About a year ago now, I moved on from a long corporate career to start up in business as an executive and leadership coach. Specifically, I help new and emerging leaders take the bumps out of their leaders’ journeys. We work together on a step-by-step plan to help them develop a personally effective style of leadership as leaders with vision that positively influences not only themselves but also those with whom they work and interact as well as their organizations as a whole.

My decision to pursue coaching came about as I started planning to transition from Germany, where I was working, back to the country home that my husband and I have in the Le Marche region here in Italy. When I started to ask myself questions like “What will I miss from my professional leadership role?” (as Head of Public Relations for an international organization), it was like a thunderbolt that laid open my passion for helping others step into their unique greatness in life and at work.

Certainly my own experiences and stumbles along my leader’s journey help inform me as I coach others on their journeys. Perhaps one thing that I am particularly grateful for in my career is the opportunities I have had to live and work in several countries and continents around the world. What I value most from my gypsy life, if you like, is the appreciation of the uniqueness of every single person. It has taught me how labels are not only irrelevant but also significantly hold people back from their own greatness.

It is this aspect that informs my coaching at both an individual level and within corporations and organizations. For organizations, stability is key. A focus on leadership continuity that engages all stakeholders helps create open workplaces where people are free to speak up about their uncertainties. When leaders are fully engaged in who they are as leaders, they are best placed to empower and engage those they lead.

Getting involved again with PWA Milan enriches me both personally and professionally. Aside from the networking benefits and opportunities to hear amazing speakers, I am grateful for the opportunities to serve my fellow members. I am a mentor this year in the PWA Mentorship Program. Here I get to be both a coach, bringing out the best in my mentees and also a mentor, calling on my own experience to guide them in their unique endeavors.

On October 9, I was further honored to serve my fellow PWA Members at the workshop – 7 Ways to Lead for Truly Amazing Results… without conflict, compromise or exhaustion. In the workshop, I took the 20 participants on a journey to discover who they wanted to be in their ideal leader role. We explored the 12 talents of leadership that focus on self-leadership first, aligning around vision for decisive action as a leader, and how to relate and lead with integrity.

This approach forms the basis of most of my coaching partnerships where I help my clients identify what it is they really want to achieve, breakthrough what is holding them back, and helping them move into action. Each of us has those little niggling doubts and thoughts like “I am not good enough” or “I am not important enough”. The truth is that you truly are enough and you do have everything inside of you to be who you choose to be.

Women and men both struggle with this. I don’t think it is possible to generalize that women or men do more so than the other. Perhaps two qualities that I see more of in men than in women is, firstly, their willingness to take risks and, secondly, to go beyond networking and form business partnerships.

Towards the end of the workshop I introduced the participants to 7 Ways to Lead which offers them a way to hold a mirror, firstly, to their own attitudes and behaviors that shape their leadership. By understanding which of the seven levels you access in any given situation or interaction, you can better understand your thoughts, emotions and actions that influence how you react or respond.

As you understand them better, more and more you are able to decide how you want to respond rather than react. The model also helps you better understand how and why others respond in situations. And so, as a leader you are better able to positively influence and motivate by anticipating responses and acting to get the responses you want.

Many of the participants took up my special offer to take the online assessment and receive my personal and confidential debrief and written report. I am very happy to extend the offer to any PWA Member who would like to understand more about how they lead, whether leading themselves or others. For the remainder of 2012, PWA Members can take the 7 Ways to Lead assessment for 95 euros (VAT included).

For more information about how I help new and emerging leaders, members can find me at GetReadyToLead.com.  I can be reached by telephone at +39 339 8433 981 and by email: Suzanne(at)GetreadyToLead.com.