“No one ever drifted into excellence.”


Coaching with intention, strategy and impact for leaders in transition, on a succession plan, high potentials, and high performing leaders with a “derailer”.

“What if success is about helping others win.”

– Tim Schurrer

  • Manage the “mind traffic”.

  • Increase decision velocity!

  • Move your performance from good to “extraordinary” in life AND work.

Changing behavior is easy, sustaining it takes long-term focus!

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Leading with intention can feel challenging…

  • You put 110% into your role yet you find yourself being more reactive than proactive

  • You have been promoted into a new role and you aren’t quite sure where to start

  • You are “moving up the ladder” yet you feel less and less confident about each new role.

  • You have had feedback that you are lacking “executive presence”

  • Your work is sucking your energy and it spills over into your home life

  • You have a team member that doesn’t seem to be performing up to their capability

  • The feedback you get is full of generalizations and is unactionable

  • Your development plan is all about training or attending a conference and, yet, you aren’t growing in your role.

It’s time to get your ship out of the harbor, to stop drifting, feel more prepared for the storms while navigating the waters of change! Coaching isn’t about temporary solutions and short-term fixes. It’s all about leveraging your genius, applying your gifts and talents, adjusting the “sails”, discovering what drives you internally and creating a strategy for real, meaningful change.

Let’s have a conversation.

The Data and Impact of Coaching

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70% Increase in Individual Performance-Goal Attainment, Clearer Communication, Higher satisfaction

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50% increase in Team Performance-Better Conversations, Improved collaboration Enhanced Work Performance

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48% increase in Org. Performance-Increase in revenue, increase in employee retention, customers as advocates.

- International Coaching Federation

Focus forward, implement sustainable behavioral changes, and build a community of allies around you! The future holds unlimited possibilities. The past cannot be changed…you can only change your future…focus on the future and what CAN be done!

Feedback “at its best” guide

Feedback is more impactful when…

  1. You trust the intention of the person sharing it with you – truly for your benefit.

  2. There is context to the feedback - you understand the circumstances surrounding the “who and what”.

  3. You understand what to do (clear actions) rather than what not to do (generalities and gaps).

  4. It’s timely and specific.

  5. You have community support, going forward, to help reinforce ongoing, sustainable growth.

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What About Bob

Becoming extraordinary requires intention, moving from “inspiration to implementation”.

Think about one of the worst decisions you’ve ever made. My bet is that decision was made when you were in a high emotional state whether angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, excited, overjoyed, or elated…these emotional states can block brilliance!

In a clip from the movie, “What About Bob”, Dr. Leo Marvin, an egotistical psychotherapist in New York City, played by Richard Dreyfuss, has been trying to teach his son, Sigmund, how to dive into the lake from their cabin dock. After many unsuccessful attempts to “coerce” Sigmund into the lake, both Dr. Marvin and Sigmund become exasperated and give up.

Enter, Bob Wiley, played by Bill Murray, a “unique” client of Dr. Marvin’s. Bob takes a different approach with the young boy. Within minutes (yes, I know it’s a movie), Bob helps Sigmund break the diving process into manageable steps, decrease his internal mental interference and, inspired by his own thinking, Sigmund dives right in! Thus, the brilliance of coaching!!

Mental state drives performance and I can help you manage your mental state! I’ve seen my clients make little progress on some of their biggest challenges. And yet, when applying a structured thinking process, I’ve seen…

  • A senior executive successor, who was stuck at “Not Ready Now” potential for 2 years increase his readiness and get promoted within 6 months.

  • A manager, transitioning to a VP, increase the “receptivity” with his executive board within 3 months.

  • A mid-level leader make a successful career change as the result of one coaching conversation.

  • A team of 20 CEOs come to agreement on a talent strategy plan in 1 1/2 days after struggling for 6 months with how to move forward.

I’ve helped over 10,000 leaders “get out of the harbor!

Are you ready for a journey that will infuse your life with more strategic intention and purpose?

Executive Coach & Master Facilitator

Grateful to have over three decades of experience helping executives overcome limiting beliefs while leveraging their gifts and leading them to greater levels of performance…


I am an Executive and Team Coach, Senior Leadership Development Consultant and “Master Facilitator”. I am grateful to have over three decades of experience helping executives overcome limiting beliefs while leveraging their gifts and leading them to greater levels of performance.

I have accumulated extensive experience in the global manufacturing, insurance, airlines, retail, US military, government, professional services, and medical industries. He has conducted work in China, the UK, Germany, Scotland, Hong Kong, Dubai, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Romania.

Over the years, I have led the charge in designing and delivering best-practice virtual and live global leadership solutions around topics such as managing biases, building your executive presence, master facilitation, coaching in the moment, facilitating feedback for impact, influencing others, and style-flexing as a behavior-based approach to get other’s perceptions to work for rather than against the leader.

My experience has given me the opportunity to work with senior leaders across the globe while helping drive key talented initiatives. I have taken “the leap” and am now providing executive coaching and leadership development services to a variety of small, medium, and Fortune 1000 companies. Feel free to view my LinkedIn page for more detail.

No one ever drifted into excellence.

