Leading with Self-Awareness and Intention
When leaders come to me for coaching, they usually come in with a mix of questions, thoughts, and hopes. But one thing I hear almost every time is: “I want to get better.”
That desire might come from stepping into a bigger role, feeling stuck, or wanting to lead with more clarity and impact. But at the core, it’s the same driver: they’re ready to take ownership of their growth.
That’s what the best development tools do. They reflect back not just how you think you're doing, but how others experience the work you do with them. The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) does this with exceptional depth. It highlights both your creative strengths and your reactive tendencies. It helps uncover blind spots that may be holding you back and amplifies the strengths you might be underutilizing.
Turning Insight Into Action
Insight is a critical starting point. But insight alone doesn’t lead to transformation. The shift happens when you take what you’ve learned and translate it into deliberate, sustained action. This is when feedback moves from paper to practice.
First, we make sense of the insights together by clarifying key themes, surfacing connections, and exploring how the feedback aligns (or misaligns) with your intention.
To do that effectively, you need a clear and personalized path forward.
That’s why, after reviewing the LCP report together, we use it as a foundation to co-create a Leadership Development Plan that feels personal, grounded, and actionable. It’s not a template or a checklist. It’s a thoughtful, tailored strategy that aligns with your current challenges, your real-world responsibilities, the kind of leader you want to become, and the impact you want to create next.
We look at:
What’s calling for change?
Where do you already have momentum?
What would meaningful progress look like in this season of your leadership?
The plan becomes a touchstone. A way to track growth, revisit goals, and stay grounded in what matters most.
Accountability With Action
Coaching turns that plan into motion. It becomes the space to reflect, recalibrate, and take action. It’s where we connect intention to follow-through and give structure to experimentation and growth.
In this space, leadership becomes less reactive and more deliberate. You get to test new behaviors, explore mindset shifts, and notice how your leadership is landing in real time.
A Signal to Your Team
This kind of work sends a powerful signal to your team. It changes how you lead and how you're perceived. When leaders show they’re in the work, it signals a powerful truth:
That growth is continuous
That feedback is welcome
That self-leadership matters
It creates space for your team to do the same.
Leadership is presence. It’s self-awareness. It’s the steady rhythm of showing up with clarity and humility, even when it’s uncomfortable.
When leaders choose to invest in intentional leadership development that focuses on reflection, feedback, and aligned action, it doesn’t just serve them; it strengthens their teams, sharpens their strategy, and fuels long-term resilience. It creates a culture where growth is normalized, reflection is valued, and accountability is modeled.
This kind of culture doesn’t just increase performance. It increases trust.
Tools like the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), paired with targeted coaching, help bring leadership development into everyday practice.
If this resonates with you and you’d like to learn more, I’d love to talk.
Liv Olson is an executive coach and facilitator specializing in team effectiveness. She partners with financial services leaders and their teams to strengthen clarity, confidence, and collaboration.