Submitted by Joshua Ramey-Renk, PCC

Early in the pandemic, Joshua Ramey-Renk was engaged in conversation with several nonprofit leaders about how leadership coaching is outside of their budgets and maybe even their vocabulary—some noting that it sounded like such a “corporate” thing. At the same time, he was talking with fellow HR professionals about how HR professionals, who often focus on the needs of others, fall behind in their own development. Seeing a gap, Joshua decided to offer 9-full session 1:1 coaching engagements to both non-profit and small company HR leader on a pro-bono basis—first come first served. Through the initiative, he ended up working with multiple nonprofit leaders and one HR leader who had never had a chance to work with a coach for more than a session or two here and there.

The initiative had a total of four engagements, with one still ongoing. Including the current client’s program a total of 45 coaching hours will be donated. In every case, Joshua heard the same thing: “This changed my life.” For one of the nonprofit clients, they shared that they had completely changed their perspective on what coaching could do and mentioned how much more mindful and reflective they were in their decision making and navigating complex issues among their organization’s stakeholders. 

Another nonprofit client shared that the new thought patterns she developed in coaching had helped her move from bouncing between the poles of either overly passive or rudely aggressive, and she was getting much better results from her interactions. In the case of the HR leader for a small company, she was able to bring her shifted perspective into both her work and her home, sharing that during the program she had successfully changed some aspects of communication with her daughter, and later responded that she had gotten the promotion she had been working toward.