Warrenton, MO – Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the growing trends has been a shift from office-based work to either remote work or hybrid work. Our guest has been at the forefront when it comes to corporate leadership and this growing trend. This is the story of Jane Williams.

Jane Williams is an executive coach at FindYourFireCoach, where she works primarily with women IT executives taking on new leadership roles. Working across the United States, one of her main areas of focus is the hybrid work environment, where employees work both in an office and remotely.

“I coach mainly women to find their own success, and help them to communicate and be visible with an appropriate executive presence,” explains Jane. “This is primarily in a hybrid work environment.”

“We all have a different path, and we all have a different end result,” Jane corroborates. “I am not a fan of following strict models. Clients often don’t know what they want when they first come in. We often will work on something very different than what they first thought. It’s a matter of listening to what people are saying, without actually saying it.”

“A good executive coach is someone who understands what it takes to be a leader in the corporate environment,” summarizes Jane. “There are different types of corporations from start-ups to behemoths, but there are characteristics that are similar to all of them. They are leaders that know how to hire the right person for the right job, give them all the tools they need, and then trust them to do it.”

“In my opinion, a good business leader is tied into the strategy and goals of the business,” observes Jane. “That leader is able to translate those goals to the individual people who are making that business happen. Also assure the employee that their job matters. The leader is the tie between the employer and the board.”

Much of Jane’s experience comes from earning her double Masters in Business Administration and Information Science at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, and especially her career at IBM. Having commenced in 1997, IBM was already going global and remote with their business. “As long as you were an hour from an airport, that is where you worked,” recalls Jane. “I often worked from my laptop.”

“I also had to coach early on in my career,” adds Jane. “At IBM, I started off as an executive consultant in the services division, selling solutions to retail clients worldwide. I was then pulled into an entrepreneurial group within IBM. It was experimental for its time in that it would fund groups pursuing emerging technologies. It was very early on in the realm on e-commerce. Overall, it has been a very consulting-focused career. It was always global and remote.”

After twenty years of working at IBM, she retired and worked for another three years at her alma mater, University of Missouri-Saint Louis. She worked there as a Chief Information Officer. After retiring from that, she focused solely on independent consulting and coaching.

“I wanted help people learn from the lessons that I have learned,” Jane declares.

As for the future, Jane plans to offer more employee-focused coaching. “There needs to be accountability from both sides,” shares Jane.

“Don’t be afraid to take serious stock of what success means to you,” concludes Jane. “Define it in your own way by taking a holistic look at what it means to you. Then develop a plan to achieve that success. After, go out to hire a coach to help you develop that plan further, work through that plan, and then achieve the success that you defined.”

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