In today’s interview, Mystic Mag is talking with Laura Prisc, a seasoned coach and strategic thinking partner dedicated to helping individuals and organizations navigate transitions with clarity and confidence. With a background in corporate communications and leadership development, she blends coaching, mentoring, and facilitation to empower her clients in discovering their strengths, overcoming burnout, and aligning with their purpose. In this conversation, Laura shares insights into her journey, strategies for fostering growth, and the impact of values-driven leadership.
What inspired you to become a coach and strategic thinking partner, and how has your journey shaped your approach to helping clients navigate transitions?
I’ve known since I was very young that there was a lot going on in this life than what appears to be happening on the surface. I couldn’t clearly articulate to you then what it was, I just knew it was true. Also from a young age, I was an active “natural” communicator – it came easily to me. So, when it was time to consider ‘get a job or go to college,’ I knew college was the way to change the course of my life, and I chose to study Communication.
Through the early parts of my career, I had opportunities to try a lot of different kinds of communication, and eventually landed – very firmly – in the work of corporate communications with my primary focus being on internal communication – between leadership and employees. What I learned fairly quickly was that although the leaders with whom I worked were very smart in their technical area of expertise, many of them were not so skilled when it came to engaging and communicating with their teams and the employees working under them.
That started my path of working to help them become better communicators, to understand the people they are striving to lead, and to create real connections so teams and organizations could truly begin to work together towards whatever the common goal was. I studied change management and leadership and conflict and teambuilding, and I put into practice what I was learning and worked to teach those around me how to use these ideas, skills, and tools, as well.
Eventually, I realized I had spent enough time doing the work of corporate communication in a formal way – as the owner of that function in a company – and I started looking for opportunities to shift full time into people development. I met some people who pointed me in the direction of an official coaching program, and very soon after, I started my own business: Leadership & Life Potential, LLC, and was able to leave my day job after about 18 months of doing both.
I’ve continued my own growth journey and everything I’ve learned that I needed for myself flows through me in my work with the people I get to collaborate with. I call what I do Strategic Counsel, because it’s a blend of coaching, mentoring, teaching, advising, and facilitating. My role shifts based on what each client is working through in the moment.
How do you help individuals and organizations clarify their path forward when facing uncertainty or challenging decisions?
While we may like to think we know what’s going on and there’s certainty in our lives and work, we all know that life as we know it can change in an instant… Truly, the only constant in the universe is change!
My work is centered on the belief that each one of us is creative, resourceful, and whole; we have everything we need to co-create the lives we want to live. But we’ve accumulated a lot of baggage along the way – values, thoughts, beliefs, ideas, frameworks, constraints – that don’t really serve us long term. I slow people down to really think about where they are in life and where they’d like to be in their next season. Then we talk through how they got here, and what they would like to change. I help them see themselves clearly – their styles, approaches, preferences, Strengths… and then we work on how to use what they know to become that next best version of themselves.
When we are clear about what truly matters most to us in life, it’s a lot easier to make decisions when faced with adversity or a significant transition point. We have to be able to let go of the expectations of others and society and move in the direction of our future.
Can you share examples of how your work has driven meaningful change in areas like revenue growth, employee retention, or job satisfaction?
This is always “the” question, isn’t it? We want to be able to quantify everything, to prove with numbers that something worked, was valid, or had power. I leave those statistical analyses to my clients, as they are the ones who can measure those things in their business numbers. I’m more concerned with the quality of the work.
I remember the General Manager (think ‘site president’) of a Toyota Manufacturing facility I worked with over the course of several years telling me she knew the accountants wanted to be able to measure the effects of my work that way, but she understood that if each of the people with whom I worked walked away with a new understanding about themselves and their work, a new perspective on an issue, a new way of thinking about and leading their teams, then the work would be successful because they would be changed. And when you change a person, you change the world.
Through client feedback, I can tell you my work facilitates healthier, more collaborative teams; improved communication and conflict resolution; higher levels of personal accountability; more emotionally intelligent people and leaders. This kind of information is available on my LinkedIn profile (Recommendations).
