“No matter what the organization, there is something to be said about having your own coach who you know is supporting you. Coaching provides me a confidential space where I can deeply reflect on the challenges I face without feeling judged. Moving things forward in my life is critical to my success as an entrepreneur and a leader. I want to be my best self, not only for myself but for those who I lead and for those I love.”
Team of Greats is a coaching and development company driven by a deep commitment to empowering leaders and professionals to reach their fullest potential in today’s complex world. We serve executives, financial leaders, accountants, IT leaders, healthcare executives, physicians, nurse leaders, small business owners, and teams.
Our mission is clear: we are here to help professionals not only succeed but also lead meaningful, fulfilled lives that resonate with their personal values. Through innovative coaching and development programs like our trademarked Cultivating Leadership Course, Team of Greats is committed to advancing resilient, thriving leadership that makes a lasting impact.
Are you a professional with ADHD or ADHD-like characteristics, feeling overwhelmed by your never-ending to-do list? Struggling to find time for clarity, reflection, strategy development, and cultivating resilience? Coaching offers the dedicated space you need to thrive in today’s demanding world. Discover how coaching can transform your productivity and focus, helping you achieve your goals with greater confidence and clarity.
The demands of working in healthcare are relentless, with a fast-paced environment, long hours, and immense responsibility. Coaching offers a much-needed intentional pause, providing a space to talk and be truly heard. Through these conversations, your coach highlights recurring themes, unveiling new perspectives and possibilities. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare, we understand your challenges and are here to help you navigate them.
Unlock your potential with our one-on-one and team coaching services, designed for key leaders committed to organizational excellence. We inspire action and drive success by facilitating insights through meaningful dialogue. Our coaching provides guiding principles for effective oversight, employee engagement, and team alignment. Transform your leadership approach and achieve organizational excellence with our coaching solutions.
In a world that often demands more than we can give, finding a harmonious balance between work and life is essential for overall well-being. Coaching in this area can help individuals identify their priorities, set realistic boundaries, and develop strategies to manage stress and time effectively. By understanding the root causes of work-life imbalance and implementing practical solutions, clients can cultivate a more fulfilling and sustainable lifestyle.
*2009 ICF Global Coaching Study
“I really enjoy working with Audrey!! I will definitely recommend the coaching service to my ADHD friends and others who are interested in professional and leadership development!!” – W.L. | 5 Star Google Review
“Audrey is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with. Audrey has coached me for the last year with my business. She not only helps me as a business coach in healthcare, but we work on various barriers to getting my work done, including ADHD. Audrey is consistent, has integrity, and goes above and…
“I cannot say enough positive things about Team of Greats. Audrey provides a calm, grounded presence and allowed me to gain great insight into navigating challenges. She has a ton of cool tools in her toolbox that she shared with me and that I found profoundly helpful.” – L.H. | 5 Star Google Review
“Audrey is an amazing coach! She’s empathetic, non-judgmental, and curious, and created a wonderful coaching space for me to make sense of my varied goals and obstacles and find a way forward in spite of whatever life is throwing my way. Highly recommend!” – A.G. | 5 Star Google Review
“The MBSR class has taken me to a deeper level of understanding and appreciation for meditation as a self-care tool in my toolbox. Audrey’s gentle and kind approach made the course, comforting, supportive and welcoming. Each week progressed and gave me something to look forward to on a regular basis. If you’re looking to become…
“Working with Audrey has been such a pleasure and an opportunity to make waves in mental health. She is an absolute professional, extremely collaborative, and a problem solver! They say teamwork makes the dream work, and having Audrey on your team is definitely a win!” – K.N. 5 Star Google Review
Lyle J. Tard Lyle is a dedicated Life and Master Mental Health Coach with a rich background as a U.S. Air Force Training and Development Specialist. After retiring from over two decades of distinguished military service, he earned a certificate in Health and Wellness Coaching from Georgetown University and became a Board-Certified Master Mental Health…
Audrey A. Simmons MBA, MS, BSN, RN, PMH-BC | Coach & Founder – Audrey Simmons is an award-winning educator and leadership coach who values service, excellence and connection. She is passionate about people, leadership, successful businesses and representing the ADHD population. Delivering thought-provoking presentations, she is able to connect with audiences, inviting them to reconsider their perspectives and strategies. Audrey is also a leadership coach and the owner of Team of Greats, a company dedicated to working with entrepreneurs and leaders, including those with ADHD, as well as newly promoted healthcare leaders.
