COACH, GERONTOLOGIST, SPEAKER, AUTHOR
Barbara Waxman, founder of Odyssey Group Coaching, is passionate about building leaders’ personal and professional skills so they can thrive while increasing their ability to manage complexity and maximize their effectiveness. With more than two decades of experience coaching CEOs, C-suite leaders, and entrepreneurs, Barbara utilizes a holistic approach to help clients lead and communicate authentically, sustain high performance and expand their influence and impact.
Barbara is a highly sought-after coach, workshop leader, and keynote speaker who works with leaders from across the country and abroad. She is part expert coach, caring truth-teller, strategic thought partner, and accountability advocate, and buoys her approach with compassion, honesty, research-based expertise, and a light heart. Her experience as a Gerontologist and coach has culminated in the proprietary transformative coaching model, Entrepreneurship Turned Inward©, and her science-based Five Essential Elements© process. Barbara has worked in the automotive, financial services, health care, nonprofit, and technology sectors, among others.
Barbara serves as an Advisory Council Member for the Stanford Center on Longevity, a faculty member at Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy, and an angel investor in the Active Aging and Longevity Fund with Portfolia. She has appeared on CBS This Morning, and has been featured in Marin Magazine, Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global, and is a frequent podcast guest. Barbara recently authored How to Avoid Burnout, Provide Exceptional Care, and Enhance Work-Life Integration, a chapter in the upcoming book Beyond the Differential (Springer Publishing). Barbara is also the author of two books examining aging including, The Middlescence Manifesto: Igniting the Passion of Midlife. Barbara holds master’s degrees in Public Administration and Gerontology from the University of Southern California and is a graduate of Colgate University. She earned her coaching certifications from the International Coach Federation and The Hudson Institute. Originally from New York, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Scott, and is thankful to have her adult children not too far away.
Connect with Barbara’s team to inquire about your next event, workshop, or other opportunity.
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"Before working with Barbara I did not understand the potential of coaching. Barbara has the ability to capture the essence of a complex situation and build a productive conversation around it. She understands the details and the players in my environment so we can dive into breaking things down in workable ways, she asks the right questions so I can determine the best answers. That is how you learn."
"Once I started working with Barbara, I identified ways in which I was working against myself work-wise, health-wise and even psychologically...[The] level of true support and concern for my well-being made it possible for me to be more creative in problem-solving across my entire life."
"Barbara Waxman's empathetic and practical approach to inspiring people to embrace midlife is a marvel to watch."
"Barbara has a terrific tool box and is very results driven, thoughtful and organized. She helps me see different ways of viewing a situation which are transformational."
Barbara blends together wisdom, leadership, coaching and business acumen to help you achieve your own goals. Whether it's a career transition, a challenge in your current role, a desire to create a long-term plan, or to have a Team Leadership Coach to help your team, Barbara does it all with grace, humor and incredible support.
"Barbara was a strong asset as I prepared to step into an executive role. She helped me articulate what was holding me back; create a plan to effectively transition my peer relationships into direct reports; then confidently step into the expanded external requirements of my new role."
"So many breakthroughs, impossible to count. Many of the things that I thought I cared about were utterly insignificant compared to what really mattered to me. She helped me attain clarity of purpose, both for "now" and for the longer-term; I was able to re-center myself on what I truly valued in all facets of my life and rechannel the courage that I deployed on behalf of everyone around me to courage in myself. "
"Barbara is compassionate, empathetic and challenges you to create the change you want to see so as to grow in all facets of life."
"Barbara’s energy is positive and comes from practicing what she preached. Before working together my leadership felt scattered with lack of appropriate focus at time. With Barbara’s insights I have been more self-aware of my strengths and challenges and have been about to strengthen my overall leadership as a result."
