“The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open.”
—C. JoyBell C.
About
Services
What Infante Executive Leadership Offers
The hallmarks of a true leader are the ability to positively influence across all levels of an organization and to have accountability as the core of one’s purpose. A real leader is motivated by what he can accomplish through unwrapping and nurturing the talent of those around him. In so doing he leads towards accomplishment with courage and authenticity.
Sustainable team performance is based on trust in a leader, not fear of her. Her credibility comes from consistently challenging herself to be her best in service of those around her. Good working alignment comes from the leader’s ability to communicate clearly not just what she needs from her colleagues, but how she is going to support them in achieving their own untapped potential. In so doing, the leader needs not just her own vision, but the ability to think clearly through problem-solving, planning, communicating and inspiring those around her to become their best and carry the work beyond completion of the mere task at hand.
There is a well-understood organic network of skills and characteristics that are interdependent and which, when applied holistically, create a predictable environment for success. These are:
-understanding oneself (strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots),
-building open, trusting, communicative relationships and nurturing others (emotional intelligence),
-assessing and understanding one’s mental processes and how we arrive at making decisions (critical thinking),
-carrying ourselves with dignity, empathy and confidence (executive presence), and
-addressing issues, especially difficult ones, head-on with wisdom and grace (conflict management).
Through the use of assessment tools and in-depth personal assessment, a coach can help an executive improve all of these crucial skills. Nora will leave an executive with a much greater sense of self-awareness, self- control and clarity of what is specifically needed from her to reach her maximum positive impact in an organization.
A robust development coaching engagement should almost always include a qualitative 360 feedback process. Understanding how others around us at all levels experience and perceive us, despite all our best intentions, is critical to the level of authenticity and self-honesty required of a leader. The 360 process allows an executive to step back and view his performance from above; a crucial leadership trait in and of itself.
It is now well understood that women are as capable as men of being excellent leaders. Women leaders are no less driven, intelligent and innovative. In fact, studies demonstrate that women often possess more compassion and a greater overall ability to remain organized and mobilize when under pressure than do their male counterparts.
Yet, women often face unique challenges in rising in the ranks of leadership. Some of the challenges which routinely hinder women are: self-doubt, lack of both self-empowerment and empowerment from other women, marginalization and not being taken seriously.
You want a coach who understands these challenges first-hand and has experience helping women leaders develop to their full capacity. Through the coaching relationship women leaders gain confidence and an ability to authentically inspire others. In so doing, they become not just a positive influence on the organization, but a role model for empowerment of other women.
You are an executive who doesn’t need specific skills coaching. Nonetheless, from time to time every executive has the need for a confidant outside the organization. Nora can provide meaningful personal guidance for issues such as interpersonal dynamics, strategic thinking, as well as help to manage the many sources of stress inherent in high levels of responsibility and leadership.
Transitions are rarely easy, but always mark moments of great opportunity for personal growth and organizational change. Assuming a new role comes with excitement and anxiety. How an executive approaches her first 90 days on the job will have a lot to do with whether or not she succeeds in her new role. Role clarity and relationship building with key stakeholders are but two of the crucial strategies for getting it right out the gate. The quality of onboarding and integration offered by organizations is often inconsistent, superficial and does not adequately address the cultural nuances that the executive must navigate in order to succeed.
Onboarding coaching can be a critical factor in the success or failure of the transitioning executive. It offers a map of key factors involved in successfully integrating into a new role as well as the support to navigate the highs and lows of learning a new business terrain and developing new business relationships.
A business’ sustainability is not defined solely by its long-term profitability but rather by its positive impact on the world around it. An excellent leader must quickly develop an awareness of her legacy and must expand her strategic vision to encompass how she will influence the organization in order to achieve this end. Simply put, building a lasting legacy requires a leader to begin to think about his last day on the job on his first day on the job.
What will be the long-term impact of your leadership on your organization? Nora will guide the executive to realize that every decision, action, and interaction is a building block in constructing his professional legacy.
Often there comes a time in the life of the executive when he reaches the conclusion that change (whether it be role, career, or business environment) is both desirable and necessary. But is this conclusion grounded in reality or is it an emotional reaction to particular temporary circumstances? It is not uncommon for individuals to reach a point of questioning after a number of dedicated years in a job or profession. To an executive this quandary presents a time of enormous uncertainty.
The experienced coach will help the executive parse out the variables involved in determining whether or not a change, be it role, career, or business environment, is desirable and necessary.
