Janet Schieferdecker is an executive coach and leadership skills trainer and has been working with managers on increasing their performance and consequent success for over fourteen years. Janet brings not only international business experience at the managerial level, but also deep experience in neuro-science coaching and other personal growth modalities. She is known for her humor, insight, and skillful reframes, and her students and clients appreciate the high level of skill integration that Janet demonstrates in her teaching and coaching.

Janet is one of those rare individuals who has a profound depth of experience both in business management and in coaching. By merging her business understanding and her people perceptions and communication skills, Janet is able to provide her clients with a rich understanding of how change might work, and to accelerate them through perceived barriers.

Janet earned her BA in Economics and Art History (double major) in 1986 from Union College in upstate New York, and her MBA from London Business School in 1992. She spent the early part of her career living and working abroad in Japan, England, Holland, and Singapore, with a two-year stint in New York City. She became a certified NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the study and art of effective communication) Master Practitioner in 2000 and a certified NLP Trainer and Consultant in 2007, and is now in her 11th year of training others in using this wonderful type of neuro-science coaching to improve their leadership skills.

Janet’s business career started as a Financial Analyst for Nippon Steel, where her management of a debt portfolio was credited with saving the company over $250,000. As Asia Regional Marketing Manager, for Philips Medical Systems her responsibilities included conducting market research in China, the results of which impacted over $5 million in joint venture investment decisions. Still with Philips, she became the Business Product Manager for a newly bought OEM UltraSound product line, where she grew the annual revenue from 0 to 21 million NLG in less than two years.

As a manager responsible for bottom line results, Janet was known not only for the results she achieved, but also for her ability to quickly grasp high level strategic implications and either grow a business unit, or systematize functions and eliminate her own position (or even department). Repeatedly drawn to chaotic situations which needed quick interventions and high levels of change, Janet was selected, at the age of 29, to work with senior executives on first mapping strategic and organizational change and then recruiting for it. As part of that catalyst team, Janet contributed to the division’s rise from the worst performing business unit to the best.

During her 20-plus-year obsession with personal and organizational behavior and development, motivation, and results, Janet has studied and worked with some of the best communications and leadership trainers, coaches, and personal growth practitioners in the world. After completing Richard Nelson Bolles intensive training for career development professionals, Janet chose to focus her coaching practice on managers who were making personal and organizational changes.  She quickly learned that knowing what you wanted was important, but often not enough, and delved into the realm of neuro-science coaching, learning how to effectively re-pattern the brain to implement desired changes, particularly in beliefs about self, in acquiring peak performance behaviors, and in creating a growth mindset.

Not satisfied with simply learning the NLP methodology at the practitioner level, Janet continued to learn in various staff positions at NLP Marin and by attending other NLP training such as Robert Dilts’s NLPU program for coaches and consultants. She also added several other modalities to her toolbox including Bert Hellinger’s Systemic Constellation work. Currently, Janet is sought after by other coaches and consultants who are interested in her unique brand of applied NLP training.

In a short but valuable career detour, Janet earned a professional teaching credential and spent three years teaching emotionally disturbed and learning-disabled elementary school children.  Using her NLP background, Janet worked successfully with these children’s patterning to effect behavioral changes.  As a result, her classes were notable for the lack of disciplinary problems typical in these classrooms. Where 2-3 major meltdowns per week was a common experience, Janet’s classroom had only two the entire school year.  This experience gave her immense insight into human nature and the learning process.

Today Janet runs her own programs and trainings to help executives manage transition, and she regularly teaches other coaches and consultants her change-work methodologies. She is considered an expert on the psychology of success, is well known for her incisive questioning and ability to perceive and highlight the most important truths of organizational situations. By helping top executives understand what is really going on, now, she is able to help them dramatically expand their future.

Personally Speaking:

Janet lives in San Rafael, California located in the beautiful rolling hills of Marin County just north of San Francisco. She enjoys having the culture and metropolitan ambience of a large city close by, while being able to step out her door and go hiking in open space.

A huge dog fan since her childhood, by age 10 Janet knew the names of all the dogs for at least a 2-mile radius of her suburban Connecticut home. She currently enjoys the companionship of a Border Collie Mix (possibly part Rabbit?) named Phoebe, who was rescued in the summer of 2011.

Phoebe is currently learning basic obedience, and Janet is hoping to get through the adolescent phase of development without losing too much furniture. We have high hopes that Phoebe will be able to do some agility and maybe even some sort of service work. Someday. Maybe possibly…if she would please stop destroying stuff.

Suggested captions for the photo to the right include:

• Can I help you with anything else?
• You know this is really your fault.
• The pros and cons of crate training, please discuss.

Next Steps:

Curious to know more? Click here to go to the “Who I Serve” page and learn about the types of people with whom I work.