MEET ME! Q&A with Susan Cedars, Executive Coach

Describe your Executive Coaching business and your client base

I am an Executive Coach, which means I am a leadership coach, team coach, and organizational development consultant. I have a whole treasure chest of capability that I bring to the Auxana, Inc. team! As a former Healthcare Executive, I fully understand the challenges and pressures that leaders face today. I coach leaders and teams who are long-term thinkers, and who are serious about making transformational, purposeful change. I consult with organizations who share my commitment to making the world a better place, and who understand that it begins with their own organizational culture. “My purpose is to inspire others to become powerful creators and catalysts for change.”

How did you get here?

I call myself a recovering healthcare executive! For over 20 years I worked inside acute care hospitals, ultimately as a Regional Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational Development. I like to say that there are two types of HR people: the rule maker/rule keeper ones, and the people/organization developers. I am the latter. NOW, I just do the fun stuff. After battling (nearly) wall to wall unions in hospitals in California, clients that come to me tend to be people in high level technical jobs who need to learn how to “not know”, and need to learn how to “team”. My tag line ought to be “Bring me your most TOXIC TEAM, and we’ll do transformational work together.” That’s the thing. My work as an Executive Coach is truly transformational – we have fun, and they value learning how to expand the lens through which they see things, show up differently, and have greater impact. Getting comfortable with conflict is an important part of the puzzle, I find. I also provide clients with strategic HR inquiries and consulting. Let’s say a client has a troublesome spot in the organization that creates a lot of “noise”, like unhappy people, complaints, poor cross-functional cooperation, poor engagement scores, and the like. As a leadership coach, I have a Process of Inquiry that gets to the bottom of the people dynamic (there’s always a people dynamic), and I make recommendations for change. I also have great expertise in People Strategy that I love to share with clients.

What gets you up in the morning? How do you typically start your day?

I do good work every day. Period.

What would you do if you weren’t in your current role?

When I’m not doing good work, I’m making good stuff in the kitchen. I love cooking, baking, experimenting, drinking wine…I don’t remember if I had a dream job when I was growing up, or a dream life, for that matter. Whether I did or not, I’m certainly living it!

Ice Cream Or Gelato

Mocha gelato with Ferrero Rocher bits and chocolate fudge ribbons, please.

Thank you! Before you go, is there anything you’d like to add?

How can I help?