Intentional Design Inc.

Intentional Coaching is Coaching for Life

The summer I was 24, I lived in a beautiful, historic cabin deep in the forests of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. I drove farther into the woods each day to my job growing trees for the U.S. Forest Service. Then I applied to and was accepted at the Harvard Business School. When I was 25, my life went from one extreme to another as I started the MBA program at Harvard University and went from living in the High Sierra to living the high life in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Everything at Harvard was new to me. Frankly, I expected to see some pretty amazing things. But as weeks, months, and eventually years of my life went by, I came to see something quite different. I came to realize that, in many ways, the corporate environments I frequented in my new job as an organization development consultant lacked the profound aliveness I had known in the people and places I encountered while working for the Forest Service.

Observing and trying to understand people and places has been a significant part of my job as an organization development consultant. In time I felt I understood why industrial life feels less alive. Many if not most workplaces encourage us to express only a small part of who we are. In many workplaces, our minds are engaged while our emotions, bodies and spirits are suppressed or neglected, or even exploited. The loss of key parts of one's experience inevitably dims one's sense of aliveness and eventually erodes one's productivity as well. I came to see the main tools of organizational development as being the skillful reintroduction and engagement of these undervalued capabilities in order to regain lost aliveness and productivity.

What applies to organizations also applies to teams and individuals. If you want to experience and express more of your heart, body and spirit as well as your mind while becoming even more successful in your work, skillful personal coaching for yourself or your team can be of profound help. Periods of personal, organizational and even societal transition increase the stress on individuals and the value of support.

In the Intentional Coaching section of our website, we provide access to coaches who are aligned with Coaching for Life and with whom we have personally worked and found important value. We think you will find them helpful too.

Sharon J. Heringer
President, Intentional Design Inc.

Schedule Coaching for Life

You may schedule telephone sessions with our coaches directly through our site, using our online registration form. Each coach establishes his or her own schedule and fees, and these vary. If you need to reschedule or cancel, you may do so for all coaches up to 24 hours in advance of the appointment time and receive a full refund. Appointment cancellations within 24 hours will be charged a 50 percent cancellation fee, and the remaining 50 percent will be refunded.

If for any reason you are not fully satisfied with a session scheduled through our site, we offer a 100 percent refund of all fees for up to 30 days after the session or the start of your next appointment, whichever comes first. To request a refund, please send an email to mydesignteam@intentionaldesign.com.

Schedule and manage your coaching sessions on this page.