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Kevin Nourse,
Ph.D., PCC
Kevin is an Executive Coach
with more than 20 years of
progressive coaching and
leadership development
experience. He focuses his
practice on building resilient
change leaders and teams.
Kevin is on the faculty of
Georgetown University’s
Certificate in Leadership
Coaching program and is
based in Washington, District of
Columbia, and Palm Springs,
California, USA.
Back on Track:
Helping Women Leaders Thrive
in the Face of Derailment
While significant progress has been made in recent years for women in
terms of advancement into management positions, fewer women are
advancing into and remaining in senior leadership roles. Often, women
leaders don’t receive the developmental support they need to effectively
manage the challenges they encounter as leaders. Our ongoing research
on derailment and resiliency indicates that coaching can play an
instrumental role in helping women leaders not just survive, but thrive,
when faced with potentially derailing work challenges.
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Coaching World
Lynn Schmidt,
Ph.D., ACC
Lynn is a talent management
leader with more than
20 years of leadership
development, succession
management and coaching
experience. Her research and
coaching focus on the issues
women leaders face and
how to overcome workplace
challenges. She is currrently
traveling the world while
writing a book on resiliency.
Career derailment occurs when an individual who was placed in leadership role in
an organization and judged to have the ability to be successful in this role is instead
perceived not to be capable. This perception can result in the leader being demoted,
fired, asked to resign or forced out of the organization. Career derailment can be a
challenging, painful and life-changing experience.
Resiliency is one of several potential outcomes of the coping process people use when
faced with adversity. Although resilient people bounce back from adversity, it does not
necessarily mean they were transformed by the experience.
Thriving involves growth beyond the pre-adversity baseline level of functioning and is
often a conscious choice people can make when faced with tough times.
Through our interviews with Executive Coaches, six strategies emerged that are critical
for helping women leaders first establish resiliency and ultimately thrive when faced
with career derailment: