At The Performance Architect, we know that developing yourself and others is a process, not an event. We help individuals, leaders and teams do the things that matter to you, better. We understand that you have a business to run, clients to service and profits to make. And we understand that doing all those things is challenging.
In addition to our comprehensive learning programs, we also design and implement programs and interventions that are fully customized to the specific needs of your organization. We consult, dig deep, and ask questions that make you think. Most important, we never jump to a solution without first understanding the cause of the challenge. We want to know WHY things are happening, so you receive the right solution, at the right time, for the right reasons.
Company Founder & Leadership Development Architect
Leesa is a master at leadership development and learning strategy. She builds better leaders and has a proven method for doing that—in retail, manufacturing, financial services, professional services, pharma, startups, and nonprofits. She does this by staying true to her core mission of comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable.
She’s unapologetically practical and has a focus on bringing practical, realistic, integrated approaches to help elevate individual, team, and organizational performance. She connects the dots between business goals and employee behavior by bringing an ability to work at all levels in an organization and “meet people where they are.”
Over a period of thirty years, Leesa has helped bring success to organizations such as Travelers Insurance, ING, GE, Deloitte, Blum Shapiro, HarborOne Bank, Bridgeport Fittings, Odyssey Reinsurance, Louis Vuitton, TJX, Tradewind Aviation, Bristol Myers Squibb and Trinity Health of New England. In 2010, Leesa gave up “working for the man” and decided to “be the man,” opening her own leadership development consulting practice. She hasn’t looked back and is eternally grateful for all that she learned from the gifted leaders within these organizations.
Leesa is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in communications and journalism. She completed her M.Ed in Adult Education with a concentration in management from Cambridge College. She recently published her second book, “Sharpening Your Point” with coauthor Kathy McAfee. Leesa is living large as an empty nester with her husband, Bruce, and the coolest rescue cat imaginable.
Many learning programs use role plays to ensure participants practice new skills and strategies. We don’t. We use real plays and a proprietary practice methodology called “In-The-Moment Coaching.” This challenging and highly effective method builds unconscious competence and self-sufficiency.
Participants work in small groups on real situations to which they directly apply the skills and the conversation strategies learned.
An In-The-Moment coach guides participants of each group through the skill practice and provides on the spot, clear, and quick feedback whenever needed.
On the spot feedback and coaching ensures the participants make immediate changes and strengthens their ability to self-correct.
After each round of skill practice, each small group rotates to work with the coach. This allows everyone to see or experience interactive coaching.
No one learns in the comfort zone. We provide a supportive environment in which to stretch and develop new skills, strategies, and ways of doing things. Our motto is to “Disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.”
In addition to learning leadership skills and strategies, our participants build relationships with those in their cohort group. These relationships last far beyond the program.
All discussion, reading, and learning content centers on immediate application with lots of in-session practice and in the moment coaching methodology to build “muscle memory” and unconscious competence.
We take learning seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. There is an energy and excitement that happens as leaders have “aha” moments, make improvement, struggle and get better. Humor is a natural byproduct of good learning.
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Leadership Essentials
A New and Improved Program for Improving New (and Experienced) Leaders.
