How I got here
After being laid off from my first data entry job as a young adult, my first big corporate job was working as a customer service representative for Chase Credit Card Services.
While working, I got my BS in CIS degree – the first in my family to obtain a college degree, and my life changed direction as I started working in technology roles, and grew into my first corporate executive role as Technology Officer for Chase Manhattan.
In my 25+ years of working in various technology roles of all levels from analyst to VP roles, I experienced work-place unfairness/discrimination, micro-management and work-place bullying.
There was fear of having challenging conversations with peers and/or leaders, confusion of my future direction, difficulty juggling competing demands, time management, self organization issues and navigating team conflict – all with zero HR support even though it was requested.
My colleagues also faced similar work situations where they felt scared to fail, scared to talk, and unsupported by their leaders or Human Resource departments who attempted to help, but ultimately are held accountable to a different agenda by the company.
Many leaders and mid-level management colleagues were also confused – simply going with the flow of their leaders’ requests with no support on how to effectively manage teams. They faced conflicting agendas where their best interests were often not considered.
IT & Business processes were often ineffective thus demotivating, and mid-level managers did not have corporate coaches to help them navigate similar to the coaching that senior level executives often receive.
Discovering my passion
Seeing that there was a lack of support in this area, and realizing that that I cared more about impacts to human systems than technology systems I studied to become an ICF Professional Coach and Certified Agile Coach, so that I could be the support that I wished I had during my technology days in corporate.
I now leverage my technology, leadership, & people experiences to help people who are in the same puzzling situations I once found myself and my IT colleagues in.
Your Virtual Mentor n’ Coach
As the founder/owner of YVM iNC (Your Virtual Mentor n’ Coach), I integrate Professional & Human Systems Coaching with Agile Coaching to help leaders, teams & individuals of organizations discover better ways of working that focus on THEIR desired business outcomes, not mine.
As a result, Agility and Change are sustainable for the long run.
I am known for:
- Helping people see the holistic picture
- Bridging communication gaps
- Surfacing awareness
- Building strong teams using empathy
- Facilitating team and leadership workshops to help teams learn & practice agile behaviors/techniques and new ways of building relationships
- Creating psychological safety/trust
- Managing conflict
- Practicing emotional intelligence
- Practicing self-awareness
- Using systems thinking, visioning, focus & value prioritization
- Inspiring team collaboration, empowerment & accountability
- Leading by coaching vs. telling
As a TBR-VE practitioner, my workshops (offered through coaching) are based on “cognitive neuroscience’ that makes training ‘stick’ while making it enjoyable.
If you would like to learn more about me or my work, please visit my LinkedIn profile.
Some further background
With parents coming from Belize, and myself being born in Florida, I like to say that I have a ‘Caribbean soul’ that has always yearned for freedom. I am navigating life’s uncertain winds, and flowing with the current instead of against it.
My father was a seaman – always away at sea, and always at the beck and call of someone else in charge charting his destiny, and always unhappy. I wanted something different for myself.
I always knew I was born to do something greater in this world – something that would help people positively, and leave a lasting impact.
Nevertheless, I never knew what that would be. As I look back in my life, I now see a historical pattern of continuously changing jobs – either the companies closed for whatever reason, downsized their employees, or I worked for leaders whose values did not align with mine, and many times I just easily became bored or unchallenged, and departed.
I always found myself building relationships with my colleagues and leaders, and helping them navigate uncertainty. We were all lost. Everyone just seemed to cope, and stay stuck.
My guide in life was a close spiritual family friend to my mother, and was like my first coach. He helped me navigate many of the aspects in my life when there was no one to guide me, thus helping me see that I needed to move forward, and being an inspiration for me now to help others.
We have all been there, and it’s a natural ebb and flow of life. Interestingly enough, today, here I am. I have realized that I had been playing too small for so long when the waters have been so vast and wide.
I am now the captain of my own ship. I’d love nothing more than to help you navigate these unchartered waters in life, and sail in the direction that you want to sail towards.