And to be fully transparent, a number of individuals with whom I’ve done some really deep coaching work have actually left the positions (and sometimes the company) they held at the time because they realized they were in the wrong place, doing the wrong work. They went on to start their own companies, went back to school to learn something new, or found a position or company that was a better fit for them. That might sound like a negative outcome, but it’s actually better for all involved – when someone isn’t a good fit for whatever reason, it’s better for them to find a better fit elsewhere.
How do you assist clients in identifying and leveraging their individual strengths to overcome burnout and align with their “realm of brilliance”?
I consistently use a couple of assessments to help my clients see themselves more clearly. First, I use the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, which answers the following questions: How do you get energy and recharge your battery? How do you take in information? How do you make decisions? How do you think about time and schedule or organize your life and work? The answers to those questions have a lot of bearing on the type of work, position, and conditions under which a person will thrive, or not.
My second favorite tool is the Clifton StrengthsFinder. It allows a person to see, understand, and articulate the unique combination of strengths they’ve built that allow them to offer unique contribution and value to a team or organization. People are far more effective, satisfied, and valuable when an organization can allow them to operate in their realm of brilliance – their natural strength zone – more often. It’s ridiculous when people or organizations tell and employee to “fix your weakness,” as if that’s a quick and easy thing!
No one person is equally brilliant or skilled at all things! Telling someone to fix a weakness is a waste of time and energy, and significantly damaging to morale and performance. If we can put people in positions that call on their dominant strengths most of the time, then build in tools, systems, and collaborative partnerships, we can build well rounded teams that have all the bases covered, so to speak… Rather than making people less than they are capable of being.
People working in their strengths zones more often are measurably more productive, efficient, satisfied, motivated, and engaged. There’s a measurable impact here for the company.
What strategies do you use to help leaders nurture their teams and align organizational growth with core values and long-term goals?
First, it’s crucial that an organization has clear values – and not just words on a wall, but real values that are evident and obvious in the way the company operates and how people treat each other, regardless of position. Values are the foundation for organizational culture – the very fabric of who the organization is, what they stand for, how they do business, how they communicate and treat people, how they celebrate and how they work through conflict. And those values need to resonate with the personal values held by the people who choose to work there. I could tell several personal stories of leaving jobs because it became clear to me my values weren’t in alignment with the leadership of a company, and I wasn’t willing to compromise my integrity to keep getting a paycheck!
Building and nurturing teams begins with actual relationship building. This means getting to know the people on your team… who they are, where they came from, what they value, what they believe about the nature of life and work, what lights them up and what shuts them down, what strengths they have to offer, what they want to learn, and what they need from their leaders. Understanding these things makes it ever so much easier to ensure individuals are in the right positions and the distribution of work makes sense in actual practice, not just because it might look good in a job description or on an org chart!
Clear communication is crucial. As Brené Brown would say, “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” Leaders need to be explicit about expectations, check for understanding, learn to listen, remove obstacles and provide training and resources, and help their people grow into whatever they desire to become.
And it’s equally crucial that leaders are in the process of growing themselves along the way, as well. Change is constant and learning is a lifelong process. Part of leadership is modeling what you hope to see your people doing.
Finally, there is no one perfect leadership approach or style, no one perfect personality or Strengths profile. There is only yours and how you choose to embody it to lead yourself and others. It’s always a good decision to invest in your personal and professional growth, and growing your Emotional Intelligence is far more valuable than adding more technical expertise. You may be the smartest person in the room, but if you aren’t able to engage with and navigate relationships with people – which is how work gets done – you won’t get far.
Every single one of us would benefit from working with a coach. It’s important you find one who is a good fit for you – someone who will help you truly see who you are and how you are helping yourself succeed or how you may be holding yourself back, and someone who will challenge your thinking along the way. And it’s important that your coach has a coach for their own growth; don’t be afraid to ask who they are working with and learning from.
Finally, I believe each one of us is the author of our story and the driver of our life. If we don’t intentionally, thoughtfully own these roles, we will blindly follow what someone else thinks we should be doing, and I guarantee you – it’s not usually the places you will thrive. When you take control, you can write a different plot line if you don’t like the story you’re living. You can write new characters in and take old characters out. You can drive the course of your life and work to a place you find satisfying. And if you feel stuck and unsure how to break out of your current situation, find a skilled coach to lead you through it!