“Serving others prepares you to lead others.” Jim George There is a crisis of leadership: an example is given in a study made by the Davos Economic Forum in which 86% of respondents said the world lacks the leaders needed to tackle today’s challenges. Leadership is not just about instilling authority and respect but about serving others…
With any new technique or skill, you must prepare your mind and body for change, by enduring a bit of discomfort, allowing self-patience, and adding in a dose of humility. The MBSR course is a great way to focus on self – reduce stress, be more in touch with your body and your thoughts and…
Meeting deadlines can cause induce anxiety, insomnia and even paralysis for those with an ADHD brain. Managing deadlines can be particularly challenging for individuals with ADHD, but there are effective strategies that can help improve time management and productivity. What are some steps you can take to take on a deadline without fear and anxiety…
I was teaching how to create a winning culture in a course I had previously made. In that training, I discussed Simon Sinek’s breakdown of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6. I won’t reteach the material in this article, but to familiarize yourself, check out this video I reference in the course. When you Lose Trust…
Have you ever gone on vacation only to never have actually gotten there? Your body made it. But your mind is still at the office. Vacation is an evidence-based intervention to decrease stress, improve your immune system, and boost creativity. There are many studies showing the positive effects: So what is preventing U.S. workers from…
The Impact of Language on Your Reality I Am So Busy New words immediately increase resilience because language impacts our experience. Language does more than just convey information; it shapes our reality. Language choice is powerful. How we talk to our colleagues, team members, and customers matters. Do you know who else it matters to? …
Stress reduction is a money-making business. In fact, “the average American was found to spend $960 annually directly on trying to feel less stressed.” (New York Post). That equates to billions of dollars per year for those selling self-help books, videos, instructional classes, calming accessories, and now even apps – all with flashy commercial promises…
Procrastination is causing you to lose focus. You are not alone. Many of us struggle with procrastination. We face the uncomfortable truth of knowing what we must get done and yet instead of focusing on the very thing that will get us out of the office on time, we lose focus. Suddenly, we find ourselves…
As a leader, it might be time to look at what your team can stop doing this upcoming quarter. Start by listening to what is frustrating your team the most. What your team identifies as a barrier could give you great insight into what processes need to be improved or stopped all together. We can…
Work/life balance, setting boundaries, being successful, none of this can be accomplished until you are willing to pause and take a look at how you are living your life. Looking at the way you have your life set-up and honestly assessing whether or not your needs are actually being met is critical. Managing ourselves requires…
“I need to work on my boundaries with others”. That sentence in and of itself requires one to bring a gentle curiosity to the conversation.
Leaders can become frustrated at their own reluctance to pivot perhaps due to the misunderstanding that the decision to pivot could look like they “don’t know what they are doing”. Some leaders may even think that if they change their minds somehow, they are not being their word, leading some to interpret themselves as having an integrity issue, further compounding the emotions triggered.
