Helping A Generation Seek A Healthier Future - Exclusive Interview With Linda Allen-Hardisty
Updated: Apr 3, 2022
Linda Allen-Hardisty, is a leader in executive coaching, emotional intelligence and leadership team performance. After her own corporate leadership experiences left her full of curiosity about development, Linda discovered strategies to dramatically strengthen leaders and their teams. She has since dedicated her professional practice to coaching leaders in the C-suite and on leadership teams to do the inner work of achieving tremendous results. She is President and Founder of Allen-Hardisty Leadership Group, the executive leadership development firm with clients across Canada. Her clients include industries of oil and gas, utilities, aviation, universities, crown corporations, Indigenous business, agri-value, and more. Linda is a lead facilitator in the Organizational Development Program at Queens University IRC, Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation, a keynote speaker and author on emotionally effective leadership, and a national award winner. Her mission: Spark new insights in each coaching conversation.
Linda Allen-Hardisty, Certified Executive Leadership Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
My name is Linda Allen Hardisty. I am a certified executive leadership coach and a certified teams coach with a deep background in organizational development. I am passionate about human capacity and capability.
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada, with my husband and Irish Wolfhound. For over 20 years, we have always had an Irish Wolfhound or two in our home, which keeps me committed to daily outdoor walks regardless of the weather extremes here in the Canadian prairies! Dog walking has always been my daily mindfulness practice to reflect and refresh. I am the proud auntie of a nephew and 6 six nieces.
My hobbies are playing tennis in the summer and travelling to warm destinations to scuba dive during the winter. I enjoy watching CFL and NFL games including travelling to watch live games. I give back to my community by being a board member, and currently, I am a member of the Board of Trustees for our public art gallery.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
Allen Hardisty Leadership Group is the company I founded in 2010, and I evolved my niche and focus to stay relevant to today’s leaders. I collaborate with other coaches and consultants on leadership projects too. My clients are CEOs, executives, leadership teams, and boards of directors. I help my clients by partnering with them to move forward usually with a challenge or opportunity. Because meaningful change happens on the inside and works its way out, my coaching contracts are at least 6 or more months. There are many reasons why leaders come to coaching and/or reengage for more coaching with me: They are moving into a higher-level leadership role; They are “stuck” and want to figure it out; or simply for ongoing leadership development to strengthen their skills and to learn more about their potential. The pandemic indeed increased the number of leaders I coach, and they realize that the loneliness of leadership required them to use coaching to think, experiment, act and reflect in a conversation where they can be vulnerable without judgement.
Interestingly, some leaders like the fact that I have held internal leadership roles too, so they see value in that I have walked the walk like a leader, and that I have participated in executive search processes as a candidate too. Coaching doesn’t require such experience however some clients see that as instant credibility before they get into a conversation with someone to explore openly the realities of leadership.
I also am a lead facilitator with Queens University IRC in the Organizational Development Program, and I am a contributor to Forbes Coaches Council.
What are your current goals for your business?
My goals are to expand my client reach outside of my province, and I am on track to meet that goal as I now work in all of our western Canadian provinces. Being a facilitator at the Queens University IRC provides me with the opportunity to facilitate programs for professionals across Canada and internationally as the IRC has an exceptional brand reputation for practical and future-focused learned experiences for the busy professional in organizational development and human resources management. My eye is now on international exposure to coaching clients.
What is your work inspired by?
Overall I can honestly say that my work is inspired by the leaders I coach who constantly do the heavy work of self-reflection and growth and they trust to bring me along on their journey as their coach. However, the roots of my inspiration can be traced back to my first mentor, Cony. She hired me while I was in university to be a live-in nanny for her son while she and her husband travelled for work. She would often ask me during my challenges the most brilliant question: “What’s the learning here, Linda?”. No judgement and full of possibilities. What she gave me was the foundation to realize how much human capacity and capability I truly had. This is why I coach. Thank you, Cony, for influencing me to find my passion and true place of contribution to our society. Interestingly, I never understand her profession then, but wow, do I ever now! She was a change management consultant and coach. Sometimes the universe just knows.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
For the professional coaching industry, the change I regularly speak about is the critical importance of clients’ awareness to hire coaches with a professional designation. For me, that is with the International Coaching Federation ICF where I hold a PCC designation of Professional Certified Coach, and there is also the EMCC body in Europe. I am working towards earning my MCC Master Certified Coach that requires 200 hours of coach-specific training; 10 hours of mentoring; 2,500 hours of coaching experience, and a performance evaluation. The designation is evidence that I have demonstrated the coaching competencies observed by an external body, which really define the work of this industry. My rationale: You wouldn’t hire an architect or see a physician or work with a lawyer who didn’t have their professional training and designation, so why would you hire a professional coach without one? Clients deserve to work with trained professionals because they are working on their most precious “project”: Themselves.
