Executive Coaching
The Coherence Mentorship
personalized six- and twelve-month programs
You’re probably reading this because of a nagging feeling that your life both professionally and personally could be much, much better.
Perhaps you’ve reached that coveted “C-suite” or Founder position and discovered just how lonely and overwhelming it can actually be!
Perhaps you realize that the skill or talents that got you here — sales, operations, business development, marketing, etc. — are not enough to keep you here.
You’re entertaining thoughts of “will I flame out too?”
“Was this a terrible idea to risk everything for my great idea?”
“If I share with other leaders the challenges I’m facing, will I appear weak and ineffective?”
Which of these are true for you?
- More stress than feels healthy.
- Constant time pressure to excel but “how can I still have a wonderful family life?”
- Health concerns with aging happening every day.
- Financial worries due to the market and general chaos of the world.
- A quiet but urgent sense I could make more impact in a different job or a new career.
- Wanting to do something that makes my heart sing.
What did I miss?
There are many approaches to executive coaching.
Based on my 40 years in business — first learning how to “show up” so I could manage others, and then how to lead others (including myself) – my 25+ years coaching and teaching executives and entrepreneurs at Stanford Business School and elsewhere, and especially the years I spent as CEO of HeartMath®, I believe there are four skill areas to become a great leader that can be coached.
We named it Inner Quality Management. These are the four dimensions:
This model will inform our six or twelve months together, so you can develop the fullness of your leadership capacity and be healthy, vital, and energized in the process.
Phase 1 Internal Self-Management, is the first job of any leader: learning self-regulation so energy, cognitive function, stress prevention, resilience, and emotional sensitivity to others are all maximized. The Heart Coherence tools of HeartMath are key to phase one.
Phase 2 Coherent Communication, enables you to translate your newfound skills in managing yourself into the arena of communication with peers, subordinates, partners, and collaborators. And, of course, family.
Phase 3 Boosting Organizational Climate is vital since the impact of the climate and culture of an organization hugely impacts KPIs let alone sustainability, employee engagement, customer satisfaction and many other factors.
Phase 4 Strategic Processes of Renewal assure that your organizational system is neither stagnant nor chaotic. When “renewal” is at the core of strategic thinking, we don’t burn bridges or create unnecessary fires.
Depending where you are in your leadership journey, we will shape and emphasize the skills that are most relevant for you.
Above all, I have learned — and am eager to coach you! — around one essential quality that can take an entrepreneur or leader from competent to inspirationally exceptional:
The capacity to create internal coherence personally and to create coherence, harmony, collaboration — a “we’re all in this together” mindset — is crucial for leaders now and in the future.
Heart Coherence is the number one quality of the truly exceptional leaders.
Click here to schedule a free discovery call
During my 11 years as CEO of HeartMath LLC (and to this day), we placed a very high value on internal coherence — alignment — within the HeartMath organization. We knew this starts with the individual.
Why is this so important?
Coherence is a term that is used in physics to describe efficiency in energy systems, lack of friction, harmony, and a level of order that results in significantly more power in any system.
Simply said, a coherent system can operate at maximum efficiency and power.
An incoherent system wears out and breaks down.
This is true for you and me, your team, your family, your organization, your community, and yes, your body.
At HeartMath we constantly monitored how coherent and efficient were our internal communication processes, how smooth and coherent were our meetings, how aligned and “coherent” were our performance goals and reviews, how coherent were our actions with external partners, with customers and with colleagues.
But it all started with us as individuals.
HeartMath is a system of tools and cool tech to self-regulate ourselves so we can become more coherent, balanced and effective mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The ripple effect of our increased coherence is felt all around us.
Coherence in Action at Work
Since we had created a system based on the principle of coherence, we felt it was our job to prove that coherence wasn’t just a sweet concept, but could give any organization powerful leverage to:
- Unlock organizational creativity
- Unlock employee talents and gifts
- Improve organizational productivity and, ultimately, profit
- Improve internal communication while improving operational efficiency
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Improve our own employee engagement and retention
- Show to the world that we were doing our best to align our values, mission, products, programs, and operations around a single concept – Coherence.
I’m proud to say that while I was CEO and for three years consecutively — 2008, 2009, and 2010 – HeartMath was honored as one of the Top 50 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area.
Being a leader can be wonderfully rewarding and intoxicating.
It can also be lonely and agonizing.
You go through complex challenges that people who never sat at your desk could never fully understand, let alone manage.
And then there are the voices that restrain the very best of you:
If you show your “vulnerability” people will think you’re weak.
