Executive Director Reflections
Morgan Miles, Executive Director
Over the past four years, GALS has grown from a volunteer-based organization to having full-time staff and paid contractors. This shift brought growing pains for me as an Executive Director. As I took a step back and observed the team, I realized we all were feeling the stretching. We decided to work with Bianca to bring individualized and team-based coaching to the team in order to allow staff time to grow and process individually, and give us the opportunity to grow together. In the short-term, I was glad to see my team having another person besides myself where they could process their lives and jobs. I noticed that they each were excited to set some life goals and to take time to acknowledge areas where they were struggling. The Team Sessions we had really brought out the juiciness. Bianca was able to guide conversations and learning to cater to the needs she saw of each of the team-mates. Other direct impact included beginning to develop team values, understanding more deeply how each person views the world, and learning how to have direct conversations with each other. In the long term- the process illuminated a few areas where role-confusion and overlap were making things sticky. We’ve been able to deepen our relationships and care for each other, and often still say “I am going to pull out a Bianca tool for this conversation.”
If you are an Executive Director considering team coaching, I would 10/10 recommend it. Likely you’re intuition is already telling you that the team needs something more than you can give, and having Bianca as a trusted guide was so helpful in our growth. The team appreciated the confidentiality she ensured, the willingness to see folks as whole people- not just in a “professional” hat, and the flexibility that was given for us to mold the journey to what we needed. It was also so nice for me to give up the reigns and let someone lead me and the team with support, compassion and actual tangible skills. Bianca is grounded in anti-racism, whole-person work and it is a beautiful experience to work with her.