About Heather

I’ve worn many professional hats leading to my work as a Speaker and Coach. I have been a Physical Therapist / Athletic Trainer, Six Sigma Black Belt, Clinical Manager, Consultant, Executive Operations Leader – each across multiple sites, markets, states, and specialties.

I’m also a practitioner-scholar of evidence-based management practices. My professional experience is coupled with and enhanced by my MBA and Ph.D. in Management.

I’m also a normal person who is more than the sum of my work and scholarly accomplishments. I love my family – both the human ones and the furry ones. I spend a lot of time sweating and solving life’s problems with my running tribe. Faith provides me with a grounded foundation and is my inspiration to run after hard things. And, I like to add to the fun with a little traveling, music, new experiences, and laughter over wine / bourbon / or craft beer.

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What I do

I help leaders and teams in mission-focused organizations to build skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that:

● Bring order from chaos - Choose and manage change

● Ride the thunder - Run after and accomplish big aims

● Quell the storm - Sustain growth and ensure adaptability over time

Why I do it

I am purpose-driven. Like you, I seek fulfillment, creativity, and accomplishment. For me, this means building into a variety of leaders, teams, and organizations to engage motivation and provide structure. I’m driven to help you:

● Find the root - identify that thing you sense or know needs to change

● Get out of your comfort zone - take steps that will lead you where you’ve hesitated to walk

● Make a difference - have the impact you desire

How I do It

I offer a variety of methods to help you cross your finish line.

● Coaching - I am a certified coach who meets you where you are and enables forward-looking dialogue to achieve your goals.

● Assessments - I use a variety of assessments to help you recognize your strengths, understand your preferred styles or your blind spots, and better communicate with and understand others.

● Facilitation - I work with groups of people to surface perspectives, reveal patterns, create systems, and accomplish goals

● Speaking - I support event goals and connect with audiences to ensure wisdom is gained and desired results are realized

FAQ

ask us anything

What is coaching?

The International Coaching Federation defines professional coaching as a partnership between coach and client utilizing a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires the client to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaches view the client as already possessing the knowledge and ideas needed for growth. Their role is to ask powerful questions, create meaningful dialogue, and support accountability toward a client’s journey of growth and development.

  • Coaching is skill, performance, and/or goal focused and aims to address immediate or near-term objectives. It is highly client focused. Coaches are trained professionals who may not necessarily have work experience in a client’s specific field. They use their expertise in coaching techniques to help clients improve performance and develop specific skills. Techniques are oriented toward creating learning through such practices as self-reflection, self-exploration, goal setting and action planning, and feedback.

     

  • Mentoring typically focuses on a mentor’s contextual wisdom and guidance to help an individual grow in their career long-term through actions such as introducing individuals to the mentor’s network or giving advice on specific workplace issues.

I typically work with clients from three to twelve months. Change, skill development, and habits take time to develop. Each engagement is tailored to the individual’s specific needs.

Coaching helps leaders to achieve their full potential, enhance emotional intelligence, and strengthen alignment with mission and values. Leaders who have had coaching report improvement in teamwork, job satisfaction, productivity, bottom-line profitability, and working relationships. In fact, the International Coaching Federation reports organizations that provide coaching experience an average 7x ROI on coaching services. As an experienced leadership coach, I provide a safe and engaging environment for leaders to explore new skills and behaviors to run after their most important growth aims.

Team coaching improves overall team performance and productivity. Upwards of 70% of team aims fail to be met at all or at a desired level. Coaching helps teams develop stronger working relationships, better problem-solving abilities, increased trust across team members and the networks they engage, and optimizes adaptability – all of which support successful team performance and creates a positive ripple effect across the organization. A coach also provides a confidential ear, model of empathy and inclusivity, objective feedback, and insights from other contexts. As an experienced team coach, I provide expertise in building the structural and behavioral factors of high-performing teams who are able to sustainably succeed after our work is completed.

  • In one to one sessions, you can expect to have regularly scheduled coaching appointments that are generally one hour long. The sessions are structured such that the client will be asked to establish both the overarching goal for the engagement and for the individual session so that I know what you want to achieve. We will hold these sessions virtually or in-person in an environment that maintains confidentiality so you can be open with me during our conversations. I will ask thought-provoking questions intended to make you think critically and go beyond the surface. I will be comfortable with silence and allowing you time to think and process any emotions. I will provide tools and techniques, but only with your permission or desire for such input. At each session, I will ask you what your next steps will be and we will review progress at subsequent sessions.
     
  • Team coaching incorporates many of the same coaching techniques as one to one, but alters its focus toward creating psychological safety and trust across all team members so the team as a whole co-creates the dynamic and the outcomes they are seeking. It is likely to be more structured in dialogue to ensure all team members are heard and valued. I also work with teams to help them identify their strengths and areas for improvement to result in enhanced individual and collective skill sets, increased adaptability, and greater resilience in facing challenges.
  • The academy option provides an opportunity to train more people, together, at lower overall cost. It is organized to provide education, practice, and community and peer support. While 1:1 coaching support is offered in the academy model, it is reduced as compared to a 1:1 model of coaching.
  • The academy model is flexible in terms of being offered for groups of individual leaders or multiple teams. It also allows for leaders and teams to pursue different goals, but guided along the same pathways. 
  • The curriculum is 6-12 months, depending on client / organization goals. The education time is active, adult-learner centered, and includes accountability through progress reporting as well as planning time for growth between sessions.
  • Assessments provide personal reflection insights, enhanced ability to articulate personal style preferences and strengths, as well as opportunities to clarify opportunities for growth and development.
  • I provide verbal 360 assessments and access to multiple individual, team, and organizational culture assessments through Principles You and PrinciplesUs as well as through Cloverleaf.
  • Click any of the Let’s Chat or Schedule a discussion buttons to connect with me.
  • Or, go to https://tidycal.com/heathergroomsphd to schedule time to chat.

Why Heather or Why an outside facilitator / speaker

Get in touch today and receive a complimentary consultation.

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