If you share too transparently about the company or the “rumors”, people will lose confidence in you.
If you admit to having a health problem, people will worry you’re not fit for the job.
If you don’t have as your primary (and really only) goal higher and higher profits no matter what, you’ll be replaced.
Most leaders hold so much inside while maintaining a tough, cool, and aloof exterior – for fear of all the negative consequences of being authentic – it’s no wonder their health is suffering, their performance is sub-par, and their ability to inspire and motivate others is diminished.
I wrote about this problem in a 2003 article for the Harvard Business Review, “Pull the Plug on Stress”.
Nigel, a British oil company executive, was suffering a perfect storm of leadership instability, health problems, and family concerns. Through learning and applying the HeartMath techniques in all facets of his life, improvement began to occur everywhere.
Leaders are often highly motivated, ambitious, and driven to achieve exceptional goals.
With high expectations comes high pressure.
Most organizations are trapped in a leadership model that still resembles too much the “command and control” military model, or requires a hierarchical and restrictive decision-making chain that is disempowering to all but the most senior in the organization.
The idea that leaders might actually have fear, anxiety, worry, or – god forbid – loneliness and depression is not honored, let alone even acknowledged.
I’ve been there. More than 40 years in senior leadership roles.
More than 20 years coaching executives on four continents.
More than 30 years teaching, coaching and mentoring leaders to use the principles and mindset of heart coherence to reach a level of health, balance, energy, vitality, and effectiveness that is sustainable and produces results.
Hear what clients have to say about working with me.
Click here to schedule a free discovery call
The Process
We will talk together to uncover the challenges in your life and turn them into actionable goals you will create for your:
- Career dreams
- Health goals
- Family life
- Financial vision
- Fulfillment
The HeartMath tools will be a core part of our process. If you haven’t yet been trained in HeartMath, we will incorporate the Heart Coherence Training Intensive into our six or twelve months together.
The Heart Coherent Leader approach will give you daily practices, habits, and tools to ensure you’re keeping all aspects of your life in a coherent state.
Some days will feel harder than others. Some days the setbacks could be discouraging. But as you’ve already learned to get you where you are today, success is not a straight linear path.
It takes consistency.
It takes perseverance.
It takes heart.
It takes compassion.
It takes care for others, as well as yourself.
It takes gratitude for the opportunity to re-invent yourself.
Immersion, then Action
We will begin with two half-day immersions to get clear on your professional and personal dreams and goals, so our work together can focus on the areas of greatest need and greatest potential impact. Before these sessions you will complete a ten-step prework exercise to examine major aspects of your personal and professional life.
Your goals around well-being, health, and personal dynamics will be fully integrated in our conversations.
Once our immersions are complete, we will create an Action Plan for 6 or 12 months, to ensure you’re following through on key insights and tasks from the immersion, and so I can support you every step of the way.
Dynamic, energizing, fun. Coherent.
My Network
Having supported leaders in the fields of technology, healthcare, biohacking, science, academia, entertainment, investment, publishing, and executive education, and having worked with clients on four continents, my network is considerable and diverse.
Many people wish to work with me expressly because they know how deep and broad is my network.
This could be one of the most significant dimensions of our work together — the people I can connect you to who will be relevant, and even essential, to make your dreams happen.
Additional Resources
- Show Up: Management Stories (audio; written and narrated by Bruce Cryer), excerpted from “Habits of Heroes” by Jeff Patnaude and Gary Malkin.
- eBook of From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance, by Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer
- This is the book I co-wrote with HeartMath founder Doc Childre describing organizational applications of HeartMath.
- “Pull the Plug on Stress” – Harvard Business Review, 2003, 2015. Article describes how the HeartMath heart coherence tools have been effective for leaders in dealing with the complex stress of leadership demands, health breakdown, and relationship challenges.
- Authors: Bruce Cryer, Rollin McCraty, PhD (HeartMath research director) and Doc Childre — pdf
- Guided meditations from the album Sonic Sanctuaries, created by Bruce and multiple Emmy award winning composer, Gary Malkin
- eBook on Finding Your Creative Brilliance, Bruce Cryer
- Free one-hour coaching call with anyone you designate ($250 value)
- Free one month Heart Coherence Intensive for anyone you designate ($1500 value)
Click here to schedule a free discovery call
6 months — $15,000
12 months — $30,000
(For more information on Heart Coherence 1-1 Training with Bruce, click here.)
HeartMath is a registered trademark of Quantum Intech, Inc. For all HeartMath trademarks go to www.heartmath.com/trademarks