Education


  • Masters, University of St. Thomas

  • Bachelors, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Professional Certifications


  • Certified Coach, Coach U

  • Certified Coach, Corporate Coach U

  • Shift Positive 360

  • Assessment Coach & Debriefer, Korn Ferry

  • Master Certified, InsideOut Development

  • MBTI & DiSC Certified

  • Extraordinary Leader 360 Certified, Zenger Folkman

  • Marshall Goldsmith Coaching Process

  • Social Styles, TRACOM Group

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“The best way to create sustainable, positive change is by building and engaging people systems of support.” 

-Peter Berridge, Shift Positive 360

Business Impact

“I am grateful for my opportunity to work with Bob on my continued leadership development.  During my sessions with Bob, he provided valuable feedback on how I present, show up, and command a room.  I am now more mindful of my language, non-verbal cues and positioning of thoughts with definitive outcomes.  Bob provided me with language such as:  

Confident Language:  I’ve thought through the plan, I put together a tentative plan forward - let me share this with you and then I’ll field questions that you may have”  "Here's what I've come to, it is the direction I'm going to go - talk me out of it if you feel strongly one way or the other"  

Asking for Feedback: I like your advice - I see that you have wins here and I’d like specifics in behaviors that you’d be seeing in me to lead others to believe that I'd be driving a bit more.  

Most importantly, do not lose who you are as a leader and a person.  Focus on your strengths and be prepared.”

– VP of Marketing and Operations

Leadership 360 Assessment

What’s missing, in some cases, is a honoring mindset and stakeholder transparency. Feedback is the “breakfast of champions” when it’s delivered in a way that doesn’t degrade or dishonor the other while gathering useful information leading to actionable, deep, sustainable development.

The Shift Positive 360 process will change the way you think about developing your people! Integrating a positive psychology approach, building a community of allies while addressing the “confidentiality” myth may be the ticket to building a healthier culture. I’ve been certified in multiple 360 instruments over my career, yet NONE come close to the transformational impact the Shift Positive 360 Approach can have in organizations!

This is a refreshing take on transforming your organization while building a culture and community of feedback allies!

Introducing the Shift Positive Method… “The best way to get to where you want to be is to start with where you are!” If you are ready to set “Sail out of the harbor” and eager to step out of the “OLD” (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) and into a NEW adventure of growth and development let’s connect.

A clear path forward

What is your level of satisfaction with the way feedback is shared within your organization?


How satisfied are you with your 360 process?

Bar Harbor Maine Autumn

We interview 6 to 8 people who are stakeholders in the leader’s success. Asking questions that:

  • Uncover what is already going well

  • Explore what the stakeholder would like to see even more of

  • Create a vision of a shared positive future

  • Get stakeholders to pledge to support leader’s growth

Builds on Strengths*Explores Possibilities*Clarifies Expectations*Involves Stakeholders*Looks to the Future*Systems-oriented* Ground in Positive Psychology

Why Shift Positive 360?

Interviews that  turn stakeholders into allies

Partner Together

Shadow coaching with “real-time, in-the-moment” feedback.

Measure your progress by designing strategic goals with the help of a community of allies; Lastly, I will help you build a community of support as change doesn’t happen alone! You have the option to schedule and pay for 1-3 coaching sessions when you need a coach NOW!

Get Out of the Harbor - Just in Time Coaching


90-Minute Quick Coach Session $275

OR

Month to Month Action Coaching sessions $500 per month

Chart the Course


Shift Positive 360 Feedback Assessment and Coaching

3-6 months

Call for customized pricing

Set Sail


Leader and Team Coaching

Call for customized pricing

Business Impact

"Bob Parsons is an awesome coach and extremely easy to connect with. Our coaching sessions truly challenged me to rethink many of the beliefs I had about myself and my capabilities. I have moved from timid to brave, embracing experiences and opportunities which I shied away from for far too long. The tipping point for me came when I realized that Bob believed in me even before I believed in myself. Thank you Bob for an amazing journey!"

— Senior Talent Specialist, South Africa

"As a new manager, I was lucky to have the opportunity to be coached by Bob. He taught me the difference between “managing” and coaching my team. My professional success as a manager and leader of an organization of over 150 employees is largely attributed to Bob. That success includes moving a call-center cost-center into a revenue generating operation with a $20M goal in 2009. Anyone who is given the opportunity to work with Bob is lucky and will be amazed at their own growth and benefit from partnering with him."

— VP Operations

“What I admire most about Bob is his ability to truly lead his career and personal life according to his values--and doing it successfully! My experience working with Bob has been as a leader, coach, and facilitator. He is the leader that people trust and want to follow; the coach that people open up to; and the facilitator that people want to engage with. Bob comes highly recommended and it would be an honor to work with him again!”

— HR Manager

Favorite resources

This book is one of my most recommended resources to help people reimagine a new way of experiencing feedback that creates more empowered and engaged workforces. (Not an affiliate link).

Feedback Reimagined: Transform Your Organization through POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY and SOCIAL SUPPORT

by Peter Berridge & Jen Ostrich

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(Not an affiliate link).

Mayflower, Voyage, Community and War

by Nathaniel Philbrick

(Not an affiliate link).

(Not an affiliate link).

Move your performance from good to “extraordinary” in life AND work.

Get a coach (Atul Gawande | TED2017)

My Mission

Live a life of faith and joy… Live it, Give it, Walk it, Talk it, Own it, Loan it, Grow it, Show it.