About
Coach, trusted advisor, and confidant to executives
Dr Sarah Bodner
Sarah Bodner, Ph.D. equips leaders with the tools to work through the complex and difficult realities of executive leadership. She is a coach, trusted advisor, and confidant to executives in Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries.
This vantage point, along with her own experience as a senior leader, have made her a pragmatic idealist with a deep understanding of the executive reality and what it takes to survive and thrive as an executive.
She takes a very real-world approach, dealing with what is and not what should be as she guides executives in the hard, sometimes seemingly impossible, work of leadership. Teaching them to be politically savvy, to wield power with grace, and to deal with the ugly in healthy ways.
Her “superpower” is the ability to help leaders sort through and untangle highly complex challenges with often conflicting and disparate issues to identify the root issues and discover a simplified path forward.
Dr. Bodner only coaches 6 individual executive clients at a given time, allowing her to be fully focused as she leverages her consulting skills, provides bespoke tools & resources, and offers practical guidance unique to each client.
Each year she also leads a few cohorts of the Executive Lab, an exclusive small-group program for senior level leaders. The Executive Lab helps newer executives learn how to navigate the challenges of executive leadership in healthy ways.
Credentials:
Sarah Bodner holds both Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She has been coaching and developing leaders for over two decades.
She was an executive within a highly regulated, risk adverse, command-and-control, geographically dispersed organization that was having to change in response to immense technological, political, and financial pressures.
As an internal corporate leader, Dr Bodner had oversight over various functions including talent management, strategic change, employee engagement, economic development, internal & external communications as well as crisis management and stakeholder relations.
She has publications in the areas of empowering leadership, team-based support systems, and collaborative work systems
Roots:
A very proud Texan who spent a large chunk of her childhood in South America. After living in 3 nations, 3 states, and 11 cities, Sarah loves whatever place she finds herself in.
Approach
Dr Bodner believes deeply in the importance of Servant Leaders and THOUGHT she knew how to develop healthy executives. But then she stepped into an executive role and whoa were her eyes opened!
It is no secret that the top executive levels are rife with toxic leaders who cause great harm in the organizations they lead. The ugly truth is that these toxic leaders make the rules for how things work at the executive level. Healthy leaders don’t know how to play by those rules.
Unfortunately, in their effort to create “good” leaders, leadership development programs gloss over, or altogether ignore, the harsh realities of executive leadership. Leaving participants ill-equipped to deal with how things really work at the executive levels.
Most Leadership Development programs are essentially sending kittens into the lion’s den and those “good” leaders flame out, burn out, or get pushed out of the executive ranks. Ultimately resulting in organizational waste of resource, opportunity, and talent.
This realization altered how Dr Bodner approaches executive development. She takes a very real-world approach, dealing with what is and not what should be. She teaches executives to be politically savvy, to wield power with grace, and to deal with the ugly in healthy ways.
This led to the creation of the Executive Lab, the ‘how to guide” that good leaders so desperately need to survive and thrive at the executive ranks … without losing their soul.
Services
Thought Partner – Serving as a trusted advisor to executives who are in a new role, are working through significant business issues, or are leading strategic change.
Executive Coach – High impact coaching for senior leaders new to a role, succession candidates preparing for a higher level, and challenged executives needing to reset their leadership brand.
Executive Development – The Executive Lab is an executive education program focused on growing the skills of executives. It is not designed to “fix” problem leaders, but rather to help successful leaders grow to their fullest capability. There are in-person and virtual options.
Speaker – Interactive presentations & workshops addressing head-on the often-uncomfortable realities of leadership and providing practical tools to help the audience lead in a way that is healthy and constructive.
Developing Women Leaders – Lady Boss is a program targeted to male leaders that provides tools to support the development and career advancement of women leaders and high potentials.
Strategic Planning – Facilitating executive teams in crafting, reviewing, and revising strategy so that it is clearly defined and aligned throughout the organization.
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