Plus learn who a leader is (hint– it’s you!)
Starting a new role as a manager?
Looking to up your confidence as an executive?
Thinking about how to get past a roadblock at work?
If any of those sound like you, you’re in the right place.
If you’re feeling stuck on how to solve a challenge in your office, working hard for a promotion, or wanting some validation from a community of queer leaders– that’s where I come in as a coach for queer leaders like you.
If you’re new to the coaching world (like many leaders from the queer community and other minoritized groups often are) that is more than okay. Society has systemically excluded us from leadership development opportunities – we’re underrepresented at every level of leadership, less likely to have professional mentors and sponsors, and of course, subject to bias and discrimination that keeps us from being selected to participate in formal development programs. [1, 2]
Photo from The Gender Spectrum Collection
So of course you don’t have a lot of exposure to coaching and what it is. And that’s why I want to address what coaching even is and make it more accessible to you.
In this post, I’ll be sharing three things you should know about queer leadership coaching to bring your awareness to what it’s really all about. Then I’ll show you how coaching is accessible to everyone and how you can get started working with me no matter where you’re at.
Think coaching might be for you? Come sip your coffee or tea as you read along and learn more about how coaching could be the next step you take in your leadership journey.
But who is a leader?
You don’t have to be a people leader to be a leader.
You don’t have to be a CEO to work with a leadership coach.
And you don’t have to have years of experience under your belt, either.
Sometimes people have formal leadership roles and aren’t managers.
You can be a leader if you:
Are an ERG leader.
Want to work on the way you participate and show up at meetings.
Are shifting the way you think of yourself in your work environment.
You don’t have to have the word ‘leader’ in your official title. You can benefit from leadership coaching at any point in your leadership journey in so many ways.
If you’re a member of the queer community and lead a local program, are starting a new movement, or are not sure what your next career move is as a director– my coaching could definitely be for you.
But what exactly does coaching involve? That’s what we’re talking about next.
What is leadership coaching?
I always like to tell people that I think of my role as a coach as a “professional question-asker.”
Here’s why.
When you show up to coaching, the first thing I know about you is that you’re brilliant. I believe that you have the solutions to the challenges you’re facing. You know what to do for whatever’s going on for you in your leadership.
So my job as your coach is to ask you the right questions to help you figure out the solutions that you’re already carrying around.
My leadership coaching can help you:
Discover new things about yourself as a leader.
Help you figure out what things are getting in the way of you being a successful leader in the ways you want to be.
Apply practical tools you can use after our sessions.
I’m not here to have all the answers. But I will always be curious about you and what’s going on. I’m here to help guide you along the path you’re already on.
I also have a lot of experience from the leadership development world. And that allows me to bring a lot of resources to share with you in coaching sessions.
But I’m not there to teach. I share these exercises and resources as a means to give you some insight into yourself. After sharing resources with you, I’ll often ask you questions like:
What does the information tell you about your own leadership world?
What do you want to do with the new knowledge you have?
How can you bring your unique strengths to your situation? [3]
So that’s a little about my coaching practice. Next, we’ll get into some more specifics about what types of challenges coaching can help you with.
Why might you need a leadership coach?
Maybe you’re still asking yourself “Why should I work with a leadership coach?” And that’s a good question!
So I want to tell you more about some of the things I help folks through when they work with me.
I often work with people who are feeling a specific pain in their leadership right now. They have something that’s big and sticky going on and they can’t navigate it on their own.
So if you’re thinking “I wanna go to the next level in my leadership,” then it might be a great time for you to think about working with a coach.
Whether you’re working toward a new role, trying to lead in a different way, or wanting to feel more comfortable in leadership, coaching can help you get there.
Leadership coaching might also be for you if you’re:
Not sure how to find solutions yourself.
Looking to accelerate your leadership development.
Need someone to give you a gentle nudge to go after what you want.
As a coach, I also serve as an accountability partner. And as a queer leader myself, I love supporting other queer leaders. So next I’ll show you how coaching is especially helpful for queer leaders.
Photo from Jopwell Latinx Photo Collection, Vol. 1
How is leadership coaching for queer leaders in particular?
As queer leaders, we have another layer to consider in our leadership.
Being out and feeling safe at work is already a lot to consider.
But we also have another central question we’re looking at:
What does it mean not just to be a leader who happens to be queer, but to be a queer leader who resists the leadership norms that come to us from cisheteropatriarchal white supremacy culture?
It’s a question I consider with every client I work with. I mean come on…we are awesome! Queer folks are powerfully expansive thinkers, with access to non-binary and other unconventional ways of seeing things. We’ve got life experiences that the normative world can only dream of. We are brave, curious, scrappy, and so much more.
Coaching with me is a dedicated space to approach leadership from a queer lens.
Within this space, you can:
Explore your emotional intelligence.
Pay extra attention to humanizing the way you lead.
Work on finding ways to be more than a leader who’s queer– you can learn to queer your leadership.
Here’s what one of my clients had to say about working with me: “[Liz] challenged me to show up as a leader; there was no sitting back and waiting for the changes to occur… I came to achieve a level of understanding about my own potential that was previously unknown to me.”
So if you’re ready to challenge yourself, grow as a leader, learn from others, and laugh along the way– come see how you can get in touch with me.
Takeaway
I serve a wide range of people in their leadership journey. From the coaching community I run to my individual executive coaching, I offer something for every leader to grow their confidence, work on their emotional intelligence, and push back on the leadership norms that try to hold them back.
And as part of my philosophy of radical inclusion, I want to support queer leaders from any background or situation.
So let’s chat! Click here to get in touch with me and take the first step in beginning your coaching journey.