I help executives go from employee to entrepreneur.
My name is Kia E. Gardner and I have the privilege of helping leaders like you think differently about your possibilities and progress so that you can move confidently and confidently into entrepreneurship.
As an American entrepreneur living and working abroad in Europe, I am uniquely qualified to help you make a successful transition from your career as an employee to your new reality as a business owner.
Many executives long to live a rewarding professional life on their own terms but struggle to make the move, or their fears of the unknown completely take over any thoughts of what’s possible.
Why? Because they can’t put enough space between their fears and the possibilities to be able to chart a path forward. When this happens, they continue on with the unfulfilling professional life that they’ve been living, sinking further and further into dissatisfaction and frustration.
Coaching provides the single, most effective road to success.
What I do is specialize in helping you to achieve your entrepreneurial goals by making tangible, measurable progress in the areas that are most crucial for you during this transition and beyond.
What is it like to work with me?
Always Client-centered, my strategy is firmly rooted in a results-based, impact-focused methodology that moves you forward with each session. By utilizing a shift in your mindset, you’re empowered to tap into your innate creative intelligence to tackle challenges from fresh angles.
The emphasis throughout our work together is at all times on supporting you in devising the solutions that are best for YOU. Even if you don’t know the answer in the moment, I hold the space for you to explore all of the options, as deeply as you’d like to go. You maintain agency over your ideas and insights. My job is to help evoke a deeper awareness in you by asking impactful questions, sharing clean, unattached observations, and challenging you to see new or reframed perspectives.
I coach the whole person, not just the executive or the entrepreneur. Although the lens through which our coaching is focused is grounded in your work life, we won’t disregard the other parts of your life that sometimes influence what’s playing out in your professional life. We are open to what comes up.
I empty myself of my “me-ness” and fill the safe space that I’m holding for you with the brilliance, the magnificence, the infinite intelligence of who you are. You always know the answers. Every time.
We’ll work together to get you from where you are to where you want to be through curiosity and compassion. Contact me here to set up an introductory session. I’d love to speak with you.
How You Will Benefit:
Executive Coaching is a purposeful, ongoing dialogue between a Coach and a Client with the focused intention of finding creative, effective approaches to addressing challenging problems, improving performance, accelerating progress, and advancing your career. It’s about creating a progress-focused balance of “doing” and “being” in your work life.
Ultimately, it’s an opportunity for the Client to engage in continuous learning, discovery, and development that help the Client to operate from his or her highest, best, most authentic place of being.
Within our impactful conversations, my job as a Coach is to hold a safe, strictly confidential, non-judgmental and supportive space for you to acknowledge the realities and perceptions of your challenge; investigate and explore new insights into the challenge; and then form a plan to address, overcome and influence the situation or outcome. Your job as the Client is to do the work.
We will work together to help you realize immediate impacts such as:
Strategizing next steps to ensure success as you navigate transitions and challenges.
Avoiding overwhelm and burnout to maintain a healthy work-life balance and keep great ideas and innovation flowing.
Identifying and changing behaviors and perceptions to maximize your success and influence with customers or clients.
Communicating effectively to eliminate endless feedback loops, confusion, and project bottlenecks.
Resolving unproductive conflict in effective ways that keep your team cohesive, productive, and dedicated to collaborative engagement.
Increase confidence as you make the move into entrepreneurship.
Asserting yourself, setting clear expectations, and delegating appropriately while preserving critically important relationships.
Why I Do What I Do:
My mission is very simple: My goal is to help as many leaders as I can to inhabit the best version of themselves at work so that they can help their employees thrive in the work that they do.
In my first corporate job, I learned first-hand the devastating impact poor leadership can have on everything from employee morale and engagement to innovation and productivity.
Fast forward to the present moment and in every part of the world we are living in a time of unprecedented employee discontent. From the top to the bottom of many organizations, employees are running for the exits like never before. Employee loyalty is a thing of the past.
The causes are well known. Terrible work-life balance. Toxic work environments. Tone-deaf leaders…just to name a few.
The impact of unhappy, disengaged employees is huge. According to research by Gallup, unhappy workers cost US Firms $1.9 trillion in lost productivity last year.
Even worse, the global hit is close to $8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.
Gallup found that 70% of variance in team engagement can be attributed to the manager.
When leaders are tuned in and modeling a culture of effective communication, appreciation, and empowerment, things like productivity, profits, and innovation soar to new heights.
It’s a win-win for everyone.
Serving in this capacity allows me the privilege of helping leaders like you get to that magical place in a safe, supportive space so that you can get your people to that magical place, too.
What Coaching is NOT:
Therapy. In our sessions together, we will not veer into the realm of therapy, which concentrates on going into the past to change the future.
Consulting or Advising. I will not focus on the circumstances surrounding a problem and then offer recommendations. Instead, the focus will be on supporting you amid the challenges to gain insights and awareness as you solve your problem.
Teaching, mentoring, or instruction. You will not be told what to do.
Giving feedback. I will help you process feedback you’ve received and support you in behavior changes in order to receive the kind of feedback that you’d like to receive in the future. However, feedback should come directly from leadership and/or your colleagues.
Who I’m NOT for:
Client/Coach compatibility is everything. The relationship must satisfy both Coach and Client in order for the Client to benefit most from the coaching. I like to work with my Clients over long periods of time so it’s vitally important that the relationship works for us both. Therefore, I like to be transparent about the kinds of clients who typically won’t have success with my coaching style:
Clients who do not like honest straight-talk. The truth is always the most effective (and fastest) road to progress. We will get there with empathy, compassion, and respect within a safe space, but we won’t sugarcoat it.
Uncommitted, unmotivated clients. I am your advocate. I am here to support you through your explorations and insights. However, the real work must be done by you and only you. Ultimately, you are responsible for your outcomes and choices around your willingness to do the work.
Clients who only want to chit-chat. I thoroughly enjoy getting to know my clients, however, the ultimate goal is always forward progress. We will have real, authentic conversations always with the intention of progress for you.