Ms. Information

Katie Miota, Leadership Coach

Honesty is a promise so here goes: I hate the term coach as a descriptor of my work. Perhaps it’s because I have literally never ever been a part of an athletic sporting team. Comedic troupes, yes, but nary a pre-k soccer league nor elementary school basketball team. Instead, I like to fancy myself more like a brainstorming partner who holds a piece of the elephant you can’t see. But ‘brainstorming buddy’ makes me think of my buck teeth when I was seven and ‘elephant holder’ is a completely different job, so coach it is.

My background is in higher education. I had a successful career working up the ladder from an entry level recruiter in the admissions office of my alma mater to the executive suite of a research university. I credit my success to understanding that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, including ourselves, and used this as my approach to bringing out the best in people to solve our problems together.

My strengths include visionary thinking, creative problem-solving, humor, and what I call ‘saying the things’ which means speaking the truth, both complimentary and delicate, thoughtfully and often. I am a good listener and highly intuitive. My weaknesses include often being five minutes late (I know, I’m sorry) and bad posture. I can be stubborn, especially when I’m right (see what I did there?), and I am very hard on myself – so hard I got a tattoo to remind me to be kind to myself. My creativity gets me lost in the possibilities of what could be; it’s delightful and sometimes overwhelming, which is why I partner best with colleagues who can execute. It is also what makes me a good coach because the bottom line is that the work is on you. My job is to reveal what you can accomplish by being your authentic self.

All of these traits, the good and the less than ideal, have provided me incredible opportunities to learn and grow. I know first-hand the challenges women will face and offer my perspective from sitting on several sides of the table. I’ve been through real life including marriage, divorce, marriage; children, jobs and careers; loss and growth. I promise to share what I’ve learned from my successes and my failures as a leader and a human. And if nothing else, I will make you laugh.