Katie Baird With Baird Coaching, LLC

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from theBusiness RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we got Katie Baird with Baird coaching. Welcome, Katie.

Katie Baird: [00:00:41] Thanks. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about bird coaching. How are you serving, folks?

Katie Baird: [00:00:47] Absolutely. So I am based in Houston, Texas, but really have a client base across the country and even internationally, which is really exciting. My business really builds on my background and strategy consulting and the years I spent supporting executives as they transitioned into the C-suite. And that’s really where my my coaching practice has gone. I serve leaders who are mid and senior level in their career, anticipating some really important inflection point professionally that they want to have a great deal of clarity and confidence around in terms of how they approach that. So very much so. I’m here to support people as they navigate career change and further develop as leaders.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] So now you mentioned having a corporate background. Could you talk about how during your work in corporate, you were able to help executives transition?

Katie Baird: [00:01:46] Yeah. So most of my career was spent at Deloitte, which for those who aren’t familiar, is a very, very large professional services firm here. The great thing about being at a company like that is you can reinvent yourself a few times. So I started in very traditional strategy consulting, meaning I was analyzing business problems and helping companies be more efficient in the choices they were making. And that led to work with a group called the Deloitte Green House. When I started with them back in, gosh, I think twenty thirteen, we were about 30 people nationwide out of a company of one hundred and fifty thousand. So we were a tiny sort of startup and our focus was around helping to accelerate relationships for the firm by really carving out a space for senior leaders to come and think without interruption about their strategy and really wrestle with nebulous business problems. So I supported not only designing those day long sessions but also facilitating them, which is ultimately what led me to my my first academic coaching program at Rice University about four years ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:04] So now, having gone through corporate and then being involved in consulting at the level you were in, you still felt it necessary to actually get a, you know, more academic program of coaching to feel confident in order to deliver coaching.

Katie Baird: [00:03:23] I’m glad you asked that. Yes, I did. So, you know, the coaching market these days has really exploded. I would say it’s probably oversaturated and just like my background and consulting it, it can be very easy to call yourself a coach, just like it can be pretty easy to call yourself a consultant. And for me, I really wanted to understand the foundations of of this profession. And for me, that meant going back to the classroom. So Rice has a has a wonderful program, very focused on emerging leaders and the role that sort of coaching coaching tools and methodologies can can do to help business leaders. So I started that and have since sort of advanced in my accreditation with the International Coaching Federation.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:16] So now what did you take from that kind of academic coaching kind of from the learnings there as opposed to what you were experiencing kind of boots on the ground, dealing with folks in real life situations in real time?

Katie Baird: [00:04:35] You know, the the lessons from the classroom have been really applicable to to my profession, I think the biggest thing for me in my practice has been really embracing this idea of, I call it, leading from behind. So I am there to really support my clients, to accelerate their thinking, to give them a space, to look at their challenges and contemplate things from a variety of dimensions. And I really want to use my line of questioning and my listening and insights from what I’m hearing them to help further their progress as they’re unpacking those problems. And to me, that’s really what stood out in the program at Rice was just the incredible impact that you can have when you really just hold the space for somebody to to explore without, without a whole lot of requirements and pressure put on them.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:38] Now was that a difficult transition to go from kind of wearing a consulting hat for so many years where you’re there to solve a problem and implement a solution to a coaching hat, where it’s more about asking questions and having the client self discover the answer?

Katie Baird: [00:05:57] It definitely could be. I think, if anything, early on, it made me a better consultant when I was still in that world because. You want to make sure that you’re you’re answering the question to the right problem. And in order to do that, you need to be really curious and unpack things and and look kind of beyond the face value of what you may be seeing in the business challenge. So coaching was really helpful in that regard. I’d say when I made my transition to my coaching practice full time, it actually was probably more of a challenge for my clients to adjust to. And I think that’s because a lot of people see my background. They see Deloitte. They may know the name. They may loosely understand strategy consulting. And if they don’t necessarily understand what coaching really is about, they may want me to give them the answer or help solve the problem for them. And I think there are probably plenty of coaches that are fine with that and work that way. My hesitation and the reason I don’t really bring consulting into my coaching business is that I think it makes the solution really less sticky, and I want my clients to really be confident and in control and have that clarity around where they’re going next. What those choices are so that they can continue that momentum without me, like that success is that, you know, they don’t need me as a coach anymore.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:44] Now, having spent time now in both camps, the consulting and the coaching camp, why do you think there is a firm like a Deloitte, like you said, with 100000 consultants and there isn’t a firm that has 100000 coaches?

Katie Baird: [00:08:03] I think coaching is. Well, there’s a few reasons. Coaching can be harder to. I would say standardize it is much more, I think, of a unique, I’m sure, a preference driven profession than consulting. And so I would imagine it would probably be hard to really coalesce a mass of coaches around a single methodology or approach to the work. You know, certainly, I think you’re seeing important work being done in that space by kind of governing bodies like ICF. And I think you’re seeing some early efforts of that to really democratize coaching. If you look at the better ups and the coach hubs of the world that are trying to bring coaching at scale to to junior level people in at companies, at frankly a really, really low price point. I think that’s probably the most we’ve seen so far in terms of establishing a firm around coaching.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:17] Now do you see coaching as integral as consulting, especially to senior level folks, because as as coaching becomes more and more available, and it seems like, as you said, that it’s being kind of offered. It used to be offered, obviously to just a handful of people in a given firm. And now it is kind of moving its way down the the ladder to more and more folks. Do you see this as becoming almost a must have addition to any type of an organization rather than a nice to have?

