Patty Miller is president/coach/chief genius influencer of Influence Genius.
Patty Miller
Calgary’s Business: What is The Leadership Circle?
Miller: I’m very proud to be a certified practitioner/coach of The Leadership Circle. It’s definitely a robust tool I use with leaders and executives. It’s a powerful 360-degree tool that clearly illuminates for leaders their strengths for leadership effectiveness and presents areas that leaders aren’t aware of how they’re being perceived by the team.
TLC integrates all this information in a way that brings the key issues to the surface instantly. The data in TLC reveals itself in seconds. At a glance, the whole gestalt is accessible. It immediately gets your leader in touch with what’s working, what’s not and why.
TLC is the only instrument that measures the two primary leadership domains – creative competencies and reactive tendencies – and integrates this information so that key opportunities for development immediately rise to the surface. It’s time efficient, allowing me to meet clients where they are without spending valuable coaching time finding out where that is. I use this in assisting with action plans that are both behavioural and self-awareness oriented. In short, The Leadership Circle Profile facilitates more rapid progress into breakthrough insights, new behaviour and greater levels of effectiveness.
CB: What is Influence Genius and why did you start it?
Miller: I still remember the day I came up with the company name. I want to help uncover your inner genius so leaders can influence the best ways possible and improve the return on investment of the companies they work for.
Starting Influence Genius, an executive leadership and coaching company, was a natural next step from my work as the president and senior HR consultant with MillerNet HR Solutions. I know performance management intimately. In fact, someone asked me the other day, what would I like to do most. I said it is the people issues. Not that I like issues, but I know I positively resolve complex issues for the health of the company.
I started Influence Genius because I had a vision of how to be different in the competitive world of leadership development and coaching. I know we are different.
CB: What’s so different about what you do from other similar companies?
Miller: We specialize in leadership development consulting and executive coaching at both the individual and collective level. These leaders know there’s a better way to meet the complex business challenges of today, and are eager to learn how to get there.
In my practice, I use another tool on top of The Leadership Circle, Core Values Index – CVI. It’s the only tool on the planet with a repeat score reliability of 97 per cent, all other tools like DISC, Myers Briggs, etc., come in at 60 to 80 per cent. With CVI, you learn how you’re genuinely wired. It helps one understand the stripes of their tiger. When you know yourself, you can be more authentic.
I use this for succession planning, smart downsizing, business optimization and more. When you have people doing the work they’re wired for, profits go up along with career fulfilment. This fortified combination of CVI and The Leadership Circle, I get to the real base of each leader to help them bring out their inner genius so they can be better influential leaders. Powerful.
CB: How and why did you get into the field of coaching?
Miller: As president and senior HR consultant of MillerNet HR Solutions, I was addressing every HR situation you can imagine. Because I’m not in the same four walls of one company, I was seeing best practices and what not to do in a large variety of industries.
As a consultant, I need to be effective and fast. The trust needs to be there. I would challenge many clients for their lag time in addressing employee issues. This was directly impacting the business negatively. Not only do leaders owe it to their employees to give positive or constructive feedback, they also owe it to the company if they’re in a leadership role.
I have been coaching in alignment with HR for my clients as I’m their confidant and sounding board. Having an extensive HR background has been very helpful in my coaching practice.
Starting Influence Genius to separate from my HR practice was a passion of mine and I’m loving the ride. I love what I do. If I won the lottery, I would still do what I do. Maybe travel more. Helping to positively impact people’s lives fills me up.
CB: What’s your philosophy on what makes a good leader?
Miller: I sometimes say to clients that we’re still kids, only we have a mortgage and a credit card. Our inner stories and thoughts are how we project outwardly. A good leader is someone you want to follow, not have to follow. A good leader is mindfully and consciously self-aware of their patterns of action with habits of thought.
Awareness precedes choice, and choice precedes change. So enhancing your awareness is essential to becoming a more effective leader. Good leaders are trusted. Building trust requires an investment of time and energy — two resources in short supply.
As with nearly every investment, what’s important is the significant long-term payoff.
– Mario Toneguzzi
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