“In the fall of 2013, we sought Susan’s help to facilitate our strategic business planning process. Our challenge was to identify and prioritize our business improvement initiatives and then effectively communicate our business plan and underlying business drivers to employees. Susan worked well with my management team to draw out our thinking and assumptions about our business and the challenges we were facing and to bring clarity to the recommended actions and resulting business plan. The final product allowed us to focus scarce resources onto the most important priorities and provided a platform to talk directly to employees about our business. I appreciated Susan’s gentle prodding as she challenged our team to push harder in a particular area, and her help in distilling the product for our employees. She is a very thoughtful facilitator who took the time to understand what we were trying to achieve and brought this sensitivity to her work with us. I would wholeheartedly recommend her to other clients.”

– Chief Operating Officer

“I have worked with Susan over the past 15 years in several roles. When a complex project requires planning, management and timely completion, Susan has been a “go to” resource. With a strategic mind and unique ability to see the required steps, Susan establishes a road map for success and builds supportive teams to get the work done. Susan understands the importance of a constructive organizational culture and the direct relationship between employee engagement, strategy execution and improved operational performance. We have achieved significant improvements in the development of our strategy, the engagement of our teams and overall results with Susan’s direct involvement.”

– Senior Vice President

“Susan brings a sense of purpose and determination to her clients and her projects. She is reliable and trustworthy and always does things in a very professional manner. She has a unique way with people and sets them at ease and instills trust. She is business like and competent, but she does this in a way that shows how much she cares about people. Susan has a very creative mind for figuring things out and the paperwork and reports she provides are very professional and attractive. Susan is sensible, loyal, compassionate, kind and has integrity. She also has a wickedly great laugh.”

– CEO

“I have worked with Susan for over a year and have learned how to better utilize my leadership style to benefit my employees, my company and my customers. Her insights and professional tools were instrumental in helping me adapt to essential style and communication changes while maximizing my personal strengths. I can truly say that Susan has coached me through a necessary journey that many are benefiting from. In parallel, I now have better ‘balance’ as a leader and enjoy my work much more.”

– VP, Customer Services

“It is with great pleasure that I can summarize my experience when with working with Susan. I called Susan in to help develop a more well rounded team and address some of the team dynamics and issues around trust and expectations during a time of leadership transition. Susan created a more neutral tone right off the bat and created a space where the team felt heard and that they could focus on the outcomes instead of the inertia. Susan met with the group collectively and individually, was always available and created fabulous reports that were shared with both the team and the leadership group to facilitate and enable positive change. The results were ongoing over a period of time and resulted in a much more communicative and collaborative team after the months she worked with us! Susan has an ability, in a calming way, to facilitate the dynamics and bring everyone back to the same point of focus. She creates trust at many levels and listens intently to the issues to create strong resolutions. I would absolutely use Susan again and would strongly recommend her services to any organization.”

– Executive Director of Operations

“If I were to choose one word to describe Susan, it would be visionary. She is extremely creative and has a strategic mind that can ’zoom out’ to see the big picture, detect the areas that need attention, and then ‘zoom back’ to put a plan into action. Susan is very forward thinking and an excellent problem solver. I’ve often heard of her referred to as brilliant because she is able to see solutions that no one else has considered. “

– Executive Director

“I am an executive for a large utility that manages a large business group of about 220 professionals. I have known Susan for a number of years and been part of a number of sessions that she has lead for senior leaders in my area of the business. Last year I hired Susan to do both an assessment of the current leadership culture in my business group and to facilitate a series of workshops to help us determine the direction we need to take to improve the culture to one that will help us be more effective at meeting our business goals. In gathering the material she needed for this purpose she worked closely with many people in the group to determine the state of the culture currently. During this time I worked closely with Susan in several ways. One component was to discuss both our philosophies in determining the right leadership principles for increasing effectiveness within this team. Another was in developing strategies for the sessions that we would undertake and finally I worked with her as part of the team sessions themselves. I found Susan to be highly effective and professional. She has an expert’s view of what organizational culture and leadership can do for an organization. She worked seamlessly with all the members of my team to help them realize the potential we all possess, and she very skillfully utilized the attributes of the people in the room to build a foundation for, and consensus toward the kind of organization that is effective and motivating to employees. Her results speak for themselves. This group was at or near the top of the company in terms of high employee engagement scores and the business group met all of its milestones and targets for the year after Susan’s involvement. I would not hesitate in hiring Susan again to work with this team and plan to do so. She worked very well with all the managers in my organization. On a personal note I learned much from Susan’s knowledge and skill that I will incorporate into my own work in the future. I found her to be highly engaging and positive, and a true pleasure to work with.”

– Vice President

“When I started working with Susan I had recently transitioned into my first senior executive role, and her coaching and guidance was invaluable in this time of transition for me. She helped my see my role from a higher perspective, she helped ground me in the role, and she provided insight on how to approach my new peers that were formerly my leaders. She was also instrumental in helping me relate to my reports and the senior executive staff from my new position and role. Over time Susan transitioned from an introductory executive coach into a coach and sounding board, which was a key value point at that time. I still value her insight and coaching to this day, and I pull from her coaching as I progress through my executive career.”

– Vice President, Sales & Marketing

“Susan Kleinschmidt is a professional executive coach and I recommend her to both start-up and seasoned companies alike. Her business acumen covers, but is not limited to, North America and Asia (Greater China) with experience in both corporate and government sectors. She’s helped me in my own start-up as well as working as a consultant with European and US companies, whether in Mainland China or at home in the U.S.”

– CEO

“It’s amazing that Susan’s learning curve is so quick! She can skim information really quickly and is then able to process it into a product – document, strategy, and general materials. Susan is empathetic, discreet and observant. I am always impressed with Susan’s ability to keep home and work ticking along – the ability to juggle it all and at the end walk out the door with matching handbag and scarf/shoes. Amazing!”

– Director of International Marketing

“Susan is a highly skilled facilitator and through the use of innovative tools and techniques, she is very effective in engaging senior managers across an organization to lead the development of strategic plans aligned with corporate objectives. She is dynamic, asks great questions and is able to help a management team get from ideas to concrete plans that are practical and make business sense. She has a penchant for learning and brings her insights and business strategy expertise to help her clients develop creative solutions. Susan is a strong motivator with exceptional coaching and people skills that enable her to bring people together to resolve issues, move forward and develop a common vision.”

– Senior Manager

“I had the pleasure of working with Susan Kleinschmidt over the course of a year-long executive coaching program. Susan was an amazing resource who provided great feedback and advice that spanned the business continuum. I would highly recommend Susan’s services. She was a tremendous coach and asset to me personally.”

– Vice President

“Susan created a culture of recognition, morale building, teamwork and excellent customer service in this branch and many other areas of the Ministry. Her attitude of support and encouragement encompasses all and enriches our workplace. Every idea gets heard; every effort is appreciated; every person matters. The result is a strong team that appreciates and supports each other, and a desire to excel at whatever we do.”

– Senior Research Officer

“Susan is a very unique individual. She shows a genuine concern for all, and all who come into contact with her leave as a better person. She is sincere, supportive, gracious, organized, optimistic. She provides great direction, is encouraging to all team members. She is warm, open-minded and welcoming.”

– Director, Contract Management