The evidence is clear. Humility gets results. And though our society seems to be attached to the idea of the all-knowing leader, evidence shows that the advantage goes to the leader who embodies humility. Humility is a powerful mindset. Humility is not about being silent or meek. Humility is not about thinking less of yourself,…
The thought of giving feedback to one’s direct supervisor can cause many of us to feel ill. We worry that if the conversation doesn’t go well, it could permanently damage the relationship we have with our boss. We may even worry that the outcome of the conversation might have a direct result on any future…
Feeling overwhelmed is an awful experience. Knowing there is so much to accomplish. Not feeling like you have the energy to complete the tasks. Glancing at the clock just enough to feel the pressure of time passing. The felt experience of anxiety that often comes with feeling overwhelmed is stressful. What causes overwhelm? There are…
Long hours, economic pressures, and intense competition can grind down anyone’s resilience. Being a leader or entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. To be successful, it takes surrounding oneself with the right people and the right support. Since the 1970s, life and leadership coaching has been offered to executives within organizations. This makes…
The world we live in is fast, loud and relentless. We get caught up in the frenetic energy of interruptions, meetings, emails, phone calls, etc. The seduction of getting things done can be addictive. However if you want to live a life well lived, you are going to need to figure out how to recognize…
As a leader and entrepreneur, there are always lots of things going on. At times the never-ending to-do list or approaching deadlines can become overwhelming. If you have ADHD, you also might have the frequent experience of having two thoughts simultaneously, leaving you going to the left and the right, unclear of what to do…
It’s the end of the day. You still have so much to do. You have accomplished a lot, but looking at your to-do list, it feels like you should have been able to accomplish more. You have to approve the ad campaign marketing a new service. You have a class to attend tonight. You need…
Living a balanced life as an entrepreneur or a leader takes intentionality. Without a commitment to your values, life insidiously becomes unrecognizable. Microstress seems to play a factor in how our lives seem to drift off course right before our eyes. The term microstress can be misleading. While the specific stress is minor, the long-term…
Hyperfocus is not the same as being in the flow. Being in a state of flow doesn’t carry health risks, while hyperfocus can. Being in a state of flow (aka “in the zone”) is defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as, “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake” (Geirland, 1996, para. 2) (Seligman &…
There are benefits to the leader and to the team when a leader has vulnerability confidence.
As entrepreneurs and leaders, we want and pay for guidance. So why is it still so hard for us to implement the advice given to us?
There are benefits to the leader and to the team when a leader has vulnerability confidence.
Coaching is beneficial when it comes to addressing imposter syndrome, burnout, indecision around career opportunities, improving communication skills, improving self-leadership, and creating boundaries.
Getting stuck believing “there isn’t enough” has a high price tag, causing us to behave in ways that hinder our own success. This mentality triggers a stress response in our brains, preventing us from accessing our best selves. Stress responses can cause us to ruminate, become blind to alternative possibilities and lose perspective. We begin…
There is what people think leadership is, and then there is what leadership is. An aspect of leadership that often surprises us is the amount of repetition involved with casting a vision, communicating our values, and clarifying the strategic plan. We often find ourselves bored with our own message, longing to switch it up and…
It’s interesting to think about what makes canceling on ourselves so easy. These internal commitments we make to ourselves. Leaving on time, working out, eating differently, drinking more water…these small but life-changing agreements. Life-changing because, with consistency, these sorts of commitments improve the quality of our lives; literally, life-enhancing. And then there are the external…
We don’t celebrate our victories as often as we should, and because of this, we leave a lot of valuable information on the table. Many organizational cultures today tend to do deep dives into poor outcomes, which makes sense. We want to know how things went wrong and what we can do to change our…
Making good decisions takes a multi-faceted approach. It requires self-awareness, humility, patience, and the ability to make a timely decision. Leadership requires us to set aside our preconceived notions to consider and accept we do not have all the information we will need to make a decision, nor will all the information we are given…
Imposter syndrome is getting in the way of many professionals, resulting in anxiety, depression, and burnout. Imposter syndrome is described as accomplished individuals who, despite their objective successes, fail to internalize their successes and have persistent negative self-talk, anxiety, and fear of being exposed as a fraud (Kolligan and Sternberg). These individuals believe they have…
What is your ROI for attending a course to learn about mindfulness? Let’s start by noting that not all mindfulness courses are created the same. The Mindfulness-based stress reduction course, known as MBSR, is the most well-researched mindfulness program in the world. You learn new skills for self-regulation of stress and symptoms in areas such…
