My coaching supports leaders ready to invest in themselves, their teams, and their organizations.
“I have been successfully cultivating a culture of learning and development at Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op for over 18 years. Combining my skills and experience as Human Resources Manager with my professional training in mediation and coaching and my MA in Comparative Education, I have been able to bring experiential leadership training to all levels of leaders: senior leaders, leadership teams, shift leaders, and first-time leaders. I draw upon the wisdom of Brené Brown, Resmaa Menakem, Peter Senge, and David Whyte among others to bring you the latest leadership practices and give you the tools to transform your organization.
Having spent my lifetime exploring adult development I have discovered learning is as essential as unlearning. Noticed the impact of thinking that is expansive versus limiting. Experienced the strain when communication goes sideways. Witnessed first-hand what transpires when people feel seen and heard. Felt the ripple effect of an intentional leader on a team, a workplace, and community.
Culture isn’t a backdrop painted on a workplace wall. It is active and relational. Individuals create it and shape it daily. It includes what is openly talked about as well as what is whispered, what is noticed and what is ignored. What is the impact on those around you? What is the impact on you?
My coaching supports leaders ready to invest in themselves, their teams, and organizations and lead with intention.”
Imagine an organization where people work enthusiastically while ideas and opinions are shared. Feedback is sought. People listen and feel connected. Adaptable leaders relate to all they encounter.
- Are you cultivating a culture of trust?
- How would you describe your current culture?
- Is it aligned where you want it to be?
Change culture and you change lives. You can also change the course of history.
—Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands
Leadership Learning Circles help leaders and teams seeking alignment or needing a reset. Discover ways to support your teams and leaders to be more responsive, authentic, and vulnerable. Together we will explore what matters most and elevate leadership skills in a trusting environment.
Given the complexities in leading today’s organizations it is more important than ever to be a part of a small learning community. With so much responsibility and information you can’t share with others it is essential to have a space to ask questions, experiment, venture outside of your comfort zone and need not be the expert.
Bringing these practices to your organization will give you tools to support the learning and growth of all your leaders and help cultivate a more engaged workplace culture.
Working together you’ll learn to:
Invest in Yourself. Transform Teams. Strengthen Communities.
Laura King is a leadership coach, group facilitator, and trainer. She speaks nationally on creating human-centered organizations, intentional communication, relational leadership and empowered culture. Her thoughtful presence creates a safe space for learning and growth.
NEW for 2024
Training and development for teams seeking to increase trust, connection, and capacity for change.
Through monthly learning sessions, leadership teams practice skills for relational leadership and improving communication. Areas of focus include receiving and sharing feedback, cultivating a learning mindset, having difficult conversations, and being intentional when resolving conflict. Leaders will practice strategies to build a positive leadership culture while increasing self-awareness and confidence.
Strengthening leadership teams for greater alignment creates a cohesive workplace culture where employees can thrive. It also helps leaders feel less alone, overwhelmed, or burned out. Together we co-create leadership intentions and agreements to provide a framework for self and team responsibility. This clarity enables leaders to have firm footing and together stand on common ground.
This offering elevates and aligns teams over 6-9 months to develop a common language have a shared learning experience and practice new skills together. It can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your team. Reach out to Laura to learn more.
Upcoming Events
Leadership Learning Circle for Leaders & Emerging Leaders Online interactive small group series including monthly individual coaching sessions to identify meaningful goals and steps to reach them. Leadership skill building and individual support to elevate your interpersonal and communication skills...
Leadership Learning Circles – online offerings
If you are an organization sending 3 or more, let’s talk!
There is an incredible benefit for team members bringing these tools back to their organization. Email me!
Leadership Learning Circle
For leaders and emerging leaders. Skill building, group sharing, and coaching.
Online interactive small group series including monthly individual coaching sessions to identify meaningful goals and steps to reach them.
Leadership skill building and individual support to elevate your interpersonal and communication skills for less stress and greater ease. Learn ways to lead with greater clarity and confidence while moving through change. Connect with a community of peers to learn strategies to support your team and organization during these increasingly complex times.
