Sandra Adams, Visa's vice president of Global Member Billing Solutions , initially attended Women Leading Change to clarify her career direction and to define her future goals. While attending WLC, Sandra met Loretta Love Huff, an IWL coach.

"My gut is usually right about things," said, Sandra, regarding working with Huff . "If I'd just looked at the coaches' resumes and backgrounds perhaps I would have chosen a different one. During WLC and later, ELSC, I worked with several coaches. I felt a particular rapport with Loretta. Loretta's a very good coach with a broad range of skills. She approached coaching me in ways that worked for me. For instance, she recommended books, writing assignments, practices and provided research results on topics we discussed. I had not expected this in working with a coach."

Sandra reported that during ELSC she realized she needed to shift her context. She had been feeling really trapped personally and professionally. She used the courses as launch pads and coaching as a way of sustaining momentum.

Of Sandra, Loretta says, "During the ELSC Somatics sessions Sandra looked constrained and said she felt 'trapped.' Sandra began focusing on taking up more physical space. As we worked together, she began to focus on taking up more conversational space and expanding and building more powerful relationships. None of us accomplish our results in a vacuum. I'm talking about developing the depth of relationships that allow us to achieve heroic results."

"While working with Loretta, I found the confidence to stretch into new areas with my current role," relayed Sandra. "One of things we're committed to doing is creating breakthrough results in terms of time to implementation and being on budget. In order to do so, we needed to use our time wisely and efficiently. I took on a leadership role in challenging our team's use of time. I took on the role of 'monitor' to shift team from consensus to presumptive close . Now we make proposals. If there are no objections, we move on. This has truly increased our productivity . Our meetings are much more efficient.

Loretta and I worked together about an hour every two weeks which was the perfect amount of time for me. She kindly challenged my assumptions and conclusions about my work world and me. One of the things we worked on was the ability to ask for what I really need. Previously, without knowing it, I'd been feeling like I was not entitled to ask or wondered why no one was giving me what I needed.

I received direct benefits from coaching in my work life and it spilled over into my personal life as well. I practiced asking for what I needed when I needed to care for my elderly mom. With an important part of the project in full swing, I asked for a month off to address my mom's health issues. Spending time away from the office, knowing I was fully supported by my management and team increased my loyalty to the company. It strengthened my relationships with people I work with."

"Visa is committed to growing leaders from within the company," said, Sandra. "The company has to ask itself how to help future leaders become the most effective they can be. Programs, such as those offered by IWL, and coaching, are fairly small investments to make compared to the value received. With WLC, ELSC and coaching there are real and tangible returns. And certainly, it's more cost effective than sending someone to Harvard Business School, for instance. Coaching allows you to learn in the context of your everyday work. This is truly powerful and a great use of time and money."

Loretta relates, "One of the things I liked about working with Sandra was that she was very receptive and open to assessing how things were working for her. She was open to taking on new practices. We had a lot of mutual trust and understanding of our strengths and limitations. A benefit to me of working with Sandra was that it validated my love of coaching and making a difference with people."

Loretta became a coach in 1998 as she was writing a financial industry business plan. She hated the experience and, through soul-searching, realized what she'd really loved about her career so far. She loved having people become freed up through conversations with her about things that had previously frustrated them. As a result, she attended New Ventures West (a coach training school). Afterwards, she shifted the focus of her consulting practice to work she more thoroughly enjoyed. Then, she was hired by a client as vice president of HR. Finally, she realized she could have more impact working with several organizations instead of one and she restarted her coaching and consulting practice.

"I believe that all of us have much more impact on the quality of our lives and the results we produce than we realize. That's where I coach from," said Loretta. "I work with people to expand their vision, their impact in the worlds they inhabit and support them to live lives that nourish and strengthen them."

IWL offers follow-on coaching for IWL alumni. Please contact IWL at 650.556.8800 for information.

Volume 5, Issue 3 – July 2004