Buzz

"We’ve had a few different experiences with coaching…but the person who stands out in my mind is Karla Robertson. She demonstrated a thoughtful and smart approach to helping our group understand who we are, how we work best together and, moreover, how I can elevate the entire work experience and results we get by being together. The results of my discussions with Karla were, in the end, profound. I had come to understand the world in which I operated much differently than I had imagined prior to working with her. I was completely satisfied with my experience with Karla and will continue, I am certain, to maintain a professional relationship with her in the years to come."

Jack E. Myers, Chairman and CEO
Myers Development Company

 

"Karla helped us with a Strategic offsite. Her leadership of the program and her insight helped us better communicate and achieve excellent results. She is bright, articulate and I would recommend that you consider her for strategy and executive coaching. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert"

Terry Seligman, President
Navitus Health Solutions

 

“Karla has been an exceptional resource to me as I have built my organization and leadership team. Through her experiences and innovative techniques, she has rapidly transformed my leadership group into a highly-effective team that delivered sustained, exceptional results. Immediate changes included breaking down of cultural barriers across geographies, greatly improved communications, a broad sense of accountable empowerment, and joint ownership of our business success. Karla's impacts are everlasting. We still reference specific learnings from Karla in our staff/strategy meetings--years later.”

Kevin Gould, VP R&D
Avaya, Inc.

 

"I have worked with Karla in multiple engagements, both from a corporate and personal perspective. Her insight is razor sharp and she has an engaging, challenging style that requires the individual to continue to step up to the challenge at hand. She has definitely made me a more thoughtful, focused leader. Top Qualities: High Integrity, Creative, Expert."

Chuck Current, First Vice President
American National Bank

 

"[Karla's] planning, organization, and presentation resulted in five successful, densely packed hours of my senior management team. The results laid the foundation for expanding our production capacity, prying open pre-conceived ideas, digging into hard-held concepts, and creating specific action items, which, along with her constant (and welcomed) follow-up will make a significant difference. I have used the services of Karla Robertson for more than 7 years both on a professional and personal basis. On a professional basis, Karla facilitated intensive work sessions to get the buy-in to strategy changes in my management group: on a personal basis Karla served as a catalyst to help me define and achieve goals and objectives. I continue to seek Karla's insight and recommendations because she listens and then focuses like a laser on the key points, identifies next steps and gets you to agree to take action on what are sometimes very difficult changes. She will challenge your thinking, collaborate with you and follow up to make certain the changes are being implemented. She helps achieve necessary, repeatable, and sustainable results and she will always give you the straight shot. If you don't want change, and are satisfied being stuck in loops of thinking that aren't working for you, don't call Karla.

Maureen Erwin, SVP
JP Morgan Chase

 

“Within the first few minutes of speaking with Karla, you know she will have a profound impact on your life. Karla has an amazing ability to ask the questions that need to be asked – which has often helped me gain new perspectives, additional insight or clarity of thought. These slight shifts in my thinking have helped me to clearly articulate my vision and goals, which have resulted in a focused, more efficient use of my time and energy and have also lead to more effective communications. Karla shares the importance of leadership thinking and integrates her own experiences, as well as that of noted others, in her work. It is always an education."

Shirley Clark, President
Career Transition Network

 

"I needed to focus my message, get comfortable with selling techniques, and address questions that were bound to come as my business grew. Karla worked with me and helped me get my ideas concentrated into a polished statement of my work that was easily understood by potential clients. She also assisted me in developing responses and techniques that provided me with a comfort level in sales that had previously left me uncomfortable and unfocused. Her ideas and support have allowed my business to grow and me to become successful in many different areas of my life."

Becky Walzak, CEO
Walzak Risk Analysis

 

"I hired Karla to assist me in the development of my geographically-dispersed team. The team had more than doubled in size annually for the five years before I hired Karla. There were 3 main goals of the engagement.  First, to assist my staff and I in transitioning from a team that started with an entrepreneurial spirit with exponential growth to one of more stable growth.  Second, to facilitate team members to work more collaboratively and develop autonomy in their decision-making and problem solving skills.  Third, to assist me in my personal development to enact greater delegation to my team of day-to-day activities and issues and place more focus on the executive tasks of my role, a key aspect of which was closing new business.

