“100% Work-Life Balance Improvement” Coaching that gets results.
Krista Robinson (right) recalls that during her coaching experience “My work-life balance improved 100%.”
The worst thing about leadership (to me) is it can be isolating.
Especially at the CEO or Executive Director level, where you are the sandwiched between the expectations of running a healthy, thriving Board of Directors and managing the staff along with daily fundraising & operational demands.
The staff have peers, and the Board are equals, but you are the one in the middle.
It often feels very lonely, doesn’t it?
Which is the very reason that a mentor or coach can be a huge stress reliever, and you have a neutral and confidential advocate on your side to leverage as a sounding board.
The subtitle of my book called “You Are Meant for Great Things” is “Turning Setbacks into Stepping Stones”. As a founder of my nonprofit, MyLifeLine Cancer Foundation, back in 2007, I experienced more setbacks than I can count. What I learned from each setback was that each contains an opportunity for growth and improvement.
A few years into running my nonprofit and figuring it out as I went, I was fortunate to meet Richard Male. He was a seasoned Executive Director with 30+ years of community-building and nonprofit experience. He offered to mentor me and was a huge influence in my life and our organization.
Thanks to Rich, I learned firsthand how important an executive director mentor/coach is, and it lit a passion in me to pay it forward and help Executive Directors, founders, and leaders feeling burned out or disillusioned from the constant pressures, unrealistic expectations, and people challenges.
When the going gets tough, it’s so crucial to find a mentor or executive coach who has been through similar challenges, and can walk through it with you.
In 2023, I was lucky to cross paths with an amazing leader in the arts world, Krista Robinson, and this is our story.
Krista Robinson, Executive Director at Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, was at a crossroads while managing different organizational growth pains.
At the time, Krista was working to bring order to chaos at her organization, dealing with issues such as high staff turnover, lack of clear communication, and a toxic work culture. Her aspiration was to foster a healthy, inclusive, and empowering work culture, but she wasn’t sure how to get there.
You know how it’s hard to fix when you are too close to the problem? Smart leaders seek external expertise to collaborate with for new creative solutions when nothing seems to be working.
Krista attended an event where I was speaking on my favorite keynote topic - “Leading with Courage, Clarity, & Confidence: A Healthy Organizational Culture Starts with a Plan”.
In this speech, I highlight personal stories as a founder and Executive Director, and data around why nonprofit leaders are suffering, which led me to start Culture CARES® Global in 2020. Our vision is to help nonprofit organizations foster healthy cultures and work environments where everyone can thrive. Leader and staff burnout, stress, and overwhelm are too common and limit our ability to make meaningful changes in society.
My team sat down with Krista in 2024 to ask how her executive coaching journey transformed important aspects of her personal and professional life.
Q: What issues and challenges inspired you to seek coaching?
Krista: When I was listening to Marcia’s speech, I was navigating major issues at my organization, like HR challenges, working with a high-risk community, etc. When Marcia talked about building a culture that CARES, it resonated with me, and I thought to myself, “How do I do that, not just for myself but for my team.”
The timing felt like synchronicity. I recall feeling so alone and stressed that day, and I didn’t feel like I could talk to anyone who could understand what it meant to be a leader going through a crisis.
We had an instant connection, because she understood where I was coming from as a former ED.
I learned I could rebuild the organization's culture by working on my own empowerment. Marcia was a ray of sunshine during a dark time, a lifeline who buoyed me up. I'm so happy our paths crossed that day.
Q: How was the process of coaching?
Krista: I loved Marcia’s process. After each session, she would send a summary of commitments, mindset notes, and resources like books and podcasts.
It never felt like too much, and she was flexible in adding new topics if something came up that I wanted to address.
I always felt like she cared about me and my growth – she was part coach, therapist, and friend - and always with the right balance.
It made a huge difference to have another source of support when the going got tough.
Q: What changed in your professional life because of coaching?
Krista: My work-life balance improved 100%.
I also worked with Culture Cares® strategies for my organization and staff, which included implementing regular team-building activities, improving communication channels, and providing more opportunities for staff feedback.
I saw a significant improvement in the responses of my staff, especially in how people felt appreciated and valued.
Marcia models her philosophy as a coach, which made a huge difference in my approach to our staff, especially when our team needed to pull together and show up for each other.
Q: What was your favorite part about working with Marcia?
Krista: Having a coach who was a non-profit Executive Director.
We clicked instantly because she knew what I was going through and truly understood the challenges and responsibilities EDs face.
She is also an active listener and very empathetic, but with a calm, no-nonsense personality.
She quickly grasped what I needed to improve as a leader and created achievable goals.
She was encouraging and held me accountable, but gently so that the goals didn’t feel like more work was being added to my plate.
In a way, she gave me “permission” to focus on myself and my life balance – she helped me put my health and needs first, even when I thought I couldn’t and was having trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Q: Could you provide 3 key takeaways from your coaching journey?
Krista: Yes!
Marcia helped me strategize what I can change, what is out of my control, and how to find the right balance for myself personally and professionally.
I learned realistic, achievable strategies for building an organizational culture where everyone feels respected, appreciated, and valued.
Marcia advocates self-care – not just for yourself, but self-care while actively leading - so you can protect yourself, maximize your strengths, and ask for help when needed.
This philosophy helped me mend my relationship with myself and prioritize self-care, something I had not done before.
If you are navigating rocky waters, don’t do it alone. Get a mentor or coach to walk by your side. It will make everything better for you, and you’ve got to put on your own oxygen mask on first, before taking care of others. (Speaking from my prior flight attendant experience).
Are you ready to seek support in navigating unhealthy staff dynamics and access deeper levels of courage, clarify, and confidence in leadership?