“Not just growing professionally, but personally too.”

Dr. Betsy Arnold
Interim Director, School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona

Client Story

I was stepping into my role at a time in which our organization was in a very difficult position. I realized that a lot of my training as a scientist and as an instructor, even in elected service roles I'd done, had prepared me in certain ways to serve as an effective leader, but in other ways I still had a lot of growth that I needed to do. Often, what that entailed was feeling a need to grow my confidence in myself, especially when it came down to trusting the sort of hard decisions that we have to make, trusting my intuition and knowing that I can synthesize a lot of information into the right pathway, but needing the confidence sometimes to take those steps. Hanna came across my radar screen at the recommendation of someone in a leadership role who I considered to be an outstanding leader, and that's what made me think, maybe I'll give this a try. I had never had any coaching before and didn't really know what to expect.

When I was growing up as a young scientist, I realized that I was coming from a place of shyness and being an introvert. I study fungi, and so my happy place is a really great fungus. I never considered myself to be someone who had people skills, nor, especially early on in my career, someone who really had much to say. I wanted to do my studies. I enjoyed writing. I enjoyed mentoring students. Even though I did a lot of service, and even though I was successful as a mentor and successful in my research and successful in my teaching, I just never felt at home.

I really enjoy working with Hanna. What I appreciate the most is that she's helped me have a trusted environment, a safe environment to tackle difficult moments, never breaking confidentiality rules, but providing enough information where I know that she can see the different facets of what the problem is. She's someone who can think outside a simple linear path. She can see many different elements to any situation, and that really helps, because my own nature is to want to look at a problem and rotate it and see it from all angles. I feel like she believes that I'm coming from a good place, and that makes me feel comfortable. And then she will challenge me when maybe I have an idea. She'll say, well, have you thought about it this way? Or perhaps another way to think about that? Sometimes that's the voice that we need to have outside of our heads, not just in our heads.

She listens really well. She's encouraging. And she also points out: wow, you did that really well, that was a great strength. When we're in jobs where there's literally no positive feedback, it's really helpful to have that loop, because it's almost a training loop in itself. What I really needed to be able to do was not worry about being liked, not worry about being popular, but instead trust the voice of my conscience in pushing us in the directions that I thought we could go if we worked together. It's landmark for me, because I found that even after one or two conversations with Hanna, I was in a position to step forward and speak my mind, but in a way that was emotionally intelligent and productive.

For me, the transformation has been that I'm now in a position to consider potentially transitioning, if so chosen, from an interim to a permanent position. And I would not be in a position myself to be considering that kind of change without the kind of support and guidance and listening and self-definition that I think I've gained in working so closely with Hanna. I have recommended Hanna, and this was after just a few sessions, because I was getting a lot out of these conversations. Every piece of advice or suggestion or guidance she gave me, when I tried it, worked. It's already become one of the most meaningful professional experiences that I've ever had. And what I really love about it is in working with Hanna, I'm not just growing professionally, but I'm growing personally too. I love that resonance.