A Message from Our Founder and President

My emphasis for decades has been to help those around me be all they can be and achieve all they can achieve while being true to themselves. Throughout my career I have approached all my roles using a coaching or mentoring perspective, from my start as a high school physics teacher and all through my 25 years in high tech, high tech management, and management consulting. I earned a B.A. from Macalester College and did graduate work in physics at Purdue University. I am a graduate of John F. Kennedy University's fifteen-month coach preparation program and have been certified by them as a professional coach. Additionally, I am a candidate for a master’s degree in organizational psychology from JFKU.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, I began the business that became Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc. in 2003. Before that I worked for companies ranging from Fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups. Managing teams ranging from 5 to 250, I have led corporate functions ranging from engineering to marketing and product management, including holding P&L accountability. In addition to line management, I have experience in corporate strategy, business development, and business planning and analysis. Known for repeatedly turning around products, projects, and departments via strategic rethinking or repositioning rather than the “slash-and-burn” tactics advocated by some, I have increased profitability not just for single products, but for divisions and companies.

Because of my strong technical background, I find that I can relate to engineers and scientists as a peer rather than as an outsider who does not understand their issues or the pressures they face. Because I have also held P&L accountability and worked in marketing, product management, corporate strategy, business development and business planning, I can provide creative insights grounded in decades of personal experience about alternative ways to deal with the outside pressures engineers and scientists face every day.

Similarly, that same experience allows me to relate as a peer and to speak the language of whatever corporate group with whom I happen to be working. I can also help them in their dealings with scientists and engineers, couching my explanations in terms the non-engineers can accept, using their own language and concerns as a foundation for their understanding. As a result, I have repeatedly been able to bridge gaps and misunderstandings between different corporate groups.

To create cultures of sustainable leadership development, we use coaching and training, leadership consulting, conflict management, and organization development--whatever you need. Just as the quality movement began delivering consistent quality results when attention shifted to improving the processes that create products, sustainable leadership is delivering leadership results by shifting attention to improving the processes used by team leaders.

I founded Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc. to draw together the supplemental resources businesses need today to become competitively responsive to market change, to use internal organizational effectiveness as a competitive advantage, and to help technical professionals enhance their careers, improve their interpersonal and leadership skills, and enjoy less stressful and more satisfying lives.

The associates that I can call on as needed are all seasoned professionals, expert in their fields. Whatever challenges you face, I or another Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc. associate can help!

Our Consulting Philosophy

Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc. was founded on the belief that the days of paying a consultant merely to bring you an answer are long gone. It is like "giving someone a fish": Such consulting meets your needs for a little while in today's fast-paced markets, but then you need to do it again. This kind of dependence may be good for the consulting firm, but it is not a sustainable approach for market leaders.

Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc.'s emphasis is to "teach you to fish," to guide and mentor and to fill gaps in your expertise base if we find any, but to leave your organization with the skills, knowledge, and capacity to better meet tomorrow's challenges--even if they are not exactly like today's!

Our professionals have also "been there, done that" in the areas we target. You are getting the benefit of professionals who have actually run product programs, who have run marketing teams, who have done corporate strategy, or who have had profit and loss (P&L) responsibility! We know the kinds of challenges you face because we have faced them ourselves.

Finally, we firmly believe in the principle of catching someone doing something right! You cannot afford to lose momentum by having your strong core processes messed with. Our approach is to BUILD on your strengths, to leverage those strengths into additional areas, to reinforce with your people what is going well, and to treat everyone with the respect they deserve.

Our Coaching Philosophy

Our philosophy of coaching combines aspects of several coaching styles. It begins with a basic assumption that the client not only is motivated to make the changes she or he desires, but also has the answers he or she needs. We just need to work together to find the right questions to shake those answers loose. We are particularly good at helping professionals solve problems, accomplish transitions and turnarounds, and align their personal behaviors and leadership style with their values and goals. We generally accomplish this by helping the professional explore additional creative options while connecting the wisdom they use in other parts of their life with the problem at hand.

Our founder's experience as an engineer and as a product manager accountable for a specific segment of corporate profit has made him care intensely about results, not just subjective results, but objective, measurable results as well. You will find that Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc. coaches care intensely about the value you get from coaching.

In a nutshell, we are here for you, for your goals, for your dreams, to help you solve your problems, help you make your decisions, and help you focus on your priorities. We will hold you as accountable as you want us to. We will probe as deeply as you give us permission to. Finally, we will help you as much as you empower us to.

We can help you with the challenges you face and the dreams you wish to pursue. Give us a call to experience coaching for yourself or to arrange a coaching benefit for a member of your staff!

© 2004-2006 Petra Consulting and Coaching, Inc.
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