‘The power Of Clarity’ With Doctor, Leadership Coach & Speaker Deb Elbaum
The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.
Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.
Listen to the podcast at: https://www.andrewwayfinder.com/blog/DA0035
Andrew Hryniewicz
So hello, everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of The Destiny Awakening interviews.
I’m Andrew Wayfinder Hryneiwicz. And I’m joined today by Deb Elbaum, Physician, Founder, Speaker, Executive and Leadership Coach.
And a very warm welcome to you, Deb. And where are you hanging out today?
Deb Albaum
I’m in Boston, Massachusetts.
Andrew Hryniewicz
And what’s the weather like there today?
Deb Albaum
It is actually sunny, which is lovely. We are heading into spring.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Now we’re getting traces of it, although it’s like, two steps forward, one step back here. Okay, well, let’s get on to your work and your experience.
Deb Albaum
Sure.
Andrew Hryniewicz
So, a trained Physician and Founder of the Healthcare Writing Company, Deb started her third career as an Executive and Leadership Coach, to encourage, empower and equip her clients to feel happier, be more productive, and take more or have more control in their lives.
Her approach combines Neuroscience, Leadership Models, Somatic Coaching, and tactical strategies, to help her clients think better, and lead calmly, clearly and confidently.
Deb coaches leaders at all levels from emerging leaders to C-Suite executives in the US and internationally, including companies like State Street Bank, MIT, Genentech, Mass General, Autodesk, Kaleido, Bio-Sciences, and others.
She’s a Professional Certified Coach and Certified Neuroscience Coach, a Speaker and Facilitator and an advocate for advancing women leaders.
So thank you, Deb, for your time today, and the topic will be broaching is “The Power of Clarity”. And Deb is going to unpack that by answering six questions.
So the first question, Deb, who is your ideal client? And what’s the transformation your work helps them achieve?
Deb Albaum
Yes, I’m so glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
My ideal clients are women leaders in Healthcare, Biotech, Pharma, and Academia, who want to build their “Authentic Leadership”.
Who want to boost their confidence, communicate clearly, and feel equipped with leadership strategies to tackle a wide variety of situations.
And the transformation I helped them achieve is just that: is stepping into their superpowers, their authentic leadership, their confidence, their presence, because the people I work with really have important things to do.
They have important impact to make. And it’s my privilege to get to help them do that more confidently.
Andrew Hryniewicz
And so question number two, what’s the biggest challenge they’re facing?
Deb Albaum
Sure, the biggest challenge they face is this tension between being heart centered and purposeful, and wanting to say “Yes” to a lot of things. And knowing that that’s just going to burn them out.
So they need help… They need help with clarity, understanding what’s really important to them, what they really do want to achieve.
The values and the purpose they do want to honor so that they can be very clear with their Yeses. They can be very clear with what they’re saying yes to, and very intentional around what they say no to.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, I can really hear that. I had a client some years ago, head of a research team. And she said, “I’ve got 450% of what I can do on my plate. And I don’t know what to cut.”
Deb Albaum
Exactly. And when I talk with people about saying “Yes” and say “No”, I always remind them that “When we say No to something, it’s always because there’s an underlying Yes”.
So often it’s getting to what is the underlying Yes that’s more important that you want to honor. And when you honor that yes, then what is it easier to say no to?
Andrew Hryniewicz
Well, I think you’ve almost answered question number three, what’s your number one insight to share to help them right now?
Deb Albaum
Yes, so the word that comes up all the time and in coaching is “Clarity”. And we often aren’t exactly clear: “What we want?” “Who we are?” “The questions we have?” “Who we need to ask for help from?”.
And I always say that “If we’re not clear in our heads, we cannot be clear out in the world.”
It all starts with taking that time to ask ourselves these clarity questions like: What is most important to me? What do I want to let go of? What do I want to achieve? What is the legacy I want to leave?
If we can be clear in our heads, we can communicate clearly and that makes it easier for everyone.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That reminds me of something a time management guru said, which rocked my world number years ago. He said, “There’s more stuff out there, you know, and there’s not enough time and energy to get it all done”.
So “The secret of time management is to have the discipline to only do what you Love”.
Deb Albaum
Sure. There is a lot that we can do…
And I like to say that “Life is an experience. That Leadership is approaching a buffet table of experience. And we get to choose the experiences we have, there’s no right, no wrong, just different.”
And when we take a step back to look at all of the choices that we have, then we have that opportunity to make choices that are really meaningful, and really powerful, and in alignment with our strengths and our purpose and our priorities
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, so then question number four, in your own development, what concept, book, program, talk, experience had the greatest impact?
Deb Albaum
There are a lot of different things that have influenced me, I’ll talk about one book that I’ve read somewhat recently, that I highly recommend people to read, it’s called “Life is in The Transitions” by Bruce Feiler.
And it talks about this idea that life is not linear, life is not a straight line, and especially for my clients… for highly motivated, highly intelligent, high achievers.
We often think that life is a straight line that we should just up, go up, up, up, up and achieve, and achieve, and achieve. And that’s not how life works.
In the book, it reminds us that we all are in different transitions, at different times in life, and that’s okay.
And it’s what we do and how we make meaning of the transitions that really matters. A great read.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, we’ll definitely put that in the show notes, then. That’s great.
So question number five, what’s a free resource you’d like to share with the audience to help them?
Deb Albaum
I have a list of my favorite coaching questions. In a coaching session, we ask a lot of questions. And I generate a lot of questions. And my clients always say to me “Do you write these down? Do you have somewhere where you have all these questions?”
So those are the questions that I’m happy to share: my favorite coaching questions that you can ask yourself or other people to work toward this clarity of what you want.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, and those will be on your website at debelbaum.com.
Deb Albaum
Yes, I believe it’s under the coaching and then under the helpful resources tab.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. So at the last question number six, what should I have asked you that I didn’t?
Deb Albaum
Yeah.
The one piece of advice that I share with clients most is the power of the body and the breath to help us calm down, to put space in between a stimulus and how we react.
And I know this is not what we talked about. And deep belly breathing is really, really powerful. It’s a powerful tool.
So when we feel like our heads are spinning, when we have so many thoughts, when we’re unclear about what to do next, or where to go.
I always suggest to my clients that they stop, they pause. They take a few deep belly breaths. They do some moments of calm and mindfulness to reset, reboot their brains just for a moment, so that they can then tap into clear thinking.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s great.
Deb Albaum
Well, actually, as a Doctor, I just came across a book you probably get a big kick out of it’s called “Breathe”. I forget the name of the author.
Yes, James Nestor. Breath was fascinating, wasn’t it?
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, really amazing. Okay, so you’ve read it?
Deb Albaum
I did read it.
Andrew Hryniewicz
I’m about two thirds of the way through.
Okay, well, great. Well, that was lovely Debs, thank you so much for your time today.
Deb Albaum
Thank you, Andrew. It was a pleasure.