February:
- Exploring Change – We will dive into your professional/personal improvement goal with a new framework and have homework to deepen the learning.
- What makes leadership difficult? We will look at what is most challenging and explore ways to make it less so.
March:
- Feedback – The art of receiving feedback well to share feedback better.
- Accountability – What does accountability look like at your organization? What does it look like for you?
One on one Coaching scheduled individually between March 15 and April 11th
to support you on your leadership journey and reaching your goals.
(at a mutually convenient time for 45 minutes)
When: Thursdays February 6th, 20th and March 13th, 27th, 2:00pm – 3:00pm ET
Ready to transform your approach to change? Sign up now to reserve your spot and start your journey towards personal and professional growth.
Online learning in interactive group sessions $225 for the interactive series and one on one coaching sessions.
“This was one of the best learning experiences I’ve had. In just these three sessions I feel like I’ve had more breakthroughs and deep significant changes than in other week or semester long classes and workshops. Thank you, Laura!”
“I have really benefited from this course. It’s difficult to put it fully into words on why or what specifically, but Laura King is a phenomenal instructor and group leader. I have taken a course with her sometime last year and I felt the same. She does a wonderful job and creates a very safe space for all people.”
Unlock the Power of Personal Change
An introduction to an impactful research-based way to make meaningful change
Human beings have a uniquely personal experience with change that can either support or hinder organizational change and progress. This workshop delves into the inner currents at play when considering change, offering an opportunity to align personal growth with the mission-driven goals of your organization.
This interactive workshop is designed for leaders who are ready to embrace an empowering relationship with change. When a desired change isn’t happening, it’s rarely about willpower or wanting it enough. Often, it’s about uncovering unseen motivations and perceptions. Through the Immunity to Change process, developed by Harvard’s Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, you will explore the values, goals, and mindsets that shape your approach to change.
This workshop helps leaders explore a wide range of personal and professional change and communication goals such as:
Our time together will include writing prompts, group sharing, and introspective exercises, all designed to help you understand and overcome the internal barriers to change. Join us in this learning circle to unlock your potential and lead more effectively.
Ready to transform your approach to change? Sign up now to reserve your spot and start your journey towards personal and professional growth.
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
This learning circle is being led by Laura King and Gui Albieri, Facilitators of the Minds at Work Immunity to Change Process.
Gui Albieri is a passionate advocate for human flourishing and personal growth. With a deep interest in wisdom and self-control, he has extensively studied their impact on achieving success and fulfillment. Gui is the author of the book “Tamed: Strategies to Effective Self-Control Strategies to Tame Your Dark Horse and Keep you Focused, Motivated, and in Control,” where he shares practical insights and techniques for harnessing self-control and unleashing one’s true potential.
Currently residing in New York, Gui Albieri works as the Vice President at a Higher Education Institution in NYC and is a speaker on topics such as time management, productivity, and cross-cultural communications. His passion lies in assisting students and professionals in taming their “dark horses” and overcoming internal obstacles to achieve their goals. Gui brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his speaking engagements and facilitation sessions, captivating audiences with his wit, deep engagement, and humorous approach.
As a Leadership Coach, Facilitator and Mediator from Vermont, Laura King centers human relationships, mindfulness, and communication in her work. She knows that at the heart of growing communities and organizations is growing each unique person. She has 25 years of experience exploring both the art and science of adult development while asking leaders to stretch inward for a more embodied leadership to cultivate connected and trusting teams. Her workshops and coaching focus on the deeply human need to learn and innate desire to realize one’s full potential.
Laura has an MA in Comparative Education from the University of Maryland College Park, is a Co-Active trained coach, certified mediator and Minds at Work trained facilitator. Her decades of experience in coaching, human resources and the co-operative movement create a unique alchemy of lightness, wisdom and care in her work.
A New Approach to Change
This month-long series takes participants through an introspective process to move through change while expanding their comfort zone.
