Are You Ready?

After seeing the success of the various Aspire programs within my organization, I hired Renie Cavallari as my executive coach – a role she still plays for me today. Initially, I wanted an ideas sounding board that could help me problem solve a variety of complex issues within my work environment. Early on, however, it became clear that this was more than you standard consulting relationship. In time, Renie has become a critical part of my team and acts as my unofficial “Chief Strategy Officer” whose scope includes both my work and personal life. She has helped me think through key career moves, significant staffing changes and ways to better balance that make me a more effective leader, husband and father. The Aspire system of executive coaching is tried and true has helped me excel in times of crisis and prosperity.

Working with Aspire has been enjoyable and rewarding. While amidst a pandemic having a 3rd party to connect with outside of my work bubble has been refreshing. In these challenging times you sometimes feel like you don’t know the best answer to everything. My coach brought new ideas to the table to have me work on not only with myself but my team and my company. I see the value both in the pandemic and outside of the pandemic in having a 3rd party resource like an executive coach to check in with, share challenging moments with, and help push myself to be better. I would highly recommend working with Aspire as an outsider looking in can provide another lens vs how you might see something and provide a new perspective.

My Aspire coach has been an amazing coach/mentor. Often when I discuss what is on my mind, they patiently listen and ask very probing questions that lead me to introspect and discover next steps. They have a knack to read between the lines so often that they understand my core feelings even before I come to terms with it. They have been a great sounding board for my proposals/solutions. I also like the simple real world analogies they share as they make the decision making process fairly rational.

Throughout 2020, my coach and I connected just about every month. I always looked forward to our conversations and really valued their insight. Our sessions were a great opportunity for me to take a breather, pull back from the day to day, and reflect on my growth and how I can be a better leader. The coach had a great way of providing value beyond just simple, basic advice. They challenged my ways of thinking while also acknowledging what is working, and is great at taking my experiences and struggles and providing relatable scenarios they have seen or heard to help provide me with guidance. They seemed to really want to learn about who they are working with, and was always prepared with questions, concerns or insight based on my prework or as a follow up from our last session. Working with my Aspire coach was a great experience and I appreciate their time and effort in investing in my growth.

I loved my sessions with JC at Aspire. I found the group sessions to be incredibly valuable, because I was able to connect with folks on other teams at my organization and collaborate to discuss challenges that we didn't even realize we were all facing. JC made time to go through all of our topics of interest in each session, asking impactful coaching questions along the way. I was able to walk out of each session with at least one action item, and more importantly, a helpful and new perspective to my work. Thank you for the coaching!