“Sherryl’s coaching fundamentally changed how I approached my work—especially through her insights into myself and how others perceived me. Now I’m much more aware of my impact on other people.… She’s just very good at figuring out how to help executives operate and grow. I highly recommend Best Practice, Inc.”
“What I value about Sherryl is she’s really no-nonsense. She’s very direct; says it like it is. She asks tough questions and makes you do things that you’re uncomfortable with. Those are all terrific attributes. Because that’s what we hire her for—to challenge the status quo and make us do things that make us better leaders.”
“Sherryl is a natural coach, confidant, advisor, and mentor. She’s an effective yet nonconfrontational coach that brought the best out in everyone I saw her worked with, including myself. Sherryl listens well and can quickly synthesize feedback from a variety of sources to distill the central themes.
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When she interviews a person to get input, she will continue to ask questions and probe—peeling back the layers to get a fuller understanding of what the issue or opportunity is and then properly portray that to you. You don’t get away with trite answers. She won’t stop at, ‘He’s a good listener,’ or ‘You have a problem dealing with conflict.’ Sherryl will take you to a deeper level that will allow you to be a more effective leader.”
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Matt Hyde
Executive Chair of 5.11 Tactical, Chair of the YMCA Board, former CEO of West Marine
“I’ve worked with Sherryl and I’ve used other executive coaches. With Sherryl, what’s remarkable is she’s just very present. You feel like you have a partner as opposed to a hired consultant. That was the difference. You have to hire somebody’s who is really a partner. Sherryl knows when to push and when to support.”
“You don’t get your foot in the door as a coach if you don’t have the basics: an air of professionalism, the ability to converse with executives, a presentable and approachable demeanor, friendliness, and a wealth of knowledge on coaching related experiences. Sherryl has all those. On top of that, she layers a personalized, individual, non-cookie cutter approach that says not only is she professional, but she actually cares about me.”
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“I’ve worked with plenty of coaches over my career, but I don’t know that I’ve worked with one where I went away with such an honest sense that they genuinely cared about me. When Sherryl showed up for appointments, it was really evident to me that she remembered what I said last time. When we talked about topics—she’ll ask a follow up question to really understand what I’m saying. There were instances where she would just send me a personal text to check in because she remembered a significant professional event had happened that day. It’s all those little things that as an executive make me say, ‘That’s somebody who’s paying attention. That’s somebody that is going a step further than they arguably have to.’ That’s Sherryl.”
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“Sherryl has this incredible voice where she speaks the truth. I saw the impact Sherryl had on the individuals that she was coaching. Many of these individuals I worked with over a period of years. Not everyone had the courage to sign up to be with Sherryl because she holds you so accountable and she’s so courageous in her feedback. Those leaders that chose Sherryl—and it was always their choice—I got to watch their transformation in the workplace.”
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Sherryl did really profound work individually with our executives and our director team. Sherryl also has really good business acumen in understanding there has to be a return to the business. This is not just one-on-one coaching for an executive. This is about a return for the business. I think that is a big difference in terms of how she shows up.”
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“When selecting an executive coach, be aware of what kind of rapport or interaction works best for you. For me, I love that I can just present an issue to Sherryl and she will talk me through it, not necessarily giving me the answer, but more about letting me unveil the answer to myself. Her approach to coaching me allows me to work through things and say, ‘Okay, I’ve got a challenge with my CEO. I think it’s rooted in this. I think these are the ways that I could approach it in order to get to the root cause.’
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That’s really helpful for me because it doesn’t make me push into an area that isn’t my leadership style—it is more taking advantage of how I process.”
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Fortune 1000, Executive Coaching Client
“Sherryl is insightful, courageous, and holds you accountable to your plan and to make the changes you’ve committed to. She holds herself accountable to ensure there is measurable progress. If there’s not, she is one to halt a partnership to say, ‘Is this working if we’re not seeing the kinds of changes we’ve agreed to happen?’”
“Where Sherryl excels over anyone I’ve seen is her ability to reach out and win over skeptical teams. My experience with Sherryl’s team coaching has been with a lot of technical people: groups of scientists, engineers, hardcore technicians who are in that analytical social quadrant. They’re immediately skeptical of ‘team-building work.’ What makes Sherryl different is
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her ability to acknowledge, ‘Okay, you think this is a bunch of crap. That’s okay. What don’t you like about it?’ And not get defensive. She’ll listen. Then she’ll paint a picture of, “Here’s why it could be interesting and important to you. Here are the changes that could happen if you’re willing to make some effort that would help the team.’ She’s very good at painting the picture of what the future could look like and appealing to analytical types despite their initial skepticism. She wins them over, like she won me over.”
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Tom Williams
CEO, Evergreen Systems Inc., former VP and CTO at Kodak Health Imaging
“Sherryl is unbelievably great at intuitively sensing what’s going on in a group---the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve probably worked with 15 different coaches and team builders—people who are excellent—but she’s by far the best. She’s so strong in the moment. Put her into the fire, put her into the mix, and she’s just phenomenally good at managing whatever happens in those meetings and those team events. She’s intelligent, honest and forthcoming. A fabulous team builder.
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I became a believer when I ran the numbers: what we had spent on the team-building versus what we saved in actual productivity improvements. Numbers don’t lie. It was a twice the recoup on investment. And, things that would have been a disaster for our R&D team were nothing more than a bump in the road.... That simple numerical exercise changed my perception of team building.”
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