by Whitney Hopler, Communications Manager
As an entrepreneur for 15 years so far, Leslie Schreiber, M.Ed., offers corporate training and leadership coaching through her business Schreiber Training. She also writes regularly about leadership, including a chapter in the new book Cultivating Culture. Yet as she leads others, she continues to learn herself. “I’m always trying to grow and expand and learn,” she said.
Schreiber participated in the Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being program to round out her skill set with additional training in coaching. “Organizational development is like a four-legged chair, where the legs are training, facilitation, consulting, and coaching,” said Schreiber. “If one of the legs is not as long as the other, you’re off balance. I had worked a lot with the other ‘legs’ but wanted to learn more about coaching.”
In the process, she said, she was surprised to discover how beneficial the well-being focus of Mason’s coaching program turned out to be: “I really appreciated the well-being aspect of it once I got into the program. It showed me the importance of slowing down and reflecting on who we are as leaders and what changes we want to make in our lives. It has given me permission to slow down and to encourage my clients to slow down. It really made the idea of emotional fitness more accessible.”
The people in her cohort enjoyed each other’s company so much that they scheduled time to eat dinner together once a week during the session. Schreiber organized the dinners at a restaurant near Mason. She keeps in touch with her colleagues from the cohort now, as well. “It’s an incredibly supportive atmosphere and you become very close to your cohort very quickly,” she said. “You have to risk and be vulnerable, but that’s what accelerates the group to cohesion. What you give in is what you get out. You really get to know people, and we’ll have that network of relationships with each other for the rest of our lives.”
Apply to join the next cohort here