The ADHD leader is an asset to your organization. We, ADHD leaders, thrive in intense, unpredictable, innovative, fast-paced environments. We see connections where others may not, and we make those connections fast. We don’t panic when faced with risk; we are often comfortable in situations where critical decisions are made moment by moment. We under-react,…
Our emotions and behaviors are connected to the thoughts we have. It may not feel like this is true because our emotions show up so fast we may not feel we can identify the thought we had before the emotions we experience. Because of ADHD, we experience our emotions intensely, whether towards others or ourselves.…
The first week of the new year is such a great week. It holds such possibility. Us high-performers love our lists. We have a list of actions, experiences, ways of being we want to embrace this year. Great! What we may not have realized is that this very week we will have a great opportunity…
2023 It’s a new year. I find myself contemplating a question my coach asked me the other day. “What experience do you want to have next?” It is such a great question. Instead of what do you want to do or achieve, the question focuses on what you want to experience which also invites one…
Delaying anything to a future time. Counting on our future selves to pull us to success; and when that plan doesn’t work. Who suffers other than us? People that shouldn’t. Here are some ways to beat procrastination: When procrastination happens, remember this, the only way out is through; or perhaps Winston Churchill said it best,…
There seems to be a cyclic nature to simplifying life. You decide you are going to restructure your calendar or reorganize your closet. Declaring this is the new way things are going to be! And they are at least for a while. And then insidiously, complexity is back, and your closet is a mess again. …
Inaction paralysis is not analysis paralysis. Analysis paralysis occurs when you overthink a decision and this over-thinking keeps you from making a decision. You are paralyzed. You have looked at all of the options. You can’t decide. You feel anxious. You don’t want to make the wrong decision. This experience can show up in the…
What’s the key to breaking your paralysis? Just do one thing. Take one step, no matter how small, towards your goal.
Branding takes time. To better understand branding, think of it as your reputation. Who do people know you to be? What do people expect from you? What can people count on you for? If you don’t like the answer to these questions, know this, you are the only one who can change it. Our reputations…
Change takes longer than we want it to take. Often times in between where we want to be and where we are, when there is no more action to take or when there are so many items listed on the to-do list to take action on…we can become impatient with ourselves and with others. We…
We all need fences. It’s weird how there are moments we know we need something…a nap…a moment…a drink of water…peace…alone time…time together… And yet we don’t tell people what we need. Instead, we act it out. Playing a game of charades, exhausting all involved. Oddly enough, once frustrated, many of us have no problem telling…
Do you want to be productive? Of course, you do. Here is something you may resist; taking a break is productive. I know your inner critic is saying, “No, no, it’s not, keep working”. But it’s true and it’s science. Consider the Yerkes-Dodson Stress Performance Curve. Don’t be confused, the picture attached to this post…
We all forget. We will forever need more reminders than we will need correction.
Limiting beliefs can be sneaky. They zap your energy. Paralyze you from being able to take any sort of action. These beliefs keep you up at night. They keep you checking your phone for emails, texts, phone calls. They keep you from being present in the moment. They keep you from being your best self.…
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our calendars are our lives. Not pausing and reflecting on life from time to time, leaves us at risk to living an unintentional life. Don’t. Live a life designed by you. And it’s okay if we have to start scheduling things in our calendars that look like “go for a walk”, “paint”, “play guitar”, “stretch”,…
Taking a little extra time to say yes can work to your advantage in a big way. Our culture seems to create a sense of urgency no matter what the situation. Our language is even geared towards creating this intensity. Consider the two statements: No doubt there are emergencies…..and there seem to be more created…
Shifting your energy can seem like the only option you have is changing your environment and sometimes this is true, however not always. When you have pent up energy, frustrated energy, feeling down energy, feeling fatigued, feeling like someone just took the wind out of your sails, there is a way for you to shift…
Your present self can’t really count on your future self. We can have many versions of ourselves. However, it’s the three selves: your past self, our present self and our future self, we dance with most often. Counting on your future self is a risky game plan and the results can be rather inconsistent. We…
he stories we tell ourselves. The stories we tell ourselves are powerful. We tell stories about the people and events around us all of the time. And these stories are created quickly. We forget that we made these stories up. And we believe them. We actually call them “the truth”. Here is how it happens.…
The story goes like this… In the deep ocean, there are two young fish swimming along. An older fish is swimming towards them. As the older fish passes the younger fish, the older fish nods at them, “How’s the water boys?” The two younger fish lean towards each other, as only fish can do, and…
Courage is acting in the face of fear. However sometimes it’s a little more nuanced than just that. Sometimes the action we need to take in the face of fear is to stand still, to witness. Courage can simply be described as choosing not to disappear. Maya Angelou once said, “Courage is the most important…
