Every day, Angie Thompson is inspired by the courage of others. A leadership coach at Vision Coaching with a long and accomplished record as a human resources executive, Angie admires the willingness of people to confront their fears, anxieties, work issues and personal problems to become better versions of themselves.
She’s had to do it herself, and is thankful for the insights from others that have empowered her in work and life.
Today, she sees her role as helping leaders learn how to empower others.
“As a leader, you need to recognize how you can share with other people in a way that they can hear it,” Angie says. “And coaching is what helps people discover those things for themselves.”
Earlier in her career, Angie worked as the chief people officer for a financial services company in downtown Toronto – responsible for not just human resources but marketing and communications, business continuity, learning and development, payroll and more.
She saw herself as always wanting to dive in and take more on. Although she was amassing more and more responsibility and performed well, she still felt restless.
She wondered, “Is this what I want to do with my life?”
‘As a leader, you need to recognize how you can share with other people in a way that they can hear it. And coaching is what helps people discover those things for themselves.’
She had friends that had ventured into leadership coaching and were excited by their pursuit. She did her own research and before long enrolled herself into the graduate certificate program in executive coaching at Royal Roads University.
That’s when I met Angie – we were classmates together at Royal Roads. As Vision Coaching celebrates 15 years in business, I couldn’t be more delighted that Angie has been with us from the very beginning.
Rewarding experiences
She’s a remarkably kind and thoughtful person, highly intuitive and incisive in understanding others – traits that make her an excellent coach.
Angie has shared with me how she finds reward in helping leaders set a foundation for what they want for themselves.
“It doesn’t have to be, ‘I want to own a Maserati or I wanna be the CEO’ though some of them certainly do. Some of them also say, ‘I want to be seen as a good human being and I want to be seen as somebody who can lead my team and provide the best for my organization.’
“They’re not all necessarily lofty goals, but they’re goals that they really can go home and feel good about themselves every day.”
She often likes to talk with clients about their favourite jobs, and what made those rewarding experiences.
“And then you can draw on those experiences and help them see how those life experiences can make them better leaders for where they are today.”
For Angie’s bio, visit the Vision Coaching website.