From New Jersey /America -a good coach can change a game

From New Jersey /America

by peter  j.ward

our special reporter

The Life Coach Changing the Way Business Gets Don

“A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.”
John Wooden UCLA

Let’s face it. The pandemic changed everything. We all suffered through worldwide illness, painful personal losses, confinement, professional and financial setbacks, and all the changes to our routines that came with it. Life, for all of us, was going to be different moving forward.

But that’s not all. According to several experts in relationships and conflict resolution, more changes are coming. People’s behavioral patterns and lifestyles are changing around the world at an alarming rate.

For a growing number of people the world over, staying home and being isolated from the general population over the past two years has sparked an opportunity for re-evaluating both their personal and professional lives – many for the first time in decades.

“When you’re running a marathon and you slow down, you can see if the path is the right one for you. It’s the same in life – when we slow down, we can see if the path we’re on lines up with who we want to be and our values,” says Dana Lynn Bernstein, Admissions Coordinator for the Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance Program at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The program is certified as an Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) of the International Coaching Federation, or ICF, and is considered the gold standard in the industry.

While many families enjoyed the respite from the daily grind, spending more time together strained some relationships during a period of international upheavals and uncertainties.

Experts say top issues disputed over the COVID included rules and restrictions to disagreements over travel, to whether school children should wear masks or be vaccinated. Some discord between families and friends resulted over the very existence of the virus. The result for many was harsh, as a soaring number of relationships were pushed to breaking point.

Bernstein, a highly respected certified life coach, focuses on conflict resolution, and applies her training to personal relationships; she volunteers her mediation services to resolve issues in courts. “You cannot change the past,” she says. “But you can find new ways to move forward with more success, that’s what life coaches do.”

Navigating the emotional landscape of change isn’t always for the faint of heart. Job changes, geographic changes, personal changes, such as relationship breakups or divorce, can be painful, and co-parenting with an ex can be a bi-weekly torture for all involved.

However, Bernstein, author of the forthcoming book “It’s The Thought That Counts”, says how we conduct business has also changed the way men and women co-exist in the workspace. For those still working from home, social connections, networking, and new ways of interacting can bring on new challenges, even if the kids have gone back to school.

But there is hope.

LeAnn Lazar, a life coach based in Los Angeles, California is quietly building an international following that is getting high marks from industry leaders for her website, podcasts, and social media messaging. But the experts say it’s her ability to apply her techniques to business and corporate leaders that is making her standout. Lazar helps clients step back and evaluate their work situations with an approach originally designed to help people find a sense of individual purpose and direction. Her primary focus however is divorce, co-parenting, and dating after divorce.

“She has such a great brand, and it will only get bigger,” says Glamis Haro, Senior Business Advisor at Columbia University in New York. “Starting and running a business of any size can be stressful. When you own or start a business, you do all the work, feel all the pressure and it can overwhelm even the most seasoned businessperson,” she says. “But having someone like LeAnn (Lazar) that can understand that and can help these business leaders thrive, that could mean the difference between success and failure.”

Lazar produces daily content and contributes to podcasts, reinforcing positive messages, and uses her social media platform and speaking engagements to stay tethered to her growing fanbase.

She is selective about her clients, carefully evaluating each one and focusing on people and organizations she is certain she can help. For those she must turn away, she offers alternatives or refers them to colleagues. “I obviously cannot take on everyone who asks, but when I agree to work with someone or an organization, my clients come to work, they know they have to be open to coaching and apply what works when we get to that point,” says Lazar.

At first glance, her career trajectory indicated a whole other path, but the universe had other plans. When Lazar was 13, growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, a friend told her about a modeling school in town and it sparked her interest. Her mother, Linda Garris, recalled recently that she was “hesitant at first to the idea of her modeling,” she says, but after meeting Delia Harper, who owned the school/agency, Garris was on board.

“Delia let her sit in on classes and before you knew, it, LeAnn was on her way to Japan,” says Garris. Over the next few years, there were stops in London, Paris, New York, Germany, and dozens of other places. She never knew it at the time, but her international experience would prove invaluable to her coaching career.

”Seriously, she is one of the smartest and most sincere people I have ever known,” says Harper. “Her compassion and kindness are superior to others, and anyone who meets her knows that” she says.