If unprepared, silence during a conversation can feel uncomfortable. And yet, allowing the other person the space to think is really beneficial to the conversation as a whole. When we don’t allow people the silence to reflect, the other person can become disengaged or interpret your inability to remain silent as you not really being…
Maybe you didn’t know about some of the health benefits of participating in an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Here are a few: Maybe as a leader you didn’t realize just how many organizations are providing MBSR to their teams. Here are a few: There is an 8-week course starting this January 2023.…
When faced with resistance, inaction, a temporary paralysis, one can wonder if the goal they initially set for themselves was induced by a fit of inspiration induced by some holiday excursion. “It is with a celebratory glee; a sort of spiritual awakening I announce I have finished this project! I love you!” I emailed a…
We start our last class together with a body scan; returning back to the mindfulness practice that started our 8 week journey together. We spend time reviewing all we have accomplished and focusing on a variety of ways to support our daily mindfulness practice. We take time writing down things that are now, in this…
Speaking up with the intent to be heard is different than speaking up. While both require courage, speaking up with the intent to be heard requires commitment. Speaking up with the intent to be heard requires more energy. It may require you repeating yourself in the same meeting and in different meetings. It may require…
Knowing the difference between managing something or solving something is critical to the resilience of a leader. Is it a problem needing a root cause solution? Is it a necessary tension required in achieving excellence and at times needing to be managed? There are some tensions we want to keep active because it helps us as…
Asking for help is a strength and not a weakness. Normalizing asking for help, can support individuals in getting the help them need when they need it. Waiting to ask for help rarely results in improving a situation. If you feel you need help, acknowledge it and reach out to someone so they can support…
In week 7 of MBSR, we begin with a mindfulness practice. This time without guidance from the teacher. We talk about how the experience of not being guided differs or the same. We then spend time talking about the all-day retreat. Opening it up to participants for them to talk about what came up for…
The “All Day” retreat can bring some anxiety to new participants. It also brings confusion to some participants’ family members. I remember my husband’s confusion as he thought about me spending the entire day in our guest room, with my class, not speaking…and paying money to do this. Don’t knock it until you try it. …
Scheduling a meeting and showing up for it doesn’t seem to be high on the list of items one would consider to be difficult. However, what if the meeting is scheduled with yourself? Time management is something to revisit at least every time one changes jobs or is promoted. One of the times I revisited…
In week 6 of the MBSR course, we continue our focus on awareness, specifically around identifying our attitudes accurately and noticing our behaviors. Participants share what came up for them in the previous week as we continued our mindfulness practices. We talk about the difficult conversation assignment. The discussion is around key questions we were…
Last night I was reminded of this quote by Bob Sharples: “Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt…
Week 5 marks the halfway point in the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course. We begin the class with a mindfulness sitting practice. We move then to mindfulness movement with our standing yoga sequence, again being reminded we are always in choice and honoring our bodies is part of the mindfulness practice. We talk about the…
How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m great at multi-tasking! I do it all the time!”? Let me be clear: Research shows there is no such thing as multi-tasking. Multi-tasking does not exist. It is a myth. Now, you may go through a stage of grieving. I understand this. We all have to…
Asking 5 whys may not be getting you the results you hope for. But perhaps saying, “Tell me more….”, just might. The question “why?” automatically puts someone on the defense. They have to explain their position. You will know this as the next sentence they say will start with “Because…..”. In an organization…
During the 4th week of MBSR, we start the class with a sitting mindfulness meditation. Grounding ourselves after most of us have rushed into the zoom room just in time not to be late. Bringing attention to our breath, recognizing how often we rush into a variety of different situations in our lives. Rushing into…
The third class begins with us doing an opening meditation. We find a position that makes sense for our own bodies (sitting, standing, lying down). We are always in choice, so while the meditation may begin with asking us to find a comfortable position to sit in, if we need to lie down because that…
At the second week of the MBSR course, we have been using the recorded meditations sent out by the teacher to guide us through the Body Scan Mindfulness Meditation. The Body Scan is done lying down, and can be done sitting, even standing if that is what is needed. The recording walks you through getting…
Week 1 of MBSR there is no doubt excitement, nervousness, and even a little skepticism. All are welcome. As participants arrive they are greeted with a hello. The teacher checking everyone in as they enter the zoom room. Participants begin to enter in their first names only, pronouns, and the city and country they are…
In the 8-week MBSR course, there are actually 9 weeks we meet. However, the first class starting on January 31 is an orientation class. In orientation, we spend time doing introductions. We cover the following topics: This is it.