In working with Karla, we accomplished this and more. Karla’s greatest skill is her ability to challenge your thinking and make you figure out the best resolution for a situation. Instead of immediately answering a question, she will probe to have you think through all of the components of the decision, considering possibilities and facts concerning the human impacts as well as bottom line considerations. This process of thinking has become a part of my normal decision-making processes as a result of my work with Karla. This facilitated the further expansion of the team, their ability to work together and grow professionally, and my ability to become a more developed and valuable leader and manager."

Eric T. Michael, Principal
Mercer

 

“I engaged Karla Robertson as a personal coach and was amazed [by her] effectiveness. She helped me through a very difficult time. She helped me to discover that I am in control of my own destiny and made me see that I was responsible for all that was happening in my life…Today, I know that I am wiser, stronger and happier having worked with Karla."

Sara Isonaga, CFO
Myers Development Company

 

“Karla helped me clarify my intentions and outline steps to attain my goal in a very effective, creative and fun way. I still enjoy the success I got from our work together. Different than other coaches I worked with, Karla has a way to get right to the point - she delivers her message with clarity and elegance that I like. Great Results, Expert, Creative”

Emina Karamanovski, MD
Author, Emotions Simplified: Feel The Way You Want When You Want

"Karla is a fantastic coach! Her active listening, insightfulness and willingness to ask the 'hard questions' enabled me to quickly view business issues from a different perspective. Karla's background in selling was invaluable as we discussed approaches to selling to multi-billion dollar organizations. As a result of working with Karla, my comfort level in selling has increased as has my effectiveness in developing new business."

Tom Steiner, Principal
Mercer Health & Benefits

 

“Karla’s strength lies in her ability to quickly understand and zero in on the pulse of an individual or organization and skillfully guide it through a process of exploration and discovery. Instead of preaching suggestions and answers, her method is a process, or path, that leads to resolution of internal discovery and understanding – a process that has more power and impact. In this regard, she is capable of addressing strategic business concepts as well as humanistic aspects to business relationships. Karla has a great deal of compassion and, as a result, she is able to make everyone around her feel comfortable, which is an important asset, when understanding and coaching multiple viewpoints and perspectives simultaneously."

Andrew Kawahara, Project Director
Myers Development Company

 

"If you or your company has untapped potential, and you like it that way, Karla Robertson is not the coach for you. If you respond well to lectures, intimidation, condescending finger pointing, pom-pom’s and cheerleaders, you may want to look elsewhere for your self-awareness. Karla doesn’t do any of that. She asks insightful questions and starts you on a path of being really honest with yourself about your fears, your hopes, your silliness. Heaven help you though, if you are sabotaging your own success, because she’ll challenge you to deal with that too! Karla has been a mirror for me. She has a way of opening the door for people see themselves the way she sees them, not just as they are now but all that they can be. Once you’ve seen yourself through Karla’s eyes, it’s hard to settle for being less. (And why would you want to when she makes being more, so much fun!) Karla’s magic is in finding the extraordinary in ordinary people, and collaborating with them to find it too. Once she gets us to see it, she gets us to be it."

Maria Dresner, Owner
Verra Associates

 

“…I have been the fortunate recipient of personal coaching from Karla Robertson…. For a period of almost three months, she sat beside me as I conducted meetings, across from me as I performed my daily tasks, and accompanied me as I moved about throughout each day…She asked questions, encouraged me, urged, nudged and at times down right pushed me to think, learn, find out, challenge, stand firm, coach, plan and execute. As a result, I have much greater confidence and am much more focused on performance and achievement of goals. I am firmer in my expectations. I now appreciate and even embrace the sales culture and enjoy my interaction with them... I cannot say enough about Karla Robertson’s abilities and talents to coach both individuals and groups. She compels everyone to be accountable to be the best that they can be, both personally and professionally.

Donna Inamine, Operations Manager
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

 

“I have had the great advantage to work with Karla in several different work situations …In 2004 I asked Karla to coach two teams which I had responsibility for. Both were production teams; the teams consisted of site managers and site supervisors. Both teams were severely lacking in communication and management skills. Karla worked very closely with both teams for one year. Within two months it was obvious that both teams were benefiting tremendously from their coaching sessions. Over the months I watched as the two groups became a cohesive leadership team. The change in the dynamics of the group was not only beneficial for them but for the team members they managed. The coaching sessions allowed both sites to grow individually and as a team. Both sites have also enjoyed the distinction of being named two of the top ten production sites in the company. This could not have happened without the coaching and guidance provided by Karla.”

Kathie Ciaccia, Director
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage