What I offer

Coaching is an investment in your leaders. To retain your best leaders to guide the organization into the future, you need to invest in their growth. I work with leaders who want to take their leadership skills to the next level and who want to have a more positive impact on their teams and organizations. My approach to coaching is to focus on building new skills and awareness that lead to long-term, sustainable change. I help your leaders strengthen the connections with the important people in their lives.

I customize training for leaders at all levels -- from first-time managers to senior executives who want to continue to learn, grow and stay relevant. I tailor the training to fit your organization and its unique culture, and I coach teams how to reframe and enhance the way they relate to and serve their business environments - placing as much emphasis on how they lead change with their stakeholders as how those teams function internally. I focus on the skills that are top of mind as your leaders navigate leadership challenges.

I lead workshops to help you build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. I believe that you can't be a good leader without being inclusive.  You can't just lead some of your people - you're responsible for connecting with and leading all of them.  Organizations that are inclusive are more innovative and competitive, attracting and retaining top talent.  I’ll work with you to develop a strategy to meaningfully impact recruiting, development and retention. Inclusion and transparency become a part of your culture, and your people can start to thrive.

Integral coaching is an approach that includes the whole person -- everything about you and your world comes into play.  This includes what you are aware of and what can be brought about through more focused, skillful ways of being. How do you represent yourself?  How aligned are your head, heart and body in ways that help you better relate to others, handle conflict and lead change?

We’ll work with your thoughts, beliefs and emotions, as well as your intentions.  We’ll delve into your individuality and how you fit into various cultures and identities.  We’ll work on ways you can integrate new, more effective habits and become more self-correcting as you develop new competencies.  And we do this by creating new ways of being that are sustainable over the long-term.

Leanne Smullen

Leadership Coaching Experience

I have spent my career coaching leaders to be more effective in their roles. Having served 21 years as an Army officer, I have held key leadership positions and led international teams on deployments around the world. After leaving active duty, I transitioned into consulting and tech.  I have served on the executive teams of four startup tech companies, leading them through fast-paced growth, strategy development, international expansion, mergers/acquisitions, and cultural integration. My areas of specialty are coaching senior leaders and managers individually, developing teams of leaders and helping founders build thriving, inclusive, and engaged cultures. I understand the opportunities and challenges of this shift, and can help leaders navigate each passage effectively.

Facilitating and Consulting Experience

At my most recent role as an executive team member at video advertising tech company, SpotX, I focused on developing and coaching leaders at all levels. I create and deliver custom leadership workshops that help develop the skills of current executives and emerging leaders in the areas of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, effective communication, providing feedback and managing conflict, among others. Using my experience of building strong and inclusive cultures, I create diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies and workshops for organizations as well. I use a systems approach to help organizations look at their current DEI strategy and work with them to find ways to address processes and policies that will better attract underrepresented groups and ensure they know that they belong. I have a passion for building and promoting strong company cultures, and making positive impact in recruiting and retention efforts for people of all backgrounds.

Education and Training

I graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Communication and Political Science, and received an MBA from Georgia State University in Atlanta with a concentration in Marketing. I have been a certified Integral Coach™ from New Ventures West since 2013, and have used this training to coach leaders and teams to learn, collaborate, and innovate. I’m certified to administer and facilitate the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment, which I have used for organizational development and team building. I am also trained to bring the Enneagram to organizations, focusing on improving communication, conflict, feedback, teamwork and coaching skills. I currently serve in the Colorado National Guard as the State Diversity & Inclusion Officer, and have also served as a liaison officer during major fires and floods in Colorado. In addition to the military, my leadership experience has been in the advertising, tech, logistics, transportation, consulting, and healthcare industries.

Resources

A few things I’m reading, watching and listening to as l to continue to learn and grow as a leader and coach.

ARTICLES

Good Leadership is About Communicating “Why”

If You Aspire to Be a Great Leader, Be Present

4 Signs an Executive Isn't Ready for Coaching

How to Cultivate Your Internal Everyday Hero

PODCASTS

Inclusive Leadership - Intersectionality

'Set the example': Exceptional Women Out West

Leading with Less Ego

A New Way to Combat Bias at Work

VIDEOS

The Language of Being Human (Poet Ali)

How to Make Stress Your Friend

The Power of Vulnerability

BOOKS

Leaders Eat Last

Compassionate Conversations

Leadership from the Inside Out

How To Be an Inclusive Leader

Great Mondays

How To Be an Antiracist

The Lost Art of Compassion

The Leadership Pipeline

Emotional Intelligence