“In our line of work, you have to walk the walk, if you talk the talk,” says Angela Holton, author of “The Secret Method to Conscious Love.” Holton, whose own life coaching practice focuses on helping women navigate the dating world and “maintain a healthy relationship with greater awareness,” says “LeAnn brings her life experience, travel, relationships, and cultural background to her work, and that’s what we do.”

“My toolbox has nothing in it for co-parenting or dating post-divorce, she has that and knows how to apply it to help others moving forward, that’s’ not just a talent, it’s a gift,” says Holton.

Lazar was in her 20’s and still traveling the world as a model, absorbing every ounce of culture and experience while working with some of the biggest names in design and fashion. Then, she met a man in New York, dated, and after 13 years of marriage and two children, she found herself suddenly divorced and living as a single mother in Los Angeles, California.

“It was time for LeAnn 2.0,” she says. “I loved my career and had an amazing time as a model, for over 20 years, but my passion was being a mother. But when my own life was upended, it was a time, it was discovery of self,” she says.

Described by one colleague as a “self-made driven entrepreneur with a keen business acumen,” Lazar, who was graduated from both high school and college in less than four years and holds a degree in psychology, surprised no one who knew her as they watched the transition from stay-at-home Mom to industry newcomer turning heads for all the right reasons.

“Oh, it was educational to watch, but we were not surprised when she emerged a stronger, more determined woman, mother and entrepreneur,” says longtime friend Julie Kellman-Reading.

“She is so much more than a coach,” says Reading, co-founder of Love + Daydreams, a film and television production company in Los Angeles. “She has this incredible ability to help people continue to heal through forward thinking,” “She puts aside all her own issues and seems to unravel the root of the problem and focus on the issue of getting better today, tomorrow, and beyond.”

Bernstein, , says she receives hundreds of calls each week from people from all walks of life looking to become a coach. However, life coaches are not without their critics who feel that getting input from another person on how to live a better life is a weakness or financially a waste of time.

Lazar fires back at critics and maintains her line of work is equivalent to an athlete trying to improve his or her game. “It’s the same thing,” says Lazar. “You need to practice good habits and get reinforcement as you build and improve – it’s the same in life coaching, we help you with a better approach,” she says.

Robyn Winter, a Parkland, Florida executive and close friend, turned to Lazar while developing a client base for her company. Suddenly, she found herself in the middle of a divorce and turned to Lazar for personal guidance.

“She knows how to empower people to take charge of their lives and situations in ways I’ve never seen before,” says Winter. “It’s tough when things like divorce and co-parenting are so emotional, but it’s more intense when kids are involved; LeAnn understands the difference,” she says.

Bernstein says more life coaches like herself, Holton and Lazar are needed everywhere in the world. “Helping people reconnect in the workforce after COVID has been a challenge, and people are finding themselves lost through lack of communication, distance, and the changes in the workforce environment. When a life coach can cross cultures to help more people, it’s huge,” she says.

Life coaches do not replace therapists. In fact, many life coaches encourage therapy, which will often examine a person’s past personal landscape, while “a life coach can help them move forward, but only when they’re ready, “says Bernstein.

“I see where my clients are and where they want to go,” says Lazar. “From that I create a skillset based on what they’re looking to do. I focus on ‘forward thinking’ while the therapists focus and deal with the past, and I’m all for therapy, but my clients know it’s about steps forward, not back.”

Working on her book, in which she says focuses on realigning life after divorce, co-parenting, and dating post-divorce while contributing to another, keeps her on her toes, and that’s how she likes it.

But even she has her limits.

“I love helping people every day, but it’s the commitment to being a self-made entrepreneur, forging my own path and focusing my own self-care which involves meditation, exercise, and setting boundaries that motivates me. We all need time to focus on ourselves; it’s how we keep evolving and growing – and that is what’s important.”

LeAnn can be found through speaking engagements, on multiple podcasts and platforms such as Aloha Life, Uncharted, Her Nation, Magical Moments with Alena Chapman, Everything From A to Z with Arianne Zucker, and The Forward Female.

LeAnn Lazar Website: leannlazarcoaching.com
Dana Lynn Bernstein: www.DLBCoaching.net
Columbia University: Glamis Haro glamisharo@columbia.edu
Rutgers University: https://leadershipcoaching.rutgers.edu/