I was at critical point in my career when I took over as COO of a company that I helped start. I was 32 years old and aggressive, a workaholic with a go-it-alone attitude. In my initial meeting with Debra, I remember telling her that I wanted to try and get a life beyond work and find ways to appear wiser and more poised in my leadership style. In retrospect the naiveté of this request seems obvious, but much of this realization is thanks to Debra. I had briefly met with other coaches, but I just couldn’t take the lack of structure and analysis in other coach’s methods. Debra’s experiences in her own career proved invaluable to me. Her ascent to a high level early in her career and her own struggles with being a whole and complete person while working as a business leader were familiar ground to me.

Through my work with Debra:

I began to form a leadership brand of my own

I remained aggressive, but picked my moments and issues

I delegated and began to see my role as making others more successful

I sought credit for my employees and not for myself

Debra didn’t just teach me what to say or what behaviors made sense in this regard. She provided a sounding board and criticality that eventually made me believe in these new traits and not simply give lip service to them.

In short, I began to redefine my own success around the traits of a more strategic, longer-term brand of leadership.

The overall result was a change in my behavior as a leader, even in the most trying moments. I believe that this is the sign of good coaching, not simply teaching leaders, but helping them to redefine their own beliefs about good practice.