Human beings have a uniquely personal experience with change that can either support or hinder organizational change and progress. This workshop delves into the inner currents at play when going through an important change or trying to reach your goals.
This interactive workshop is designed for leaders and emerging leaders who are ready to try something new. We will explore the common experience of having one foot on the gas of wanting change while the other foot is on the brake preventing it.
When a desired change isn’t happening, it’s rarely about willpower or wanting it enough. Often, it’s about uncovering unseen motivations and perceptions. Through the Immunity to Change process, developed by Harvard’s Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, you will explore the mindsets that restrict your approach to change and learn new approaches. This workshop helps leaders explore a wide range of personal and professional change and communication goals such as:
Together we will take a deep dive into exploring the ways we put on the brake. We will co-create a safe space and small learning community where confidentiality is highly valued and respected. During this session, there will be time for guided writing, group sharing, and introspective exercises, all designed to help you understand and overcome the internal barriers to change.
Our time together fosters greater possibilities for leading, learning, and listening. Join this learning circle to lead with more ease and less stress.
If you aspire to be an agent for change, look beyond giving advice, look to your own narratives.
-Rosamund Zander, Pathways to Possibility
Ready to transform your approach to change and find a more centered way of leading?
Sign up now to reserve your spot and start your journey towards personal and professional growth.
Series of four 90-minute interactive sessions on zoom
When: Four Thursdays, October 10, 17, 24, 31 11:00am-12:30pm ET
Cost: $289 per person
Limited to 12 leaders, so sign up now!
Leaders seeking to jump start their journey to success and deepen the learning, may choose 2 private coaching sessions for $209 to support them in reaching their goals.
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
“I am taking away many powerful thoughts and the tools to explore them further. It has been great to work with people who are working on similar parts of themselves, to bounce ideas off of each other, and challenge ourselves to think differently.”
“Many people set goals for themselves or have an idea of what they want to improve on. Getting there can be difficult, and we often blame ourselves for not putting the time in. Laura’s Change Learning Circle really helps examine the roots of our resistance to change, allowing us to see a clearer pathway to our goals.”
“I am really grateful for Laura’s guidance on change and feel like I can finally understand my goals and make movements towards them.”
“I am recognizing that as an adult you can change your view, your values and your beliefs. It is ok to see life through a different lens, change is growth.”
Cultivating Skills to Nurture Trust
Leadership Fundamentals
Small group learning circle for leaders seeking to cultivate more trust while leading teams and organizations. How can others trust you if you don’t trust yourself?
Trust is at the heart of every human conversation, relationship, interaction, work project, and strategic endeavor. Without trust a feeling of connection is impossible, and creative solutions impossible to achieve. To increase the possibilities for trusting leadership and collaborative teams let’s explore these questions:
Control – What ways may my need for control be stifling my team’s potential and creativity?
Feedback – What gets in my way of giving honest constructive feedback?
Change – What are my main reservations about implementing change with my team?
Clarity – What assumptions am I making? How can I clarify expectations?
Power– Where did I learn about power? How is it impacting my leadership and team?
Communication – Am I listening to learn or listening to be right?
Balance – What strategies am I using to find balance and boundaries?
The answers to these questions often reveal what hinders trust at work and thus the opportunities to cultivate more. How can you cultivate trust with your customers if you don’t have it within your organization, leadership team, or Board of Directors?
Cultivating trust
If you change that, you change everything!
This learning circle supports leaders in finding more balanced ways of leading, discovering blind spots to lead in ways that grow trust. Blind spots limit the capacity for learning, listening and leading. Most leaders are often either overly humble or overly confident and haven’t had the opportunity to discover their blind spots. If you don’t know what you don’t how, what is your plan to find out?
“Organizations are made up of conversations. Conversations with employees. Conversations with customers. Conversations with the future. The depth and usefulness of these conversations depends on the internal conversation that is occurring within each individual.” – David Whyte
Through small group exercises, writing, and homework between sessions we will cultivate leadership skills and practices anchored in trust.
