ABOUT CATHERINE ACH
Cathy Ach, MS, PCC, is a an Executive and Leadership Coach, as well as a Strategy and Change Consultant, with 30+ years of experience. She is passionate about collaborating with leaders and their teams to realize their full potential and perform at the highest possible level. She has devoted the majority of her career to helping leaders drive growth at the intersection of strategy, leadership and change.
Cathy is the Founder and President of Learning Paradigms, Inc., a firm she started in 2000 after working for three large companies over almost 20 years. In this role, she has partnered with many leaders to help them consider what's possible, define their desired future state and build their plan to turn vision into reality. Cathy is also a Certified Facilitator in Brene Brown's Dare to Leadª practices, and she delivers interactive keynotes and experiential workshops to help people become more conscious and courageous leaders.
Cathy has three adult children, lives just north of Chicago with her husband, and is passionate about traveling, giving back to her community and engaging in outdoor activities (including hiking, biking, power walking, skiing and playing pickleball).
Cathy, what has been your pathway into Executive Coaching?
After close to two decades in the corporate world, I established my own coaching and consulting firm in 2000 (under the name Learning Paradigms, Inc.). It was one of the most impulsive things I've ever done, but I have enjoyed the journey tremendously. For 12 of the last 25 years, I focused primarily on consulting with senior leaders in the areas of strategic planning, leadership development and organizational change. I did lots of executive coaching Ð alongside my consulting Ð during this time, but it wasn't until I came across Dr. Brene Brown's work in 2013 that I decided to become a fully-credentialed coach. To attend her national certification in the Daring Way, you had to be a licensed therapist or a certified coach, and I was neither one at the time. That was the impetus I needed to get my official coaching credential, and then to become a Professionally Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation.
What is your background and what qualified you to become an executive coach?
I got my BA in Psychology from Amherst College and then went on to get my MS in Learning & Organizational Change at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy. In between earning my two degrees, I worked in commercial lending at a major bank and then transitioned into Change Management at Andersen Consulting. While at Andersen, I figured out that I loved the interplay between business and psychology which led me further into my own consulting and coaching work. Consulting allows me to collaborate with leaders and their teams to help them solve mission-critical challenges, and coaching enables me to go deeper with individuals in creating the ÒunlockÓ that takes their performance to the next level.
What do you love most about coaching leaders?
I love creating trusting relationships with clients, getting to know them at a deeper level and then helping them unleash their full potential. To achieve this outcome, I frequently use a 360-degree assessment called the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP). This tool is built around the Universal Leadership Model, which enables us to understand our effectiveness in terms of underlying behavior patterns. I have applied this tool extensively in my coaching engagements, and it has generated the most significant and sustainable change with the greatest number of leaders over the longest period of time.
What has been your single greatest accomplishment as a business owner?
The thing I'm most proud is the impact I've had with my clients over the last 30+ years. Inspiring and enabling leaders to reach their highest level of performance has been the most fulfilling part of my career. Successfully running my own firm with this as my core purpose has been an amazing experience!
I'm also pleased to share that I released a book in April 2024 entitled Building Your Blueprint: The Leader's Playbook for Creating Strategy & Team Alignment. It maps out a four-phase approach, called the Strategic Blueprint Process (SBP), to help leaders and their teams think and plan more strategically. This HOW-TO guide is dedicated to my clients and filled with tips and tools designed to enable leaders Ñ at every level in an organization Ñ to set clear, long-term direction and develop an action plan for successful execution. With practice, many more leaders can become experts in this process.
