Helping leaders, teams and organizations be their best

 

Executive
Coaching

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Leadership
Development

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Team
Effectiveness

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About Carol

Throughout my career, I have had a deep passion and strong talent for helping leaders navigate change, deliver business results, engage their teams, and grow professionally and personally. I started Lakefront Leadership so that I could spend every day helping leaders, teams and organization be their best by providing them with executive coaching, leadership development consulting services and team effectiveness solutions.

My background includes over 25 years of professional experience in consulting and corporate HR/OD roles, plus 15 years of academic teaching experience in MBA and executive education programs.

I have worked extensively with companies of all sizes and across multiple industries, including software, professional services, consumer products, healthcare, foodservice, manufacturing, utilities, non-profit and public sector. My coaching clients have included established leaders, new leaders and high-potential individual contributors.

Areas of Expertise

  • Executive coaching
  • Leadership development
  • Team effectiveness
  • Talent management
  • Employee engagement
  • Employee communications
  • Organization design
  • Change management
  • Executive coaching
  • Leadership development
  • Team effectiveness
  • Talent managemet
  • Employee engagement
  • Employee communications
  • Organization design
  • Change management

Professional Experience

  • Lakefront Leadership, Founder, Executive Coach, Consultant (2019 – present)
  • CCC Information Services, Senior Director of Organization Development & Executive Coach (2012-2019)
  • BPI group, Director, Talent & Organization Consulting Practice, Executive Coach (2010-2012)
  • Kraft Foods, Associate Director, Organization Development
    (2008-2010)

  • Capital H Group, Senior Manager, Human Capital Consulting Practice, (2003-2008)

  • Deloitte, Senior Manager, Human Capital Consulting Practice (2002-2003)

  • Andersen, Senior Manager, People Strategy Consulting Practice, (1999-2002)

  • Ernst & Young, Human Capital Consulting Practice (1997-1999)

  • ComEd, Multiple roles, Human Resources (1991-1997)

Academic Teaching Experience

  • Loyola University, Quinlan School of Business, Adjunct Professor (2007 – present)
  • Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Adjunct MBA Professor (2004-2007)

 

Education and Credentials

 

  • Loyola University, MS, Human Resource Management
  • Indiana University, BA, Psychology
  • Coach U, Core and Advanced Corporate Coaching Programs
  • SPHR, Senior Professional in Human Resources Certification
  • Assessment certifications & experience: LVI 360; DDI 360; PDI Profilor; Devine 360; Hogan Leadership Forecast, MBTI; DiSC; PCSI
  • Prosci Change Management Certification
  • Lominger Competency & Culture Tools Certification

 

Executive Coaching

What helps the best leaders be their best?  They’re constantly working on themselves, and they seek support from others along the way.  Executive coaching is one way for leaders to get the support they need to grow and excel.

Coaching provides a focused process and collaborative partnership for sharpening leadership skills, enhancing leadership performance, accelerating professional and personal development, and finding balance and fulfillment.  My coaching clients are smart, skilled, successful people who are committed to being their best selves professionally and personally.

Coaching Focus Areas

I work with established leaders who are navigating significant change or tackling tough challenges that require them to stretch as leaders and deliver results fast, including:

  • Leading a larger team
  • Leading a team in a different functional area
  • Shifting from managing individuals to leading managers
  • Driving a large-scale change
  • Leading a high-stakes business priority or special project
  • Turning around an underperforming area
  • Dealing with a particularly challenging client or stakeholder
  • Addressing employee engagement or retention issues

 

I also work with newer leaders and high potential individuals who are striving to:

  • Define themselves as leaders
  • Deepen their leadership capabilities
  • Take on greater accountability
  • Enhance their executive presence
  • Broaden their impact
  • Clarify their career aspirations or shift their career direction
  • Juggle competing priorities
  • Achieve better balance

Coaching Process

The Lakefront Leadership coaching process is customized to each client’s unique needs. In every coaching relationship, I support and challenge my clients to help them:

  • Gain greater self-awareness
  • Clarify what they truly want and need so they can be their best
  • Commit to a focused set of high-impact development goals
  • Think through approaches to solve challenges, close gaps and shift thinking
  • Practice new skills, behaviors and mindsets
  • Develop practical methods and tools to sustain the changes they’re making
  • Discover new possibilities that tap into their strengths and passions
  • Maintain focus and momentum on their development
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Coaching For Success Model

Leadership Development

What makes the difference between leadership development efforts that transform organizations and individuals, and those that are a frustrating waste of time and money? The best efforts are grounded in business strategy, aligned with culture, thoroughly planned, and expertly executed.

I’ve dedicated much of my career to ensuring that organizations and individuals get the most out of their investments in leadership development. My combined experience as an internal Organization Development leader, external Talent & Organization consultant, and MBA professor makes me uniquely qualified to partner with organizations to design and deliver business-focused, high impact leadership development strategies, processes and programs. 

Consulting Services

I work with organizations of all sizes and across a wide-range of industries on all aspects of leadership development, including:
 

  • Clarifying leadership development needs
  • Designing comprehensive leadership development strategies
  • Designing leadership competency models
  • Designing and delivering management and leadership development workshops on a wide variety of topics
  • Designing and facilitating high potential development programs
  • Developing mentoring programs
  • Administering leadership assessments
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of current leadership development strategies and programs

Content Expertise

I have significant experience designing and delivering custom corporate leadership development programs and MBA curriculum many areas, including:

  • Leadership Styles & Situational Leadership
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Feedback & Coaching Skills
  • Developing Talent
  • Managing Performance
  • Engaging & Motivating Employees
  • Recruiting & Selecting Talent
  • Leading High-Performing Teams
  • Managing Virtual Employees & Teams
  • Leading Change
  • Organization Effectiveness & Organization Design
  • Executive Presence & Personal Branding
  • Communicating Effectively

Team Effectiveness

What gives high performing teams their edge?  They make it a priority to work on how the team works, rather than leaving team effectiveness to chance.

I partner with team leaders and teams to help them drive team performance, strengthen team relationships and enhance overall team effectiveness by designing and facilitating custom team effectiveness solutions. Because every team is unique, the first step is to understand where the team is now and what they need to accomplish. I then partner with the team leader to design a team effectiveness solution that meets the unique needs of the team. 

Team Effectiveness Solutions

 

Here are just a few examples of ways I have partnered with teams to enhance their effectiveness:

  • Facilitated sessions to raise awareness and respect for work styles (e.g., DiSC, MBTI)
  • New leader assimilation sessions to accelerate integration into a new team
  • Leadership team retreats to align on strategic priorities, build better ways of working together and strengthen team bonds
  • Team coaching sessions to work through tough challenges or issues the team is facing
  • Team effectiveness assessments to evaluate team strengths and weaknesses and create an improvement action plan

 

Building a High Performing Team

High-performing teams:

  • Take the time to get and stay aligned on the team’s direction
  • Make smart use of the talent on the team
  • Build strong processes to execute efficiently
  • Foster healthy relationships and a healthy culture
  • Drive shared accountability for delivering high-impact results
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LET’S CONNECT!

To explore how we can partner together to meet your
executive coaching, leadership development, or team effectiveness needs, let’s get connected below

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