The ability to manage stress is an important determinant as to whether a change is necessary. If in the course of the coaching relationship the executive concludes that change is essential, then Nora will help her explore more appropriate work roles, business environments or even career changes to better complement her life and skills. If necessary, Nora will accompany the executive through job searching, interview preparation, and reaching the right decision for her next professional move.
Hiring mistakes are expensive, but more seriously they are intensively disruptive to an organization. Best in class companies are increasingly relying on pre-hire assessments to gain insight into a candidate’s potential for success in the considered role. Too often, organizations have relied solely on a resume, recommendations and possibly internal contacts to make a critical decision in placing someone in a role of high impact. The risk is that they may soon discover behaviors, characteristics or values that are not compatible with the organization’s culture.
There are no quick fixes when determining whether to place an executive in a key position. A good hiring decision comes from a robust assessment and selection process that involves determining and clearly articulating what the demands and expectations of the role are and what behavioral qualities are imperative to achieve the stated role objectives.
The preferred approach is to evaluate promising applicants through a comprehensive assessment process conducted by a neutral, external professional. This process will utilize both informative assessment tools as well as in depth personal interviews.
Nora will then help a company understand the data she retrieved from the assessment she conducted in order to measure important characteristics related to personality, motivating factors, likely behaviors when under pressure, and overall leadership style. The objective is to hire right the first time.
Testimonials
“Nora helped me gain confidence in myself as a leader and my ability to inspire others. She coached and encouraged me to be myself, to not be afraid to have a voice, that it was ok to be the only woman in the room, and that I could succeed…. Nora is awesome, and her insights have been invaluable to me, both personally and professionally. She enabled me to see the underlying connections between multiple challenges that I was facing and apply practical, relevant approaches to resolving them.”
“Nora Infante was instrumental in advising me how to lead my team through a reorganization. She provided practical guidance in working with difficult employees, which resulted in a significant improvement in my people manager effectiveness scores. Nora advised me on navigating career alternatives to help me land in a strong position post-reorganization. Nora was accessible and very empathetic to both my personal and professional challenges, so I felt that I could trust her with sensitive information. I highly recommend Nora as a professional coach.”
“Nora's understanding of situational context and human factors that drive behavior is exceptional. She enabled me to see the underlying connections between multiple challenges that I was facing and apply practical, relevant approaches to resolving them. Thanks to my interactions with Nora, I have become a far more insightful, present, and effective leader. As a result, in two years working with her, I have transitioned successfully from a first level-manager of 15-person functional group to a Deputy Director overseeing a 350-person Value Stream organization.”
"Nora helped us immensely in identifying and working through a serious senior staff alignment issue. She is not your normal "corporate type"; rather she is disarmingly friendly and refreshingly down to earth enabling her to quickly win our trust and confidence. Then she helped us to work hard at identifying the issues and coached a small group of senior execs to recognize and close the gaps between what was needed for a cohesive organization and what we actually were doing. We found her emphasis on self-awareness and empowerment to be stimulating and refreshing. She is a real gem."
"I was a bundle of anxiety at a time when our business was not going well. I was reacting to things around me and my emotions were often out of control. My board suggested that I needed some coaching or it might need a new CEO. I was introduced to Nora and quickly developed a relationship with her in which I came to view her not only as a coach but as a trusted advisor. She helped me to understand what triggered my anxiety, get my emotions under control by recognizing the temporary nature of emotions and she helped me to develop a delayed thoughtful response mentality as opposed to a "ready, fire, aim" mentality. She also introduced me to the power of meditation as a tool for increasing my positive interactions with both my inner self and those around me. She got me through very difficult times and was always there for me."
"Nora Infante is a partner and confident with whom a client can establish a strong, supportive relationship. She has an intuition about people and circumstances that allows her to offer relevant and valuable guidance regarding how to handle difficult situations and how to handle difficult people. She is truly extraordinary!"
“Nora blends deep intellectual expertise with a practical approach and sense of humor that make her recommendations easier to absorb and apply. Even when I'm not in top form, I understand my patterns better and am more constructive in figuring out how to take the next step.”
“Nora Infante was my trusted advisor as I navigated through various organizational changes and professional challenges. She helped me develop a deeper understanding and awareness of myself and how I interact with others. She was also instrumental in helping me transition to different roles and responsibilities. Most importantly, she is a great confidant providing sage counsel professionally and personally.
