Kate Edwards

They’ve all played a part. Certainly, wearing the shoes of the manager led me to want to help crystallize what management and leadership are for others, because no one ever gave me a playbook. I had to learn it all on my own, so I thought it would be helpful for people to understand how leadership works. That’s been a big piece of it. Another piece has been my work as a teacher. I love teaching and the educator mindset – communicating ideas so that others can do as well or better than you can. My experience as a performer has informed my teaching more than anything else because you have to be able to connect with people. Even though you’re in the same room, sometimes they are mentally somewhere else. So, being able to connect is a real skill to hone, and it’s something that I bring into my work as a leader, as a coach, an educator, trainer, and speaker.

Having known Jennifer for many, many years, something that I’ve seen from the get-go is that Jennifer is such a high integrity person, and the company she’s built is a high integrity company. That was very evident to me when we were office mates down the hall. I saw how the team interacted, presented themselves, and held up your end of the bargain for your clients. That was always very impressive and appealing to me. So, this opportunity to collaborate felt very natural. But also, I thought, ‘wow, I really respect this person,’ I really respect this practice, and I think the idea of working with people who have high standards and the reputation to back up those standards was very appealing and comforting to me.

There’s a bunch of things that I work on with clients, and often it comes down to empathy, reactiveness or responsiveness, and capability. Empathy shows up because people often get into businesses because they care about people, but too much empathy can prevent collaboration and growth and can actually keep leaders in a secondary position where they’re always thinking of others as opposed to what they need or what the business needs. Capability is another big one. When you’re especially good at something, it can prevent you from being able to delegate and share with others, which prevents them from learning it, which then leads to a cycle of underperformance or micromanagement. And then, the idea of responsiveness — I see this with pretty much everybody I work with. People are so keen to respond, to show they are there for their clients 24/7. The problem with too much responsiveness is it can prevent you from prioritizing the other essential tasks you need to accomplish.

For my coaching style and process, it’s about creating a forum for open communication and illumination, while also providing practical techniques and tools that people can take right back to work. I have always been super curious about people, and if there’s something that I can do to help illuminate, something to help clients out, I’m here for that. I like to create a wide-open platform for sharing and putting anything out there, a place of curiosity, where we’re going to poke at assumptions or outdated notions or mindsets. I’ve also created so many hacks over the years that if I can share something that would be useful, something that I’ve written or I’ve read, or a tool that I’ve built, I’m happy to share that.

A coach is helpful because as a neutral party, I can be that person with a very different viewpoint and one that comes from a level of experience and skill. I won’t jump in to jump in, only if I feel like you need a little help to get to a place where you will see something new for yourself. Neutrality is so helpful for people to open up and for the conversation to continue and get to a deeper level where you can see that you have choices that maybe you didn’t know you had before. What I also think is so important for a client to understand is that coaching is a process — it’s a series of questions all designed with your success in mind. Being a coach is about tuning in and observing what’s happening so I can then ask questions that will lead us to a place that provides clarity, answers, or insights into what you’re thinking.

I think it’s unique to the person that I work with, but I love it when people feel more balanced and truer to themselves after we work together. When people seek me out for coaching, it’s often because they realize that they’ve hit a wall in some way, they’re not getting results anymore from people, or they’ve received feedback that what they’re doing isn’t working. The coaching we do can get someone to a place where they realize they do have the tools they need; they just need to bring them to the surface. Or they’re so close to the tool or the adjustment they need, and together we can help find what will allow them to stand firmly again.

Anything in nature, it can be a walk, swim, hike, stroll, or canoe ride. Nature can be very revitalizing. Having worked in hospitality, I love cooking, and my husband is a chef. We love to shop for ingredients and cook together and do the things that all of us like to do, like connecting with friends, spending time with the most important people in our lives, friends, family, whomever that is. It’s important that connection makes you feel joyful. Things that are delightful are very important. I think it’s important to set aside time for delightful moments in your life and be intentional about them.