Katie Baird: [00:09:55] Absolutely. So to your your first part around it being integral at the leadership level compared to consulting, I would say it’s it’s more important. I think businesses have become overly reliant on consultants for talent and for answers. And I don’t think that’s actually what they need. I think they need to be investing in themselves at those most senior levels to frankly be more capable at, at cultivating and retaining talent. And a big part of that is things like communication and setting a strategy and vision that people can relate to and really buy into. And I think coaching can go a really long way in helping those leaders develop more holistically in terms of coaching and its value throughout the ranks of of a business. I think it is also an incredible imperative. You know, this pandemic has been so incredibly hard for the world in so many ways. And I, you know, I don’t want to underestimate that. But I think a really exciting shift that’s happened is all of the reflection and reevaluation that, frankly, those fortunate enough to be able to do so have done about their careers, their priorities and how they want to grow. And, you know, it used to be I think that there was this myth or this narrative around what an ideal worker is or what an ideal company is or what it means to be successful in your career. And if this past year of 2021 is any indication, people are just bucking those ideals left and right, and there really is no longer one definition of career success. I love that for my clients. At the same time, I think that’s really hard for companies to deal with unless they have a really robust approach to investing in their people and providing a variety of avenues for them to grow and think about their development.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] Now for your clients, are they finding you because they have a specific pain they’re trying to address and get past or a challenge they’re trying to overcome? How how are they coming to you and what is the problem you typically solve for that first time client?

Katie Baird: [00:12:41] Clients are really coming to me, I would say, through several referral networks I have. And also just word of word of mouth based on, you know, my own reputation and Rolodex, which is fantastic. And I, you know, I make it pretty easy for people to find me in terms of my website and LinkedIn and just, you know, reaching out to find time to chat. So it’s a pretty straightforward process for anybody that wants to just explore coaching. But those that do tend to find me or choose to work with me are both men and women mid to senior level in their career and very much so want somebody as a sounding board to help them think through what’s next? How do I grow? How do I manage through this transition? The best way possible? And you know, for some people, that might be I am a I don’t like this term, but I’m a working mom returning to my job, my career for the first time as a parent, and I don’t know what that looks like. Or it could be somebody leveling up into a senior or very highly visible leadership role for the first time, and they want to be successful. And in that first year, another kind of specific example I’m seeing a lot of currently or are people who know they are unhappy with what they are doing right now, know they have value and experience to offer and want to make some type of pivot. But they just don’t really know entirely what that looks like. So they want to think through what’s next

Lee Kantor: [00:14:30] And for the folks that do reach out to you. What does that first conversation typically look like? Is it a lot of you asking questions or them kind of giving you the background of the challenge? What is that first conversation, feel and sound like?

Katie Baird: [00:14:44] Yeah, and typical coaching fashion. I’m probably always asking a lot of questions, but it is very much so a back and forth. I want to learn. Much about them as a person and what has them interested in coaching as I want them to leave feeling they know about me and my style and my approach so that we can really ensure that we are a good fit. I think if you don’t have that natural rapport and connection with your coach, it’s really worth having a few conversations and fit between both parties. To me, is is just as important as understanding what’s the coach’s expertize and what kind of process or methodology do they bring to the work they’re doing. So we cover all of that

Lee Kantor: [00:15:38] For people that are new to coaching. How do you know that you have a good fit with a coach? Like what are some symptoms of a good fit?

Katie Baird: [00:15:47] So, yeah, rapport can be really hard to kind of put your finger on, but you know, at least where I’m focused in this sort of career space and leadership development. These are serious conversations. It can be intense. It can be a lot in terms of what you’re contemplating. So you want someone where you feel like you can say anything to them. And that is because. You know, there’s no idea here that we won’t entertain or that we won’t unpack. So you want to find a coach where you feel comfortable exploring out loud. I think for me, when I think about some of the the best clients I’ve had in terms of our relationship, they they really value a coach who is going to challenge them, who’s going to ask tough questions, who’s going to push their thinking. And so you want to make sure that you are with somebody who you feel comfortable kind of having that back and forth with?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:58] Now can you share maybe the most rewarding success story in terms of where the person was, you know, when they started with you and where you helped them get to? Obviously, don’t name any names, but maybe just share what was the challenge in how you came, got involved and then in the new level they attained.

Katie Baird: [00:17:17] Yeah, so. And there’s one recently that comes to mind. I was working with a woman who was very established in her career in the tech space. She was not based in Houston. And she chose to leave her her very large, established tech company for for a startup. And I’ve been with her through that whole journey from deciding it was time to make a move to figuring out what that next right move was. And all the way through now we are about six or so months into her transition into that new company. I think for her, what has been one of the greatest values from coaching has. Has been having a consistent kind of supporter and perspective there throughout that process, end to end. She remarked recently that she really had not realized how lonely it is to be a woman and a senior woman in a very male dominated small company culture. And so being able to really help her think through relationship building and setting a strategy in this new role and how she goes about building a brand for herself in this new culture has been really exciting and I think set her up for success in the long term with this with this new startup.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:05] Well, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more, have more substantive conversation with you, what is the website?

Katie Baird: [00:19:13] Yes, it is chaos with my initials and then Bayard Baier coaching. And they can also find me on LinkedIn under Katie Baird.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:25] Well, Katie, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Katie Baird: [00:19:31] Thank you so much, Leigh. It’s been a pleasure to talk with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:34] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.