Coaching designed to unleash your leadership potential

LEAD YOURSELF, YOUR TEAM, and YOUR ORGANIZATION ON YOUR TERMS

Want results quickly? You need a coach.

Individualized coaching is your fastest path to success if you’re a woman IN STEM who wantS to lead EFFECTIVELY AND authentically without burning out.

You’re not “one of the guys,” and when you’ve tried to match your communication and leadership styles of your boss or male mentors, it didn’t work. You may have gotten feedback that you’re either not enough or too much: too sensitive, too direct, too aggressive, too nice, or too pushy. You may have been told: “you’re taking things too personally” or “people won’t respect you if you aren’t taking charge and telling them what to do.” These are all common challenges - and words directly taken from what some of our 1:1 coaching clients have been told - for STEM women leaders.

This is also why traditional leadership and soft skills training falls flat, ignoring the impact of gender, intersectionality, and context on how team members perceive behavior.

Data shows that team (and client!) reactions vary by gender identity. This is due to unconsciously ingrained human biases that we all carry with us, regardless of the good intent of the person demonstrating the behavior. That translates into unequal footing for women when navigating your career and leadership challenges.

Women in STEM (compared to their male counterparts) are statistically more likely to:

• Have their competency questioned (meaning they need higher-level skills to navigate advocating for themselves, ‘difficult conversations’ and ‘conflict’ earlier in their careers)

• Receive 2-3x more requests to complete non-promotable tasks (NPT’s) for every one request a man receives (which means they need ninja-level training on prioritizing, setting boundaries, and diplomatically saying no…or they will burnout before they get to leadership without firm/manager awareness and help making NPT’s equitable)

• Hear feedback that their “unusual” leadership style needs improvement without being given actionable ways to improve (translation: she leads differently than current leaders in the organization, and because of that there’s a lack of firm experience in growing someone with her leadership style)

• Struggle to find role models in their firms who “lead like them,” making it challenging to adopt positive leadership habits authentic to them and get helpful feedback to grow (instead of the more common “do-it-my-way” feedback)

Leading as a STEM professional is hard, regardless of gender. For women, the customized support provided by a 1:1 coach who understands from personal experience the nuances and complexities of leading as a woman IN ADDITION to the more “normal” leadership challenges (like hiring, delegation, building trust, motivating people, strategic thinking, etc.) can make the difference between struggle and burnout, or success as a leader.

For organizations, that success means creating a reputation where women leaders can grow and thrive, ensuring you retain top talent and minimize retention and recruitment costs.

Our 1:1 coaching services are specifically designed to help cultivate a growth mindset and navigate the complexities of being a woman STEM leader so that you can lead yourself, your teams, and your organization while staying authentic to who you are, build a career that supports your life, and leverage your unique skills to add business value at work.

Benefits of 1:1 coaching for firms

01. BETTER LEADERS

Coaching helps develop crucial leadership qualities such as building trust, effective communication, decision-making, and strategic thinking. Improved leadership skills benefit the organization by driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and empowering STEM women to take on more significant roles within the company.

02. Retention

Women feel more supported and engaged in their roles, leading to higher job satisfaction and improved retention rates. As one female leader told us: “My organization paid for 1:1 coaching and it’s the most supported I’ve ever felt.”

03. HIGHER-PERFORMING & Innovative TEAMS

Coaching helps individuals identify and leverage their strengths, overcome challenges, and develop new skills. Leader growth translates into team growth. The presence of empowered and skilled STEM leaders can spark innovation, drive change, and contribute to bottom-line organizational impact.

04. shows your firm values gender equity

Hiring and paying for 1:1 coaching for STEM women sends a powerful message that the company values diversity and is committed to supporting underrepresented groups in the industry. This creates a more inclusive work environment, attracting top talent and helping to build a diverse workforce that benefits from a range of perspectives and experiences.

05. CoNFIDENCE to speak up

Are women leaving your firm (or refusing promotions) but you don’t know why? Do you want your women to be better equipped to proactively speak up so that their challenges can be addressed? Coaching creates a safe container to explore those issues with individuals and third-party feedback/insights instead of making a manager the “bad girl/guy”.

What coaching clients are saying

The above is a snippet of a full interview with career and leadership coach Stephanie Slocum (our Founder). Click HERE to watch the entire interview.

Coaching Options

Individual

• Right for: Individuals at any career stage

• Contract: Month-to-month

• Duration: 3 month minimum (except VIP days), on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly schedule

• Who Pays: Individual Being Coached

Your coach for all of the above options is Stephanie Slocum.

