5 Questions to Ask a Potential Coach
1. “How do you define the difference between coaching and mentoring?” 2. “What is your process for managing professional boundaries and ethics?” 3. “How many hours of ‘coach-specific’ training have you completed?” 4. “What coaching model or methodology do you use?” 5. “How do we measure the success of our engagement?” THE BOTTOM LINE: Great […]
Why ICF Credentialing is the Gold Standard in Coaching
According to Forbes (2025), there are approximately 4.7 million people on LinkedIn with the word “coach” in their job title or headline. The coaching industry has become one of the fastest-growing sectors globally. Why? The title “Coach” is not a protected term in most countries, allowing anyone with a specific expertise to adopt it. While […]
The Return on Investment of Hybrid Coaching
Messages of Uncertainty and Fear “These are unprecedented times we’re living in.” “We’re busy and facing more distraction than ever before.” “Artificial Intelligence is poised to take over our workplaces.” “We’re living in a VUCA world: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous.” In a world that feels like it’s permanently stuck on “high alert,” we’ve become residents […]
Why We Must Treat the Leadership Classroom as a Lab for Praxis
There is a persistent, nagging gap in our field that most of us feel but few of us have successfully closed: the space between the high-level theory of the graduate seminar room and the gritty, unpredictable reality of an educational leader’s day-to-day environment. As scholars and practitioners, we’ve often struggled to maintain a truly cyclical […]
The Quiet Acts of Leadership
As a new academic year begins, it’s a great time to reflect on what leadership really means. We often get caught up in the idea of leadership as a formal title, a corner office, or a position of power. But the truth is, leadership is less about authority and more about influence and impact. It’s […]
Why Invest in Faculty/Leader Development?
Investing in faculty professional/leadership development yields significant returns on investment for engagement and directly addresses root causes of working conditions that led to “The Great Resignation.” Effective faculty/leadership development empowers faculty to: shape their individual trajectories; contribute to the improvement of their departments/schools/colleges through gained ownership; and contribute to a positive work culture. Investing in […]
Be the Torque
A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that stores rotational energy. While a flywheel has continuing energy, it naturally resists changes in rotational speed. However, applying torque (or a twist of force) to it can increase the rotational speed by using its stored energy. What veteran women have managed to do for the field of […]
Mentoring as a Strategy to Develop Women in Higher Education
Gewirtz (1998) describes social justice in action-oriented terms as the practice of the disruption of marginalization. In a previous publication, a colleague and I created a list of specific actions that disrupt traditional university practices and assert that these might also be useful to other women protégés in the field. We outlined strategies for career […]
A Framework for Executive Leadership Coaching
There are a number of coaching frameworks that executive leadership coaches have found useful. I propose a simple framework here using the acronym S.H.I.N.E. S – Set goals. As clients first engage in a coaching relationship, they will be called upon by their coaches to set goals for growth. This requires that clients understand their […]
Coaching as a Strategy to Reduce Burnout in Women Leaders
According to the World Health Organization (American Psychological Association, 2023), burnout is an “occupation-related syndrome” resulting from chronic stress that the workplace has not sufficiently addressed. When individuals suffer from burnout, an organization’s productivity decreases (Auerbach, 2004). Stanford University recently estimated that burnout-induced turnover could cost the institution almost $8 million per year (Berg, 2017). […]