A series of three 90 minute interactive sessions on zoom
When: Three Wednesdays Oct. 30 Nov. 6 Nov 13 2-3:30 PM ET
Cost: $249 per person
Limited to 12 leaders, so register today!
Leaders seeking to jump start their journey to success and deepen the learning, may choose 2 private coaching sessions for $209 to support their journey to creating a more trusting leadership culture.
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Women’s Leadership Learning Circle
Are you ready to become a part of a network of women seeking to connect, reach important goals and grow their impact?
This group is for you if you are a woman or identify as a woman. An invitation to connect with women leaders in a supportive space to explore authenticity and
trusting leadership. Please join if you would benefit from:
Monthly sessions include sharing, writing, introspective activities and homework including an accountability partner to support you in reaching your goals.
Come be a part of this interactive monthly learning circle if you are ready to be a part of a community of women reframing their relationship with healthy and balanced leadership and power. Are ready to explore an expansive relationship with your power?
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”- Alice Walker
When: Four Wednesdays, September 18, October 9, November 6, December 4 from 12:00 – 1:00pm ET
Cost: $149 per person
Limited to 12 leaders so register now!
Leaders seeking to jump start their journey to success and deepen the learning, may choose 2 private coaching sessions for $209 to support their journey to reaching their goals.
Who would benefit from this series? Here’s what recent participants shared:
“Everyone who is ready for it. This work is amazing.”
“All Women”
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
“I wanted to thank you for a life changing two hours! I got so many nuggets of wisdom and learned so much from you and the other ladies. Thank you for sharing your gifts! What a treasure and a treat!”
“We’re all in this together. Many of the issues and self-doubts I face are also being experienced by other women. Making positive changes takes time.”
“Laura is thoughtful, honest, and BOLD in her coaching. She is incredibly caring and allows people to bring their full selves to the sessions.”
The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback
Learn strategies for sharing and receiving feedback that strengthen human relationships. Through scenarios you will better understand stress responses and ways to stay centered as well as ways to build trust and cultivate generosity. You will
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
How to Disagree Better
Creating Your Conflict Resolution Toolkit
In this interactive learning experience you will discover your role in creating trust, building relationships, and responding to conflict.
By exploring what is difficult (difficult conversations, difficult co-workers, difficult supervisors) you will practice communication and self-awareness skills to center human connection and relationships with clarity and kindness.
This workshop is designed to support all leaders seeking greater ease and less stress at work. Together we will explore what is at the heart of disagreement and conflict and ways to find your footing as well as common ground.
Highlights:
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Strategies for Difficult Conversations
Engaging in difficult conversations has tremendous potential for laying the foundation for employee engagement. It is a way to come together despite our differences. Come ready to try some coaching and mediation techniques to help make things less difficult. You will be better informed on how to
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Intentional Communication
Forward thinking leaders recognize that effective communication, a learning mindset, and emotional intelligence are the best indicators of leadership success.
Whole leader development is grounded in human connection and can reduce individual and team stress. In this experiential session, you will be better informed how to
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Women’s Leadership Learning Circle
This group is for you if you are a woman or identify as a woman. An invitation to connect with women leaders in a supportive space to explore authenticity and
trusting leadership. Together we will fine-tune skills for:
… while discovering if there are areas where we are ready to re-engage with healthy power.
Come be a part of this interactive monthly learning circle if you are ready to be a part of a community of women reframing their relationship with healthy and balanced leadership and power.
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Let’s Focus on Difficult!
Difficult Conversations, Difficult Leaders and Difficult Employees refine skills, increase confidence and learn in community.
Given the complexities in leading today’s organizations it is more important than ever to be a part of a small learning community. With so much responsibility and information you can’t share with others it is essential to have a space to ask questions, practice, and not need to be the expert.
Together we will practice communication skills and leadership practices in a trusting environment. Bringing these practices back to your organization will give
you tools to support the learning and growth of your leaders and help cultivate a more engaged workplace.
Topics include:
Ideal for leaders seeking more ease, greater confidence and less drama at work.
