for in the moment.

In terms of direct business experience, I’ve worked in almost all functional areas you’ll find in midsize and large companies, including I.T., Professional Services, Sales, Marketing, and Distribution. I know what it’s like to work in a Call Center, a Distribution Warehouse, I.T. Departments, Field Sales offices, and large division and corporate headquarters. I’ve been responsible for large scale initiatives on a national and international basis.

I am a serious student of leadership, but it’s not just academic to me as it can be with many other leadership coaches. As they say, I’ve been in the trenches, and I have great respect for the challenges that my clients deal with – 365.
>> Read Client Success Stories

Training & Coaching Certifications

In addition to earning MBA and BS Degrees in Management and Marketing, I’ve trained with The Coaches Training Institute and am a Certified Wellness Coach through Wellcoaches Inc.

I also hold personal training and nutrition counseling certifications from the Health and Fitness Institute and the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).  Additional certifications include The Energy Project,  Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence (SEI) Leadership Development consultant, Kolbe Certified Consultant™,  and Master Certified Agility Practitioner with Tilt365.

Based in the spirit of mindfulness and the Japanese martial art Aikido, which I hold a 4th Degree blackbelt, I use an embodied leadership approach to help my clients learn how to increase focus, reduce stress, and build leadership presence.  I’ve studied extensively with the Strozzi Institute and am a certified teacher and trainer with Leadership Embodiment International.