New Perspectives for Old Predicaments
Pat Ward, MS
My approach to leadership development has two parts - personal and organizational. Personal development focuses on understanding your mindset, temperament and cognitive biases. The organizational focus deals with culture, collaboration, and the tension between stability and innovation.
Clients Include
Relational Intelligence
You will learn to use cognitive empathy to expedite your agenda and build enduring relationships. Using relational methodologies such as the Birkman assessment (used at Google, Mailchimp, and Salesforce), you will gain a deeper understanding of your unique worldview.
Appetite for Feedback
The biggest barrier to learning is not listening. Learn to challenge your own point of view by becoming a deep listener. Reality test your expectations of others and of yourself. Learning to hold your own beliefs lightly, so you can benefit from critical feedback.
Corporate Lifecycle
Target your professional development to compliment where your company is in its lifecycle. Growth is the most dangerous time for any enterprise to navigate. Learn how to add subtle structure to your start up culture and manage the tension between stability and innovation
Cognitive Flexibility
Double loop learning is a process of making honest self-assessments by examining foundational beliefs - your mindset. Smart people excel at single loop learning - getting the “A.” But it’s that success that gets in the way of double loop learning and cognitive flexibility. Smart people aren’t used to failing, it can trigger defensive behavior which inhibits reflection and learning from your mistakes.
“Pat begun her work to help me navigate how to negotiate, listen deeply, and not read things as personal. Also how to understand strategy, lead with empathy, and negotiate through conflict. She coaches me to this day to embrace the space as an executive in media and manage people in an authentic way.”
“When I reached out to Pat, I was looking for guidance as a founder for someone to help me develop a solid foundation for my company. Through my work with Pat, I have gained new perspectives and skills about my strengths and weaknesses, and developed tools to strengthen my approach to business consulting. Our working sessions have had a direct, positive impact on my clients. I’ve been able to use her communication techniques in ways that allow me to navigate conversations of all types and meet many client challenges.”
“When we first contacted Pat nothing was on fire, in fact it was our best year ever. However we knew with our rapid growth that leadership coaching was important. There are so many elements to running a software company and it can feel overwhelming to figure it all out yourself. Pat has helped us vastly improve so many parts of our business including hiring, managing team conflicts, thinking through process changes, communicating effectively remotely, and building a culture of innovation. My partner and I have also developed an even deeper and more collaborative relationship since working with her. I can wholeheartedly recommend Pat as a coach to other entrepreneurs/founders.”