Reflections on 1,500 Hours Coaching Higher Education Senior Leaders and Beyond
Coaching can be transformative. It has been for me. Over the past decade, my training and practice as a coach haven’t just shaped how I coach—they’ve influenced how I facilitate workshops, host podcasts, parent my kids, and even chat with strangers on the sidelines of a soccer game.
In the past 10 years, I have:
- Earned my training from the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), the largest coaching program in the world.
- Achieved my Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential through the International Coaching Federation.
- Trained with the Conscious Leadership Group on conscious leadership and transforming teams.
- Studied IFS/Parts work with Dr. Richard Schwartz and other leaders in the field.
- Spent more than 1,500 hours coaching senior leaders and leadership teams in higher education and beyond.
People often ask me what coaching really looks like. A friend once joked, “Keith, you’re a coach—can’t you just fix this colleague of mine?” I laughed and explained, “I don’t fix people.” Another friend pressed: “Then what do you do?”
It’s a fair question. Here’s why I coach, how I coach, and what we focus on.
Why Coaching with Keith?
- Get out of your own way. Circumstances and other people may be real challenges, but often the biggest barrier is ourselves. Coaching helps uncover the blind spots and patterns holding us back.
- Be the calm eye at the center of the storm. If you are waiting for the world around you to get organized to bring you peace, calm, and happiness, you are in trouble. I help my coaching clients find their own calm, peace, and joy at the center of the storm so that they can be at their best as they navigate the storm swirling around them.
- Invest in yourself. Most of my clients are deeply committed to serving others—their institutions, teams, families, and communities. Coaching provides them with the space to invest in themselves, enabling them to serve others better.
- Clarify aims and align actions. Coaching helps cut through the noise of “shoulds” from childhood, culture, and past experiences, and get clear on what you truly want. Once you know that, aligning your actions to achieve it becomes far easier.
- Time to think. Leaders spend their days putting out fires, attending meetings, and juggling multiple responsibilities. Coaching offers the rare luxury of uninterrupted time to think deeply, with a thought partner whose only priority is your growth.
How I Coach
All of my coaching sessions take place over the phone while I walk a three-mile loop in my neighborhood. This is unusual—and intentional. Movement, nature, and fresh air help me show up more grounded and present for my clients – according to science. About half of them walk while we talk; others sit with a journal, jotting notes along the way.
I coach in packages of 12 one-hour sessions. The first four sessions, usually completed in the first month, focus on building “cornerstones” (more on those below). After that, clients typically meet every two weeks, completing the program in about six months. Some end there, some renew, and many return after a break with new goals or transitions to navigate.
What We Focus On
Every coaching call is client-driven, but some patterns emerge.
- Celebrations. We start every session with five celebrations each. Sometimes this takes three minutes; sometimes it fills the whole hour. Celebration builds connection, clears distractions, and floods our brains with serotonin, literally improving our mindset and making us more creative, open, and solution-focused.
- Cornerstones. In the first four sessions, clients clarify their inner guide, core values, life purpose, and inner critics. We often also do a life timeline to connect past influences with future possibilities. These cornerstones provide clarity and a solid foundation for every conversation that follows.
- Transformation over problem-solving. Once cornerstones are in place, sessions often move from “fixing problems” to deeper transformation. Topics may include a work challenge, navigating a parent’s health crisis, discerning a next leadership role, deepening spiritual grounding, reprioritizing life, or managing up more effectively.
My role is to partner with clients, trusting they already have the inner resources they need, and helping them uncover and apply those resources. I also bring expertise in higher education, mindful leadership, positive psychology, conscious leadership, the neuroscience of transformation, IFS/Parts, and decades of leadership experience.
Coaching with Keith
I primarily do my coaching through the leadership programs for higher education I offer, serving senior leaders, emerging executive leaders, and emerging leaders, as well as those leading for equity. If you’re curious about how coaching might support you or your team, let’s connect.