She genuinely cares about me and was available whenever I needed her for strategic and tactical advise. I highly recommend Nora as a professional coach and, more importantly, a trusted advisor.”
Nora Infante's Extended Biography
Looking back on one’s career, it often appears that life’s journey from A-Z traveled in an intentionally chosen straight path. However, candid self-reflection leads everyone to recognize that careers and life histories unfold from a rich tapestry of circumstance, vision, hard work, and luck. My own professional path is certainly a testimony to that.
As a licensed psychologist, my expertise in the behavioral sciences has taken me everywhere from the courtroom (as a litigation consultant) to the boardroom (as a management consultant) with many unconventional but important stops in between. I’ve “served” as a cultural liaison in Russia with scientists and spiritual leaders, and in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico with the Lancandon Indians. I’ve worked throughout South America with senior executives of multi-national organizations helping with the cultural integrations necessary for successful cross-border acquisitions. I’ve traveled with a medical care team in Tanzania, Africa interviewing Massai elders, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. I learned the realities of real risk management through intensive Outward Bound leadership and survival training.
Early in my career as a psychologist I became intrigued by the important role resilience plays across the human life span. This interest along with my work with both elders and students at the University of Florida, resulted in my creating Freedom in Aging; a holistic model for achieving well-being throughout one’s life based on four essential “freedoms”: psychological, physical, social and spiritual. When applicable, I use this model as the foundation of my executive coaching work.
What gives one individual versus another the strength and motivation to change? How do we reach our maximum potential as organizational, family and social leaders? What skills do we need to develop, to hone, to perfect? What are the likely pitfalls and how do we overcome them?
In private practice I often consulted on legal cases where I worked with executives who found themselves in serious legal trouble. It was my role to help them develop insight into their actions and work with them to prevent further derailment of their professional and personal lives. While not the traditional entry to executive coaching, I came to realize it was exactly what I was doing: creating self-awareness, understanding the impact of behavior, identifying desired micro and macro objectives and developing an action plan to achieve and measure them.
My consultations remained focused on individuals until I joined a New York corporate consulting firm to do acquisition integration work in Latin America. I was born in Argentina and raised in Mexico and was therefore able to provide the necessary cross-cultural and bilingual skills. An effective cultural assessment and integration is crucial to the success of any merger or acquisition particularly cross-border transactions. In doing this work I guided clients to better appreciate the importance of identifying cultural issues, driving and integrating change, and expanding their diversity.
Over the course of the last fifteen years I have worked intensely with senior executives of Fortune 50-500 companies in, among others, financial services, banking, health care, life sciences, software development, education, hospitality, manufacturing and law. I have an abiding interest and a demonstrated proficiency in senior executive assessment for development and for hire, senior level executive coaching and integration. I have developed and implemented programs for senior team and high potential executive development as part of an overall management succession program, conducted Board effectiveness assessments, advised on CEO succession planning, all the while honing my skills at recognizing and examining the key factors and behaviors indispensable to successful leadership.
All along the way, I have kept returning to my original questions:
- what gives one individual versus another the strength and motivation to change;
- how does one reach his or her maximum potential as an organizational, family and social leader;
- what skills does one need to develop, to hone, to perfect; and
- what are our pitfalls and how do we overcome them?
My overarching goal is to help executives apply emotional intelligence, critical thinking and neuroscience to their professional and personal objectives. I understand first-hand the high pressures and ever increasing pace of change in the executive environment, and I understand the nuances of how psychology interfaces with behavioral change and leadership dynamics. These understandings provide me with the unique ability to assist executives in navigating senior, peer and subordinate relationships, while simultaneously developing their overall leadership capabilities. Strengths are easy to find and fun to polish, but superficial coaching often overlooks and avoids the pitfalls that come from poor behavior and blind spots. These pain points are the golden edge of leadership transformation and meaningful positive leadership impact.
At the end of the day we are all accountable to ourselves and those around us. We all want to feel we have done everything within our power to challenge our thinking and our behavior in order to take actions that are congruent with our values and deliver results for which we can be proud. It is my most fervent desire to help guide my clients on their most important journey.
Some Fun Facts
Just so you know...
Cities Lived In
Countries Worked In
Continents Visited
Oceans and Seas Swam In
Contact Information
Here's how you can contact Nora Infante
Our Address
- Greater New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey Area
- 1 (267) 521-2163
- Nora@NoraInfante.com