Benefits of 1:1 coaching for individuals

01. EMBRACE YOUR AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

We understand the struggle of feeling "less than" because your style doesn't conform to traditional masculine leadership styles. Coaching will help you embrace your unique qualities, talents, and perspectives as strengths, allowing you to lead authentically and confidently.

02. oUTSMART BIAS

Our coaching program equips you with effective strategies to address biases that may hinder your progress. We prioritize results and coach you to recognize that different approaches are required for different contexts and people. For example, many of our clients work in organizations or with individuals who are not open to understanding the benefits of diversity. We are adept at helping you strategically navigate biases using communication techniques that work in a variety of contexts (even for those for which “diversity” is a dirty word), specific to that situation or individual.

03. UNDERSTAND WHERE YOUR UNIQUE SKILLSETS PROVIDE THE MOST VALUE

Understanding your unique skills, strengths, and blindspots is essential for great leaders. Our coaching helps you understand your unique skillsets so you can empower - and not micromanage - your team to make their own decisions. Our process can also help you know which roles in your organization are best for you. As a bonus, our clients have told us that understanding their own value has made them better at communicating that value to clients, in some cases resulting in new work for their firms.

04. LEARN HOW DELEGATE AND SET BOUNDARIES SO YOU CAN LEAD WITHOUT BURNOUT

Women STEM leaders are more prone to burnout than their male counterparts. Regular coaching helps you effectively prioritize, set boundaries, and delegate, including “just-in-time” techniques for challenges as they appear.

05. GROW YOUR leadership skills

Our coaching services encompass a wide range of leadership skills, including communication, assertiveness, delegation, motivating your team, and influencing. We will help you develop and refine these skills in a way that aligns with your authentic style, empowering you to lead with impact and effectiveness.

Who do we work with?

We work with PURPOSE-DRIVEN STEM INDIVIDUALS and companies WHO know that growing people (including yourself!) = business growth

We understand the key to a successful long-term career is doing work you love, that aligns with your skills and interests, and also enables you to support the life you want outside of work. When that work aligns with the business needs of a company, magic happens!

Our coaching programs are 100% customized to your needs, depending on individual and organizational goals (which we establish as part of coaching onboarding). Outcomes we have helped coaching clients achieve include:

• Successful transitions into management roles: The transition from individual contributor to manager is one of the most challenging transitions of most STEM careers. We have helped numerous clients successfully make that transition, with a focus on connecting/developing trust with their teams, understanding team member’s strengths, setting boundaries, delegation, and navigating unique circumstances that commonly happen to STEM women leaders (i.e. that client/higher-up that directs their question to the more junior male on your team, instead of you as the lead)

• Work-life integration: A structural engineering client was struggling with overtime hours, waking up in the middle of the night stressed over all the undone tasks at work. She started sleeping through the night within 1 month of our work together, got herself down to a (typically) 40-hour work week within three months, and got a promotion a year after we started working together.

• Negotiation: We have helped numerous clients negotiate everything from opportunities internally for more high-visibility projects, to maternity leave in a startup (where FMLA laws typically don’t apply), promotions, and client negotiations for a small firm leader (i.e. we helped with proposal-writing and negotiating fees).

• Passing the PE exam after failing: One civil engineering client had failed the PE exam 3 times before she started working with us 4 months before she was scheduled to take the exam a fourth time. Our coaching work together included accountability and mindset (and no technical coaching). She passed the exam.

• Communicating your value at work: A civil engineering client was stuck in an unfilling individual contributor role. We helped her identify and communicate her strengths to her manager (and manager’s manager), which resulted in her getting out of her unfulfilling role and being put on a management track; this was a win-win for both her and her firm.

Emerging Leaders

If you are a rising star with at least 4 years of experience (typically post-PE, if you’re working in an industry requiring licensure to advance), we understand that finding your place in the STEM industry can feel daunting. You may be moving (or planning to transition soon) into your first people-management role and feel the pressure to conform to the traditional masculine leadership style, leading to self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy.

Our coaching program is tailored to empower you to embrace your strengths and step into a leadership style that works for you. We will help you navigate the challenges of being a leader who breaks the mold and guide you towards building a successful and fulfilling career that aligns with your authentic self.

SEASONED LEADERS & BUSINESS OWNERS

This isn’t your first management role, and you’ve already encountered the biases and expectations that come with being a woman leader in STEM. You may even be responsible for business development/bringing in work into your organization. We understand the pressures that come with growing a team or firm, and provide you with more advanced strategies and support to overcome those challenges.

Coaching helps you leverage your authentic leadership style, delegate effectively, set boundaries to empower your team to make their own decisions, navigate obstacles with confidence, and gain recognition for the value you bring to the table. We will empower you to lead, inspire others, and create positive change within your industry.