We Lead Now!

“For me, the biggest benefit was the realization that I desired certain outcomes professionally, and that ‘empathy’ in the sense of understanding where other people are coming from allowed me to adapt my behavior in order to obtain the outcomes I desired….Self-awareness is the first step toward leading others.”

“Mira was hired to help build a culture of mutual respect, honesty and collegiality among our staff, to support that effort by focusing full time on people issues to show we were serious about the culture we wanted.

Mira’s coaching communication classes were very effective in helping managers and staff to understand what kind of behavior exhibited the culture.  Mira was able to help them identify specific areas of improvement and how to make the changes they needed to make. The leadership development program was an important part of the process. It helped the senior leaders to recognize their behavior traits that may be counter-productive and worked one-on-one with many to help them improve.

Mira brought a different perspective to the company.  That was valuable to me as issues would arise and I looked for solutions.  I had plenty of engineers to talk to but they represented a relatively narrow band of thinking, not bad, just narrow.  Mira’s different viewpoints provided a wider arena of possible solutions. I found that very worthwhile.”

“I had the good fortune to work with Mira for over ten years at a point in my career when developing my leadership skills was key to my continuing professional development. Mira was always available to me to offer a different perspective which tended to enrich my typically analytical approach to problem solving and strategy development. I would often remark to others that I felt I had a "mini Mira" sitting on my shoulder reminding me to use both sides of my brain when thinking through an issue.

Mira worked closely with SEA as we developed a new culture to better reflect the values of the new leadership team of the firm. Over time, the new culture was firmly rooted in one of complete respect for our varied skills, exceptional client service as a differentiator with our competitors and better appreciation for work/life balance. These tenets are firmly in place in our firm to this day and allow for fairly objective decision making as we continually return to these principles for guidance. In addition to the obvious benefits derived by all employees at SEA, our clients often remark they see it in our behaviors and in our interactions with them. It is rewarding to see these "words" being taken to heart so deeply that it is noticeable to our clients.

“I learned from Mira that leadership begins with me and that what I do and the way I do it affects everyone around me. I need to listen first, encourage dialogue, before commenting or offering my point of view. I learned that one of the important things to consider is that "you don't know what you don't know" and if you first listen, you may learn something that would help inform you decisions or comments.  As a leadership coach Mira often advised me on how best to approach a situation, providing guidance on what drives people and how best to approach the issue. This almost always produced positive results. As a workshop facilitator, Mira certainly knew how to work with a large group of senior managers to guide their decision process.”

“Most of my professional interactions with Mira were when I was a Project Manager and Mira was the Director of Career/Culture Development.  She coached me on how to handle difficult conflicts between myself and more senior staff, with someone whose performance I was reviewing or between members of a team because their actions affected our ability to succeed.   I also attended a variety of workshops either organized or taught by Mira, where I learned to become a better leader and better communicator.

“Learning from Mira that "what you don't know, you don't know" was very profound for me.  Most importantly, I felt that Mira was able to coach the senior staff to become better leaders, to become more sensitive to the staff issues and to help them understand how critical leadership development and/or coaching is to the success of the company.  She helped make the senior staff, kinder and gentler. “

“One of Mira’s greatest strengths is in offering alternative points of view. Mira was instrumental in working with our previous president to change the culture of our company. Mira works well with teams to create a shared vision and help them to implement that vision. She was excellent at doing the background work of gauging where people were at and getting people on board to offer alternatives. She is excellent at the leadership training.“

“I observed Mira connecting in a very individual way with who each of your clients was--first perceiving and then tailoring her approach to their very specific needs.  I believe this arose from thinking carefully about why the person was challenged or why something wasn't working.  She has always been willing to try something different to meet a unique need or challenge.  This approach is grounded, I believe, in her acute understanding and appreciation of individual differences.

Mira has always been in tune with how different people in different positions and from different generations and backgrounds actually feel--not just with how senior management wants them to feel.  This enables her to help leaders at the company connect better with all staff at a human level--not just in terms of the task that needs to be done, but in terms of the hearts and spirits that needs tending.  Mira is able to do this while understanding, honoring, and contributing to business imperatives.”

“I observed Mira transition the HR department from a traditional hiring/benefits/employee performance group to an integrated team that worked closely with everyone within the organization to achieve their highest levels of competence.

The education and training program that she developed for everyone in the organization was probably the most effective training curriculum that I have ever encountered in my over 30 years in the A/E/C industry.  The fact that she was able get the complete buy-in of the senior management is testimony to the importance of the program.

While at the company Mira took a business that was very static and traditional and moved it to a dynamic and forward thinking organization. I particularly enjoyed how she opened the training to all staff levels; how she created opportunities for everyone to grow. I also enjoyed watching Mira humanize many of the staid engineers she worked with, and brought out qualities that many of these individuals did not know they had.”

“Mira was very helpful to me in terms of my integration into the company and developing ideas on how I could apply my skills and knowledge to my new position and individuals, to succeed.  Her strategic orientation has contributes to my own personal business growth. Mira sees beyond the day to day business activities that consume us and she persistently keeps our focus on means to integrate business and personal motivators that are needed for company success.”

“I had the great experience of working with Mira Furth at the same company for several years. I used to say that it was such a perk to have a therapist on staff there.  Mira is someone that helps everyone communicate better and always strives to be sure the big elephant in the room is addressed.  At SEA she did wonders rolling out their Learning Program which was very well received and eventually won an award.  Her Developing Leadership Behavior Course was one that I particularly liked and I believe it was perfectly suited to SEA and the emerging leaders that participated in it. When I moved to my current company, I immediately pitched that course to them and eventually hired her to do it here.  She is a pleasure to work with.”

“Mira’s coaching was an extremely effective tool for my professional development.  My job as an administrative assistant was satisfying, but it was Mira’s coaching that helped me identify a career in human resources that was rewarding.  Her advice centered on what I wanted to do, but was always parallel with the needs of the company.  She helped me build confidence, unleash capabilities within myself that I didn’t know I had, and then helped support my professional journey with regular reinforcement and feedback.  This had a very positive impact on my professional life.  Mira’s coaching enabled me to become a better employee by becoming much more engaged in my work, and in turn, I was able to make a greater contribution to the company.

Her coaching had great strategic value as well.  Not only did her coaching help the company retain its best employees by giving them attention to develop themselves, but it also helped valuable employees who felt stalled in their careers to feel rejuvenated and establish new goals to help get them to where they want to go.”

“Mira brings a tremendous amount of experience, knowledge, know-how, and understanding to the table. Her experiences at a firm in the same industry meant that we could jump past that learning curve and move ahead right to ideas. She also brought structure - within one meeting, I was able to bounce ideas off her and brainstorm with her, and at the end of the meeting we would have a plan for how to move forward. Mira brought great value to me in helping me stay in motion – she understood how busy I was, and used just the right touch to keep me and the plan and timeline moving and on track.

Working with Mira, we created and ran two workshops for managers based on our performance review process. After walking through our process with me, she crafted two sessions and wrote the curriculum, something I didn’t have the time to do. Without her working with me as a consultant and as the workshop facilitator, I would not have been able to have the workshops.

As a personal coach, she’s a compassionate listener, acts as a mirror to convey back to me what she sees, and can distill what she’s heard from me in a way that provides clarity for me. Mira served as a personal coach for me during a difficult time, and having that added support and resource was invaluable in keeping me focused on the big picture. Mira strives to keep updated on workplace & workforce trends – she always recommends books and articles, and is eager to discuss and debate! She can see the big picture, providing an “outside” viewpoint on an “inside” issue.”