I'm Andrea, a Certified Core Strengths Facilitator, a Certified Practitioner of the EQ-i2.0®, and an ICF-credentialed Certified Executive Coach.
My mission is to normalize being human at work, empowering leaders to meet moments of truth more authentically & effectively, narrowing the gap between intention and impact.
Integrity comes from the word integer, which means wholeness, integration, and completeness.
For me, integrity is about integrating my inner self with my outer self.
Integrity requires my accountability to choose authenticity over attachment.
Given we are hardwired for connection, belonging is a core human need as well as a top value I live by.
Learning how to belong to my self, informs my greater belongingness.
I belong everywhere. We all do.
I practice co-creating spaces of belongingness for everyone.
Gratitude is the choice, state, and trait of being thankful.
For me, gratitude is a daily practice of present moment awareness and appreciation of the interdependent and interconnected web of life that sustains me.
We are born with the gift of curiosity. As children, everything around us is a marvel of pure wonder.
For me, curiosity is about seeking understanding, and finding common ground for empathy.
I delight in a learner mindset. I feel grace and freedom in not having to know the answers.
Informed by the integration of intuition, experience, insight, common sense, and knowledge, wisdom enables the discernment between what feels real and what is true.
For me, wisdom is amplified in present moment awareness. It's the inner sentience (bodhi) within stillness.
Vitality is the flow of our our life force. It's a measure of our aliveness.
For me, vitality is connected with my ability to approach life with excitement as I learn, love, evolve, and grow.
It's where my authenticity and wholeheartedness reside. Vitality informs my embodied wellness.
ACT I
As a CPA, I dedicated 25 years to adding value to and growing within corporate finance and planning roles for large, international organizations. I felt largely unfulfilled, grappling with identifying as a leader while successfully navigating teams through high-pressure conditions.
I have always been more drawn to human behaviour, and how we relate with one another in leadership positions, within teams, and in our social groups and families, than I was to working with Excel.
My ongoing drive and curiosity to better understand human nature and what shapes our organizational team cultures, similar to that of our family and community cultures, eventually compelled me to make a change I never thought possible.
ACT II
In the fall of 2018, I pursued my second career act in Human Resources, completing my CHRP designation by September 2020. At the time, I believed I had arrived in my final career destination. This was it!
I signed up for projects involving recruiting, onboarding, organizational change, leadership development, training, succession planning, workforce transition, and outplacement.
It's through the process of reflection and self-discovery that I learned my strengths-informed purpose is related to leadership and team development, one-on-one and in groups.
After a 30-year run in the corporate world, I decided to make another change I never saw coming.
ACT III
When I focused my purpose toward professional coaching, I knew I had found what I am meant to be doing.
In August 2022, I earned my Certified Executive Coaching (CEC) designation with Royal Roads University. A few weeks later I qualified as an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC). And by May 2023, I achieved an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential.
THE AWARENESS
I was not consciously attuned to the valuable skills, and first-hand insight I was building at the intersection of culture and team dynamics by leading, developing, and coaching teams throughout my career.
Reporting to senior executive leaders honed my awareness that how we meet the moment directly impacts team engagement. And collaborating with peers grounded me in how to productively enter conflict to arrive at a preferred outcome, while maintaining the quality of the relationship.
How we meet each moment, and how effectively we remediate conflict in our relationships has a direct effect on the depth, meaning, and substance of our connections.
THE LESSONS
The common thread in all of work, in all of life, is that how well we recognize our behavioural patterns, understand our sensory input data/feelings, and the degree to which we accurately express our emotions in a socially responsible manner that invites empathy, determines our level of fulfillment, growth and success.
I have spent my entire adult life being inquisitive about, studying, and learning everything I can regarding human behaviour, neuroscience, neuroplasticity, organizational psychology, leadership theory, the mind/body connection, somatics, spirituality...whatever helps me access the complexities of how we are all interconnected, and how we motivate and influence one another with our emotional energy and intention.
I have come to understand, partly from the learned experience of rebuilding my own platform of self-worth after internalizing toxic shame reinforced through adverse childhood experiences, and partly from applied theory, that everything we think, say, and do is a candid reflection of the beliefs we hold of ourselves.
Our relationship with Self, our worldview, informs the lens of perception through which we experience our lives.
With new understanding comes new ways of being, and new practices. I now believe that my needs are sacred, my worth is inherent, and my value is indisputable.
THE INVITATION
Life extends us endless opportunities to show who we are in the pursuit of meeting our needs.
Understanding our core values, needs, emotions, and motivations is the gateway to self-awareness and empathy, which requires vulnerability. And vulnerability is the foundation for courage, truth, and integrity...at home, work, and everywhere in between.
What new understanding, ways of being, and practices are calling for your attention to break down the barriers standing between you, and what you most want & care about?
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