ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC) & CaPP Institute Instructor
What makes this former HR executive so passionate about coaching in the corporate arena?
Sheila Carmichael says her decades of experience as an HR executive is her secret sauce as a coach.
An ICF-Master Certified Coach (MCC), Sheila has over 25 years of experience working in HR leadership including diversity and inclusion, talent management, and organizational development.
It was during a transition time in her corporate job when Sheila decided she should start practicing what she helped others do and help them find their niche.
“I thought, let me go into coaching. I always loved that in corporate America, so just let me go and do this on my own. As I looked at programs, Valorie’s message and story touched my heart. She’s been through things that very similarly align with my personal experiences,” Sheila said.
Sheila completed the CaPP Institute’s Coach Training Intensive (CTI) for the first time in 2012, then again in 2017. What drew her back a second time was how targeted the program is, along with its structure and format. It was then she decided it was time to finally begin her own coaching practice.
She founded Transitions D2D in January 2017. To build up her practice, she had to rebrand her image to one of a personal executive coach. She said she isn’t a marketer and doesn’t like selling, so she had to come up with innovative new ways on her journey. Once she realized who her ideal clients were, she was able to make decisions and have conversations.
She has been working as an Executive Coach and Associate Director for EY [Ernst & Young] since August 2021, where she provides individual and team coaching as well as thought leadership in areas such as career transitions, leadership growth, and transformational leadership.
Her guiding philosophy is to help clients understand how they presently view leadership and offer new perspectives on how they can evolve their skills and become the most brilliant version of themselves. Sheila teaches her clients with “authentic leadership” development techniques designed to discover their greatest potential.
Out of her passion for coaching and wanting to support coaches in their development, she also mentors coaches to receive their ICF certifications as a Master Certified Coach.
One piece of advice Sheila would give to a coach who is ready to make the leap into full-time entrepreneurship is to reduce the noise. Pausing in the moment and asking yourself why you are thinking certain things and what’s causing it? Having a community and a village that is like-minded and approaches you with things to support and lift you versus trying to advise and steer you into their direction is important.
“Everybody has their own natural philosophy for coaching, and mine is how do you stay true and authentic to [yourself]. Do what works for you and you’ll get excited and people will see that.”
