Chris Coffey

Chris Coffey's Key Accomplishments Include . . .
For more than 20 years, Chris has worked and lived in a PhD world. His doctoral colleagues have been superb learning guides. His journey in education has been notably different from theirs; his started with law school and the dramatic arts.

After graduating from Fairfield University in Connecticut with a BS in marketing, he did a stint in the U.S. Navy, worked at a variety of jobs including ski instructor, attended law school for a while, and generally followed the pursuits that allow young men to find themselves. With marriage, he settled down and set about becoming an actor in New York City. For six exciting years, he studied acting and directing and struggled to find his place in the legitimate theater.

In 1980, his career took an upward turn when he was called to Los Angeles to appear in his first feature film: A Change of Seasons with Bo Derek. While in Los Angeles, he appeared in several prominent guest roles on the television series Dallas, Colby, and Emerald Point and more feature films and television roles followed. In retrospect, his acting roles prepared him for his later work as a consultant and teacher in executive and management coaching.

In parallel with his acting career, he was working and learning at the Center for Leadership Studies, where he met Paul Hersey, Marshall Goldsmith, and Frank Wagner. That changed his life. His stage and movie experience proved extremely useful in teaching and presenting. He had found my calling and by 1984, was totally out of the acting business and fully engaged in consulting as a member of the prestigious Keilty, Goldsmith & Boone firm in LaJolla, California.   KGB was a pioneering leader in developing programs to teach Excellence in Management.   He began by leading Excellent Manager Workshops for middle managers and above at IBM, Warner Lambert, Citibank, Apple and other Fortune 500 companies.

Through the ensuing years, his life's work has become developing and leading workshops that range from 90 minute keynoted speaking engagements to 3-day workshops. The different workshops cover a wide range of subject matter but each pertains to leadership development and excellence focusing on "Helping Successful People Get Even Better".

More About Chris Coffey . . .
Through the years, learning, developing, and leading the following workshops as well as doing 1 to 3 hour keynoted addresses has been his passion and life's work.

Chris currently uses his talent and teaching experiences to effectively coach high-potential, senior-level managers, and executives. Since 1999 Chris has been one of the most utilized behavioral coaches for the Marshall Goldsmith Behavioral Change process with great results. Co authored with Marshall Goldsmith and Frank Wagner "The Coach's Playbook" and "Manager as Coach." John McLaughlin, best known for "The McLaughlin Group" TV series, was his homeroom teacher senior year in prep school. He told Chris he would use his talents as a teacher not as an attorney. Chris thought he was crazy. He now knows HE WAS RIGHT!

• Helping Successful People Get Even Better
• Leader as Coach
• Influence Without Authority
• The DNA of Teams
• The Excellent Manager

"My partner, Chris Coffey, is clearly one of the world's best speakers in the area of coaching. He provides a rare combination of being entertaining and dynamic while providing advice that is both practical and applicable. He is a person that I trust to lead the training process for our behavioral coaches!"

--Marshall Goldsmith, Co-author with Chris: "The Coach's PlayBook" and "The Leader as Coach"

"Chris has a clear, systematic, proven coaching process that he uses with his clients. He sets clear expectations, draws on ALL experiences and resources to help his clients improve on the single development goal that matters, and builds the internal team interactions necessary for his clients to receive on-going support and course correction. Chris is disciplined and focused on how he applies the process, works to continuously improve it, and is very generous in his willingness to share and teach others in applying it."

-- Elizabeth Shen, Human Resources Manager, Instruments Business, Communications Solutions Group, Agilent Technologies

"Executive coaching is a field ripe with more wanna be's and pretenders than contenders. Chris Coffey is the real deal."

--Mark Goulston, "Executive Edge" columnist, FAST COMPANY

" I have worked with Chris Coffey in the Goldsmith year-long coaching process in the past year. I have found the process to be very beneficial. His support has been invaluable to me in my efforts to continue to grow my management skills and career. His candor and practical advice for how to best communicate with senior management has been particularly helpful. My goal was to use the situational leadership model with an eye towards delegating more to my staff."

--Daniel Mudgett, Amgen, Inc.

"In my experience, audiences – whether they be attending a Conference Board meeting or are an intact team - - respond best to a speaker who is enthusiastic.  Chris Coffey is about the most enthusiastic presenter you will ever encounter.  He is a subject matter expert who is also entertaining as a story teller and quick on his feet with answers to even tough questions.  He is provocative and truthful about what he thinks and knows and admits what he does not.  In other words, Chris Coffey is what audiences truly appreciate -- he is authentic."

--Susan Diamond, Chief Learning Officer/Vice President,
The Womens Presidents' Organization
Program Director-Seminar On Executive Coaching, The Conference Board