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VAULT Associates

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

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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

06/18/2026

What is your view of ‘networking’?

• A distasteful task of trading favors with strangers?
• Attending business meetings and conferences and collecting business cards?
• Something you avoid at all costs?

If so, you are not alone. Many professionals view ‘networking’ as one of the most dreaded activities, second only to public speaking.

What if you redefine the expectations and intent of NETWORKING as Creating Mutually Beneficial Relationships?

From my own experience, when I have been at my wits’ end for an idea or a contact, I have reached out to my network. Someone ALWAYS comes through for me. I have solved problems, generated new ideas, and booked new clients by actively engaging with my network.

Networking is what separates effective leaders from functional experts and is perhaps THE most essential skill for rising up the ladder of increasing responsibility and achieving personal, professional, or organizational goals.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock ll Adam Radosavljevic

06/11/2026

"No matter what gets done
and how much is left undone, I am enough.
Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable
and sometimes afraid,
and that doesn't change the truth
that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging."
from the book Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, PhD, LMSW

06/04/2026

What's Clouding Your Vision?

I was coaching a client and feeling a little frustrated. I wanted to nudge him towards what I thought was an obvious solution. How could he not see that?

As a coach, it is not my role to determine the right action. That comes from the client. Yet every question I asked was tinged with judgment oriented towards the pathway I felt was the right one.

He said something I mentally considered out of line with my preconceived notion of what was 'right'--and my brow furrowed. He asked, "Did I say something wrong?" Thank goodness he was observant enough to recognize the furrowed brow for what it was--my filter!

I snapped back to reality. Here I was imposing my view of the 'way things are' onto him.

I apologized, "Hey, I got sidetracked by my own thoughts for a few minutes there. I have a bias towards risk-taking, and I was framing your issue in that context, which may be right for me but is totally unfair to you. So let's start over and explore it through your eyes, not through my filter."

Filters, based on our experiences and assumptions, can help us process information quickly. Until they are not. Until they bias us to the potential growth in the situation.

As a leader, it may be necessary to direct action from time to time, AND it almost always works better if your people come up with the best way it will work for them and also accomplish the desired end state.

How often do we let our filters w**d out possibilities?

How do you know your filter is kicking in? When you wall people in a 'box' of your own assumptions.

The antidote? Recognize the filter and put it aside. Let each interaction set its own tone and agenda.

Photo credit: JMaliszewski, 2015

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?

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Alexandria, VA

Telephone

+17034179411

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