Laura’s extensive experience in coaching includes fifteen years training, certifying and mentoring professional coaches, and also teaching a “Leader as Coach” program. In addition to her private practice, Laura is President of Adler Learning-USA in Phoenix, Arizona, offering Adler Graduate Professional School’s ICF (International Coach Federation) Accredited Coach Training Program. This combination of coaching and training coaches has honed top-notch coaching skills, and provide structure and tools for helping others to optimize personal and professional effectiveness.
Certifications: A graduate of Adler Graduate Professional School’s ACTP coaching certification program, Laura has earned multiple certifications, including MCC (Master Certified Coach) from ICF; BCC (Board Certified Coach) with specialty certifications in Executive Coaching and Leadership from CCE; C-IQ® trained coach; Living Systems Team Coach; Adlerian Relationship Coach; Master Practitioner in the Tilt suite of assessments.
Coaching Specialties: Executive & Leadership Coaching, Team Coaching, Conflict Coaching, Leader as Coach, Feedback Culture, Mentor Coaching.
Coaching Style & Approach: Laura is a possibility-oriented coach. Her coaching style is highly intuitive in quickly picking up patterns and zooming in on core issues; adept at pinpointing and clearing roadblocks; direct and caring in providing impactful feedback; and expansive in helping clients find fresh perspectives. She frequently uses humor to defuse client self-doubt and bring valuable perspective. Drawing on domains such as psychology, neuroscience, and change theory, she works with clients at two levels: both tactical-strategic and transformational-developmental. She works in a collaborative coach-client partnership that moves toward achievement of the client’s specific goals using a strengths-based approach that unleashes the client’s own wisdom, while amplifying personal and professional capacity and developing intentional inside-out leadership. As a result, clients are typically delighted to not only get great traction on their goals, but also to take ownership of their lives at a deeper level, and to learn much more about what they really want in life, and the gifts and resources they have to make it happen.
“I see all my coaching clients as heroes! As your coach, I will be your steady companion, a keen-eyed observer, supporter and confidante to assist you on YOUR hero’s journey, so you WILL achieve your goals!” – Laura Atwood, MCC, BCC, ACPC
Biography: Laura has also been an anthropologist, an art gallery director, a nonprofit leader, a professional mediator, and for 20 years an entrepreneur – a winding career path following the inner logic of her strengths and passions, and a drive to thrive on her own terms! Laura’s initial career as a Social-Cultural Anthropologist was driven by her fascination with how people organize and make sense of their world, which continues to serve her as a coach. Her expertise in the study of complex culture systems provides valuable context for her current work in organizations. It has also attuned her to the social context within which we all operate, and knowledge of human meaning-making provides insights into clients’ subjective reality. Laura served as President & CEO of Lead for Good, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization specializing in social sector leadership development to facilitate capacity building and collective impact. In addition to coaching, Laura was a professional mediator with experience in both civil and family & divorce mediation, and Conflict Coaching is one of Laura’s specialties. Laura also provides contracted executive coaching and career transition coaching for clients of an Inc. 500 consulting firm. She is a sought after Mentor Coach to other professional coaches, known for accelerating the process of developing effective coaching skills and movement toward mastery.
Her coaching experience includes clients across a broad spectrum of sectors including construction, healthcare, government, education, technology, small business owners, manufacturing, and nonprofits, which has brought agility in working with any kind of client.
Laura is recognized as an active global leader in the coaching profession. She has championed professionalism in coaching as Co-Chair of the Regulatory Committee of ICF (International Coach Federation) and as a mediator in ICF’s Ethical Conduct Review process. She was the 2010-2012 President of ACTO (Association of Coach Training Organizations), a world-wide organization of coach training companies that facilitates collaboration, research and advocacy to ensure the highest standards in coach development for the profession throughout the world. Laura collaborated on a steering committee with leaders of the International Coach Federation, the European Mentors and Coaches Council, the Graduate School Alliance for Executive Coaching, and ACTO to convene an invitational global summit on coach development and certification in July 2012. She was also an organizer of the first global forum on the future of coaching (Vancouver 2006). She has served on the ACTO Task Force on Cultural Awareness, Power & Privilege. Laura was 2006 President of the Greater Phoenix ICF Chapter. Laura is a member of the Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR) and MCAFM (Maricopa County Association of Family Mediators), for which she previously served as a Board member. She was recently invited to present a paper and participate in a symposium at the 10th Biennial Conference on Meaning in Vancouver.
Laura grew up in Charleston, WV and has lived in Scottsdale, Arizona for over four decades. She is the proud mother of two adult children, Ted and Dana, who are up to interesting things, and also have a talent for music (not inherited from their mom). She also dotes on her very senior adopted fur-baby, and is a passionate advocate for rescuing senior pets. In her spare time Laura is a devoted practitioner of Tsundoku (or a bookaholic, depending how you look at it).
“I first met Laura during my coach training at the Adler School of Professional Coaching. She was a wonderful instructor with a deep understanding of coaching competencies and techniques. I hired Laura as my mentor coach and have had the privilege of being coached by her ever since. Not only is Laura a gifted and well-versed coach, but she is also a warm and supportive professional who genuinely cares about her clients’ progress. I highly recommend Laura for anyone looking to enhance their personal or professional success through coaching.” – Vered Kogan, PCC, Executive Coach & Change Management Speaker