https://www.facebook.com/610313959013041/

VAULT Associates

Name: VAULT Associates
Address: Alexandria, VA, US
Telephone: +17034179411

Home
United States
Alexandria, VA
VAULT Associates

Improving Leader, Team, & Organization Effectiveness // Leadership Coaching

“You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” ~Albert Einstein

How We Can Help:

We act as your trusted advisor, an objective set of eyes, with executive experience and years of dealing with complex organization and leadership problems. We start with your business objectives--increasing sales, improving customer satisfaction, decreasing cycle time--and then determine the leaders

hip behaviors and team performance necessary to achieve those goals. With a combination of coaching and development, we work with you to move towards the desired outcomes. When should you call VAULT?

• If you are a leader who knows the status quo won’t get you where you want to go…you need a jump start to break through to new outcomes, whether personal, professional, or organizational

• If the leadership behaviors and team performance in your organization is negatively impacting your ability to achieve your business objectives.

• If you are keeping things on an even keel—barely-- yet you know that business performance could be so much better…you are just not sure where to start

• If you are in a new leadership position and want to get a running start on this opportunity: 90 day transition plans, energizing for new missions/new teams, new manager support

• If you were really great at what you did before and--congratulations, you received a promotion to manager or executive. Now you are operating at a whole new level and are feeling a bit overwhelmed on how to deal with the expectations and be effective

05/28/2026

"Strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others."
- Unknown

05/21/2026

I often post about learning fearlessness. I love discovering the fearlessness in my lifetime friends - we have been molded into indomitable women by the tricks and treats that the years have brought to us. But we only learn how fearless we all are when we connect on a deeper level, where we can inspire and be inspired by each other. Often our meet-ups start with “You haven’t changed a bit!”. Thank you for the compliment, but YES, I HAVE CHANGED! I’m not as good as I once was--I'm even better! (One thing hasn’t changed-- I can still shimmy it down to the ground--and get back up--while dancing to "Devil with the Blue Dress On," our high school mascot theme song.)

Here are a few questions to forge deeper conversation:

- What are your defining moments? Those moments of 'aha' and wonder that changed your life somehow?
- What is still to be experienced?
- What is still to be fulfilled?
- How can we, the women with such a strongly forged mutual experience, support you in making it a reality?
- How can we weave those tenuous young bonds even tighter, to move forward with courage?

Photo credit: Jane Maliszewski as the IHA Blue Devil, 1975 Halcyon yearbook

05/14/2026

When you think it is too hard, do you give up or trust someone to help?

05/07/2026

You rush into your favorite coffee shop, worried you'll be late for work. Two people are ahead of you, and the first is taking forever to order. The barista is overwhelmed, and now more people are lining up behind you. Your anxiety builds—why is everyone else moving so slowly when you are in a rush?

What if reality is like a beach ball—with each person operating as a different color?
Reconsidering the coffee shop scenario, maybe the first customer is a non-English speaker (green) and the barista (yellow) is tired from working multiple jobs. Perhaps there are more sides/colors to this moment than you realize.

Can you see the green, orange, white, yellow, and blue stripes in this coffee shop reality?

04/30/2026

"One's destination is never a place... but a new way of seeing things."
Henry Miller

04/23/2026

Ryan (not his real name), the team leader and project manager for an IT operation, recognized his team needed a shift in how they worked together. With greater experience and a broader perspective than his technical staff, he often jumped in with solutions whenever issues came up. This repeated intervention started to weigh on him, as he grew frustrated that some team members weren’t proactively considering the broader impact of their solutions.

To address this, Ryan implemented a simple change—which he dubbed the 20-80 rule—by choosing to speak last during meetings instead of offering his solutions first in an attempt to ‘save time.’ The system lead would outline the problem, after which everyone at the table shared their ideas. Only then did Ryan share his opinion, frequently weaving in suggestions from others. Sometimes, the group discussion itself resolved the issue, with Ryan simply endorsing the outcome. While this approach took a bit more time, Ryan discovered the benefits (the ‘80’) far surpassed the extra effort required (the ‘20’).

Some of the benefits resulting from this tiny change in Ryan’s behavior:
- Challenging people to think. Everyone was expected to weigh in, so everyone had to do their homework on the problem.
- Expanding understanding. From hearing each other and also from hearing how those parts would or would not impact the larger system.
- Buy-in on the final solution. Since everyone’s voice was heard, it seemed they were more committed to the outcome whether that included their recommendation or not.
- Patience and Listening. Ryan himself was challenged to engage in a more appreciative way with his team, and in so doing learned more about their thought processes, their expertise, and where they could use more development.

What small change could you make that would take 20% effort to yield 80% results?
Photo credit: Alexandru Nika II Shutterstock.com

04/16/2026

What if you looked at your life from a different perspective?
What do you see that you didn't notice before?

04/09/2026

I watched the Pixar movie Inside Out again (link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4) yesterday. I truly have not cried and laughed so hard in a long time!
Count me in for making this one required viewing for all kids, parents, and teachers…and let’s add clueless managers to the viewing audience while we are at it.
The movie interplays 5 of our core emotions—joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger—against the backdrop of a traumatic event in the life of a young girl. Inside Out does a great job of introducing us to some very complex understandings about how our emotions, long-term memory, and personality work.
Now I know why I can barely remember how to play ‘chopsticks’ on the piano after those lessons when I was 10 years old. Turns out there’s neuro-truth to that old wives' tale--“if you don’t use ‘em, you lose ‘em.” It’s a jelly bean cleaning team with a big vacuum hose that sucks up the old memories that I wasn’t using to make room for new ones. Now there’s a visual I’ll remember!
The timing of the coincided with my completion of a 60+ hour neuroscience coaching course. Recognizing your internal state and addressing it objectively is key to progress. Many people suppress emotions, but each has value in understanding the world—a message the film delivers effectively.
In an age where positive psychology has attained cult-like status—and I say that not in a bad way, I myself am an advocate—it was a telling reminder for me that accepting the feeling of sadness leads to the deepest joy. It is this powerful interplay of emotions and connections that creates our personality. Goof-ball island, anyone?
Inside Out is the kind of movie that is guaranteed to creep into your conversations for a long time to come.
Oh, and be sure to stay for the credits—it explains a lot about cats…and dogs.

Photo credit: © Chuotnhatdesigner | Dreamstime.com

03/26/2026

How to Give Better Advice (that actually gets heard)
Last week at a party, a friend shared he’d just been let go from his company.
After the sympathetic “sorry to hear that,” the group immediately jumped in with:
“Well if I were you…”
He nodded politely, smiled, and said thank you… but his eyes told a different story. None of it was landing.
The advice wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t his.
Here’s the truth most of us forget:
Our brains are wired differently. What feels like the obvious next step to you can feel completely foreign to someone else’s thinking patterns.
So instead of rushing to give advice, shift to helping them think.
Try these instead:
• “Out of everything you’ve heard tonight, which idea feels worth exploring more?”
• “Would it be helpful if we made a quick list of the options and ranked what actually fits you?”
The goal isn’t to solve their problem for them. It’s to help them make sense of it in their way.
David Rock puts it powerfully in Quiet Leadership: Keep a tally for one week — count how many times people give you advice… and how many times you actually find it useful.
Most of us are shocked by the gap.
So here’s the question:
Will this change how you show up for people going forward?
Drop a comment: What’s the best (or worst) advice you’ve ever been given — and why did it land (or miss)?

03/19/2026

Leaders make the weather.
What's the forecast in your organization?

Address

Alexandria, VA

Telephone

+17034179411

Website

facebook.com

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when VAULT Associates posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Business in Alexandria?