Your leadership team, or your organization's board of directors, are likely to have skills in finance or marketing or visioning, or in all of these. But are these same leaders holding a team back by avoiding difficult issues, resisting ideas that differ from theirs, or delaying essential changes?
Laura King estimates that most groups spend as much as thirty percent of their meeting time in unproductive behaviors. Groups and leaders often avoid what is difficult, yet they also seek external validation and long for more confidence. In helping identify and change such patterns, King relies on her 25 years of experience exploring adult development—asking leaders to stretch and to build more connected and trusting teams.
In February and March, Laura King will be convening a four-part series of virtual small group sessions focusing on what King terms the "Essentials of Leading": skill building, coaching, and accountability partnerships.
"The workshop offers so many tools to help unlock our emergence as better leaders—and better humans." —a recent participant
A subsequent four-part webinar, "Women's Leadership Learning Circle," will be held in April. Besides her Columinate page, readers can learn more about King and her work, and register for Leadership Learning Circles here.
King, who has been a member of Columinate for three years, provides training and development that is personalized for her client teams and organizations. This work can range from a half-day retreat to as much as a six-month consultation with monthly meetings or more frequent contact. Along with Leadership Learning Circles, King offers her clients in-person workshops and retreats. She also delivers inter-active conference sessions and is a university guest lecturer on conflict transformation. Client organizations—including cooperatives, nonprofits, and for-profit businesses—typically seek help with reaching goals, moving through change and conflict, cultivating trust, and improving communication and leadership skills.
"Many of the tools shared have been interesting and useful—I've shared them with other leaders, and it's strengthened my relationships within the organization." —a fall 2025 workshop participant
King details her work under three specialties:
- personalized coaching
- cultivating leadership skills
- workplace culture transformation
Her underlying goal is helping individuals, boards, teams, and leaders learn to improve their leadership impact and, in this way, create learning organizations that are well poised for these complex times.
"All co-op general managers would benefit from your work, and especially for GMs and their teams as a primary focus as soon as a new GM is hired."—a 2025 workshop participant
King's January 2026 newsletter uses a metaphor of music, which in its essence is both sound and silence: "Fearless leaders learn to pause, listen, and tune in. They let the beat guide the next step. Leadership is less about speed and volume and more about resonance."
Beyond this ongoing leadership development and consulting work, King says she is anticipating a pivot this year to helping women enter politics, with some pro bono work, and using her training as a coach. She also is enthused about today's activist youth and is finding ways to help them during their leadership and transformative journeys.
Curious to learn more or start a conversation? Reach out to lauraking@columinate.coop.
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