In January there is a MBSR course starting. It’s going to be held online, virtually via zoom. Every MBSR course I have attended brings an international community together. I have had the privilege of being taught by great teachers such as Beth Mulligan and newer teachers, perhaps even their first led class. While a masterful teacher…
If a leader is used to working 55-70 hours a week as a way of life, how will they remember what is possible to get done in 40 hours a week? If a leader sends emails at all hours of the night, what will their team do when they see an email from their boss…
It would be interesting to know what someone was thinking if they sat in on a coaching session just to observe. I imagine there would be moments when they would wonder what was going on. The client might be drawing on a tablet. Pausing periodically. Crossing out phrases. And talking in half sentences. There may…
Earlier today, I read a blog about the differences between saying “I’m sorry” and saying, “thank you”. Saying “I’m sorry” when it doesn’t advance the conversation isn’t really all that helpful. Like, “I’m sorry I’m late for this zoom meeting” or “I’m sorry my computer is taking longer than usual to load”. Instead, the invitation was…
During graduate school, we each created a model expressing our values. The Leadership Triangle Model was my project. The idea was a simple. The three sides of the triangle represented the values of the Leadership Triangle Model. The triangle is great because this shape can be stretched into a variety of vastly different triangles as…
Sometimes our presence is enough because the value of being listened to is about being heard.
There has always been a need for strategy, and it seems to be at the forefront of many leaders’ minds right now. However, this hyperfocus on strategy just might be taking you down the wrong path. Here’s why. As we all have limited bandwidth, focusing solely on strategy will leave something out. Juggling competing priorities…
It hasn’t been the first time I have heard that someone was told they needed lead from their head and not from their heart. And yet, I was surprised that leaders are still giving this feedback. What surprised me the most is the feedback wasn’t about balancing the two but rather excluding the heart in…
Standing in front of the mirror, it couldn’t be denied. It was definitely bigger than a month ago. My appointment was this week. I had canceled it twice already. It was the height of covid. I was a healthcare leader. Taking any time off didn’t seem like an option. Arriving at my appointment early, I…
The lake is so beautiful. You love this lake; you love the streams that fill it. And sitting next to this lake you close your eyes. Head tilted towards the sun. And then there is a strange feeling, a sense of motion. It happens so fast. SPLASH!! You are shocked. What just happened?! You are…
The word sacrifice is so easy to say and yet it means so much. Even saying thank you for your sacrifice of time doesn’t begin to explain what that really means. The sacrifice of time is not being able to be with your family, to watch your children grow, to be there when the car…
Today, poetry. Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this…
This idea of a future self is compelling to me. This idea that who I am being in the present moment will impact my future self. Sometimes my future self is grateful. Other times I can sense my future self is going to be ticked off at my present self for not going to bed on…
I got it! I know exactly what I am going to do! An idea has struck you. You can feel the inspiration. You just know like you know that this is exactly what you should spend your time and your energy on. You even tell some friends about this great idea. Your significant other nods…
A coaching session is a client talking with a coach about a situation the client wants to gain additional clarity around or momentum on. Coaching is what the coach does during the session. As a client is speaking, the coach is listening and then asking some questions. Seems pretty straight forward. However, the way the…
I spent the day in silence. I remember the first time I attended a silent retreat my husband was confused and wanted further clarification around the idea that I was paying money to sit in silence, on zoom, in our guest room. I nodded, while he smiled, shook his head and went outside to blow…
