In 2023, I took a Big Leap. I took a career break to reconnect with my inspiration and intentionally pursue what I really, really wanted in life and in my career. I was exhilarated by the opportunity. Of course, it was also a little scary — that’s part of what made it a big leap of faith. I had moments of doubt, moments where I felt the pings of panic. I knew in my gut taking the time off was the right decision for me, but external messages challenged my own internal intuition.
I had identified the core attributes I was looking for in my next role, but I hadn’t figured out what exactly it looked like yet or how to find it. I was determined to challenge myself, to keep growing, and to find a new path that would help me broaden the impact I made every day. Some points of the journey felt like flying. Other points, it felt more like free falling — but in a good way.
A Revolution Timed to Perfection
The timing was perfect for me to read Lori Mazan’s Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders. Lori’s book helped me put a name and a process to what I was working through — the Big Leap. I got to benefit from her decades of experience as a C-suite coach and start-up founder, as she took the complex topic of developing high impact leaders and made it accessible. The way she organized the sections around Clarity, Challenge, and Impact felt like a roadmap. Each chapter walked me through the coaching journey, providing guidance and inspiration for my growth and helping me refine the leadership development approach I’ll bring to my future teams.
Lori’s words brought to life in concrete terms what my experience has shown me — coaching is an essential element of leadership development. It’s the proven methodology for helping leaders shift mindsets, actually try new things, and build the capacity needed to drive transformations and success no matter what the future throws at them. Leadership Revolution reinforced my passion for coaching and clarified the formula for transformational change that’s so essential today.
From Customer to Sounding Boarder
I was already a fan and happy customer of Sounding Board, so when the opportunity arose to join them in their mission to democratize coaching for leaders at all levels, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. It’s critical. It’s time sensitive. And, it’s within our reach.
The fact that Sounding Board delivers high-impact coaching at scale with the flexible SaaS solution to manage coaching and mentoring programs is a powerful game changer. Because while each organization is unique, we collectively face many of the same challenges when it comes to leadership development — for example, the need to draw concrete connections between development and business goals and objectives. Chances are your organization has invested in leadership development, but how well is it tracking progress? How well are developmental goals aligned to business objectives? And how is that measured?
After more than two decades as a corporate leader, it’s clear to me that most companies can’t afford to ignore these questions. Yet, many companies do, or if they have asked them, they haven’t found practical solutions for these challenges.
Take Your Next Big Leap
At Sounding Board, we’d love to partner with you to design a leadership coaching program for business impact. If you’d like to learn more about how Sounding Board enables companies and organizations to scale, manage, measure, and track leadership development, request a demo or send us an email.
Michelle Knight is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Sounding Board. Throughout her career, Michelle has specialized in building and leading teams within high-growth organizations and startups including ServiceNow, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Adobe and Live Picture. She is also a trained leadership coach and advocate for coaching and mentoring as essential for building the leadership capabilities needed to thrive in today’s ever-changing global market.
