All Lisa Barrington had ever known (or considered for that matter) was working for the man. “I thought that was the model. You work for someone else until you have enough money to retire – then you work for yourself. But there was a pull I had my entire career, that at 52 I could no longer ignore”. Having spent almost 30 years in leadership roles in human resources (and, teaching HR/business courses at local universities along the way) it became clear a few years ago where her passion,within these fields, truly was. Lisa loved to help leaders become even better leaders.
“I loved designing and facilitating leadership programs and coaching leaders to be their best. And, the participants truly appreciated the opportunities to participate and grew tremendously from their engagement”. During her HR career Lisa had obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in business but she felt there was more. She attended a post graduate program for coaching, started an internal coaching program at the largest university in the country, and started to coach people outside of the workplace. She gained her first coaching certification and didn’t look back. And, then she was faced with what’s next? “I had always wanted to pursue a terminal degree. I had always been drawn to facilitation, development, and coaching and there fore landed on a Ph.D. in I/O psychology. When my kids graduated high school, I started exploring these degrees and found one that met my needs. The next challenge: How do I work a 60 hour a week job and engage in a Ph.D. program. For me, the answer became clear: it’s one or the other”.
Fast forward
Lisa decided that she would use her consulting, coaching, and facilitating skills gained over almost 30 years to take her side gig to a full-fledged business – which meant leaving corporate America behind. She started working with a former Fortune 100 company colleague who had started her own communications business. Heidi Wise, of A Wise Choice Communications, became her communications and marketing guru. “She designed a communications plan for me, built my website, and remains the “woman behind the curtain” advising and creating for me – everyone needs a Heidi! I joined additional professional groups, a coach directory, put the word out to my former corporate colleagues, re-designed my LinkedIn (with Heidi) and launched the website. And I was off to the races!”
Today, almost a year later, her business – Barrington Coaching – is growing at just the right pace! She has some great clients who she truly enjoys working with – some individuals, some small organizations and a couple of large organizations. “I’m doing exactly what I have wanted to do my entire career. I’m immensely engaged in my Ph.D. program, learning a great deal about psychology, and I have narrowed down my dissertation topic to employee engagement. I’m teaching part-time at a local university. I’m coaching professionals who I enjoy working with and who have transformed themselves through our work together. And I’m working with organizations to help them build more effective teams and better leaders. As I have said many a time, a quote originally attributed to Abraham Lincoln – The Best Way to Predict Your Future is to Create It”.