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Creating a Culture of Accountability
An introspective workshop to explore the many facets of accountability. Ways to cultivate a positive culture of accountability starting with yourself, then aligning with your team and organization. You will be better informed on how to
Future offerings coming soon – check back again
Testimonials
I appreciate the facilitation and thoughtful approach. The framing helped me with some things I am working with. I appreciate your time, effort, and sharing of expertise.
Do it to enhance self-awareness about your own leadership strengths and opportunities for growth and there is so much to learn from Laura and the other leaders.
Excellent presenter. Really engaging, responsive, and inviting.
Laura creates an incredibly effective learning environment where she’s invited me to candidly and safely explore the areas that have tripped me up as a leader. Laura asks you to go deep, to challenge your assumptions, and to engage in your self-learning with vulnerability, honesty, and humility. Her supportive and thoughtful approach to encouraging reflection and awareness has given me a much deeper understanding and more grounded approach to learning and leading. The tools I’ve learned from Laura’s coaching and her keen insights have helped me to have deeper and more honest awareness, to harness true active listening skills, to create and hold space for deeper learning with staff, and to build and lead teams who are highly motivated and productive.
Bringing together a group of like-minded leaders is a powerful way to shine the light on our roles in our organizations and recenter how we approach our responsibilities.
During our 18 years working together, Laura coached our department managers and she also coached me (as GM) to grow and become a much better leader of my management team and the staff as a whole. I never would have achieved the same level of success nor had the same amount of enjoyment without her help.
Leadership Development Resources in the Columinate Library
Andre Chavez Brings a Long Career in Grocery Operations
As the cooperative grocery industry continues to grow, many stores are looking at hybrid models: a mixture of natural foods and conventional grocery. New Columinate consultant Andre Chavez has so much operational experience in both natural and conventional grocery that he could be considered a hybrid unto himself.
Managers Utilize the Compensation Database
The concept of pay equity affects all co-ops, no matter who their general manager (GM) is. The ability of our stores to attract, train, and retain quality candidates creates a rising tide for all co-ops, especially as Principle 6 mandates our collective cooperation. Columinate’s Compensation Database is a remarkably helpful tool that enables general managers and boards to understand how their compensation package compares to similar stores throughout the country.
Deli management, Part 3: Systems To Stay On Track In All Seasons
Timing is key to any recipe. Cook things too long and they burn. Wait too long to add an ingredient, and it may not cook all the way. Before you prepare to cook a new recipe, you give yourself ample time for the work of reading the recipe directions, cutting, chopping, and measuring ingredients. That way, when the beautiful chaos of cooking begins, you’re prepared for each step in the process.
Meet Molly Phipps: Putting Her Passions to Work
Molly Phipps, welcomed to the Columinate consultant team in 2023, has centered her career around three key passions: food, people, and the natural environment. As a result, this warm and analytical cooperator’s resume exhibits an eye-catching variety of job titles, including evaluation and research associate, farmer’s market manager, board member, and lab manager. The breadth of Phipps’ experience and her leadership in planning/evaluating strategy are sure to generate a positive impact for co-ops in the grocery industry as well as for resident-owned communities in manufactured home parks.
General Manager Support for Deli Departments
Columinate consultant Dana Tomlin specializes in supporting deli departments and making sure general managers have the knowledge and confidence to oversee successful programs and systems long-term. Learning the complexities, language, rhythms, and pitfalls within your deli can make a huge difference in performance and consistency. Deli departments need to put out product in abundance and quality that meets customer expectations across staffing changes, daily chaos, and product availability.
Columinate Learn: Applying Principle 5 in the Digital Divide
Ready for digital literacy Co-ops have a lot of teaching to do. To build a cooperative ecosystem with knowledgeable and invested stakeholders aware of what it is they have become a part of, it takes a lot of orienting, sharing, demonstrating, and educating. A cooperative can fail if it does not consistently apply Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training, and Information. Lack of strong education systems within a co-op culture can slowly erode its core.