I was lucky when Lori was assigned as my executive coach. I was beginning my transition into the federal Senior Executive Service, and my 8 months close contact with Lori helped ease that transition. Lori learned my leadership 'styles' and worked to increase the 'tools in my toolkit' to deal with a 24/7 job where crises come fast and furious.
Based on our partnership successes, I also utilized her in some intensive work with my direct reports. Here we focused on:
- Leadership transitions,
- The strength of differences, and,
- Strategic planning
She set a tone of engagement, energy, and fun. All feedback was positive, and my team still uses the skills presented over the three day of training.
In coaching or in training, Lori is an excellent strategic partner with line executives. Her expertise in leadership development, coaching, strategic planning and facilitation is exceptional. She builds trust quickly and connects with anyone willing to learn, grow, and be challenged in a positive way.
As an executive in a fast paced industry for many years, Lori supported me in becoming more aware of how I was showing up as a leader in many areas. Something a simple as just taking time to clearly listen (from start to finish without interrupting) has helped tremendously. Actually, by listening attentively, and just limiting some response, many will answer their own question.
I have always taken a pride in knowing the business, and being outspoken, I have found that this approach keeps peers away, and intimidates them, and if they are approached, they may tend to be aggressive/defensive within an area of their expertise versus collaborative. This makes engaging in a discussion about business a challenge, and others just shut down. By improving my listening skills, the changes in working with others has been quite positive. Now I focus on communicating more openly, asking for their feedback/opinions, and valuing their input, rather than always being the lead and the spokesman.
Pratt & Whitney Engine Services, Service Center Satellite Network
"Lori is an outstanding HR professional. She is an exceptional coach, valued listener and proactive deliverer of top quality work. She is committed to the excellence of both the organization and the people that work in it. She always delivers top-notch work. She is a genuine kind and giving human person. She is a treasure to work for and with."
"Lori is a senior level HR executive who handled her role with poise, expertise and professionalism. Her solid business judgment was not compromised in any way by her enthusiastic and friendly nature which served to invite open discussion and candidness. You can share your real thinking and feeling with Lori with assurance of complete confidentiality. I would recommend Lori to any company seeking a senior HR executive who needs to advance the HR process in a deliberate, professional and effective way."
“Lori is an outstanding HR Executive and coach with the highest levels of integrity. She believes in the courage of convictions, and has a pragmatic style with a business focus. She understands the value of the the talent within an organization and their impact on the success of the business. Her insight and executive instincts are an asset to any executive looking to improve their leadership effectiveness.”
"We have engaged the services of Lori Ermi twice and were extremely pleased with her work. She was thorough and very effective from the planning and interviewing to the execution of the day's program. She helped our staff relax and engage in a fun and interactive environment that really helped our objective for the day. She is one of the finest and most effective facilitators of retreats and seminars I know."
“Lori’s coaching ability and skills have had a major impact on my ability to survive and continue growing in what has been one of the most tumultuous and challenging periods for me in my 25 year career. The safe environment she provided, the extremely useful books, articles and tools she recommended and the trust she quickly earned enabled me to honestly assess my strengths and weaknesses, hone the former and become more aware of the latter so that I could take the right steps in an extremely uncertain and unsupportive organizational situation. “
“Lori is a superb executive coach. She possesses passion and commitment to her clients to achieve their business objectives. The experience she brings around strategic alignment, communication, building effective teams and optimizing performance and execution to organizations make her a valuable resource to work with any organization or individual. ”