LEADERS, READY FOR MORE
IS THAT YOU?
Are you a trailblazer or a go-getter who wants to make a difference?
Do you work hard to embrace challenges and forge results?
“Success” doesn’t always guarantee fulfillment.
You don’t “need” coaching… but do you want feedback and insight that optimizes your talent and fulfillment? What if coaching guaranteed things that you now seek the most?
No one reaches the summit alone.
True leaders have a deep foundation and trusted inner circle of unbiased support that keeps them on track. Sometimes, this requires a candid confidant who will fearlessly hold up a mirror.
Extraordinary Life is that confidant.
We are your solution strategist. We help leaders and innovators, like you, who are ready for change … and the commitment that it requires. Extraordinary Life matches clients with tools needed to overcome barricades like insufficient trust, unmanaged conflicts, misaligned vision, or disjointed work and family lives.
Extraordinary Life has worked with a diverse and elite clientele, including wealth & financial experts, filmmakers, food innovators, marketing masters, commercial real estate stars, design directors, business consultants, to winery owners, among others.
Both emerging executive leaders and seasoned veterans will benefit from our services. Whether leadership development is sought by an individual or an employer, Extraordinary Life coaches and shapes leaders in a way that impacts the company’s bottom line.
Our Services
Here’s how we work:
- 1:1 COACHING
- EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP INTENSIVES (ELI)
- TEAM & CULTURE DEVELOPMENT
- ASSESSMENTS & DIAGNOSTICS
Our most popular offering, we provide customized support for emerging and seasoned executives who won’t settle for typical appearances of success, but define themselves along an authentic, higher purpose. These elite clients climb the mountain while also striving to enjoy their achievements along the way.
This work is not with “just another coach.” Clients engage with a masterful expert who tunes in to identify deep-seeded dynamics of problems that sometimes hide in plain sight. Our services provide clients with a new, state-of-the-art lens for observing the world and people around them.
The ultimate focus of our 1:1 work is to align a client’s life, leadership, and legacy so they become a confident trailblazer of the unexpected, and discover the fulfillment that comes from clarity!
A retreat that allows a leader, or leaders, to break from routine to provide critical focus on areas that require comprehensive thought and exploration. The topic areas are determined by the leader or leadership team.
The purpose of ELIs, typically offsite, may also be to reorient a client with his/her values, purpose, and personal and professional mission – to reignite inspiration.
One of the greatest costs to any organization is, at the very least, “leaking” the potential of their employees, and at worst, inadvertently building a culture that reinforces disengaged and ineffective individuals and teams. At Extraordinary Life, our approach is working from the individual outward. Any high performing team begins with high performing individuals.
As the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. To gain this exponential benefit of team-based performance, it starts with individual accountability, “response-ability,” and mindset. This provides the foundation for trust, communication, and productive conflict that leads to efficiency and results! Our Team Development & Culture Building Programs deliver on the development of this pyramid of success. It all begins with building trust and a commitment to the collective success of the team and its goals; not a focus on individual achievement alone.
Assessments? Am I being tested?
Even rocketships need a boost. At Extraordinary Life, Inc., we are committed to helping executives deliver at the highest levels with visionary and mindful leadership practices. An important part of this commitment includes the use of proven, research-based assessment tools to help executives continue to grow. These tools provide insight into critical leadership functions, like behavioral and personality strengths and limitations, leadership effectiveness, time management skills, and team development skills.
Whether we work with an individual executive or build a trust-based cohesive team, we are committed to growing influential leadership skills that boost your company’s bottom line.
Some of our vital favorites include: The Leadership Circle Profile, Everything DiSC® assessments, and The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. All assessment selections are customized according to the unique needs of our clients.
Bookshelf
Recommended Reading
The Extraordinary Commitment
Our Clients
EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
What Our Clients Have To Say…
JIM CHAKIRES
CEO, APEX CPA’s & Consultants
“Two years ago I was in a tough place and it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of trying. 16 years into my business and I had plateaued. I thought I was doing all the right things but they weren’t working. I was very frustrated and for the first time in my life I started doubting whether my life’s goals were even possible. I had to make some changes, perhaps some drastic ones. My business was consuming my two most precious commodities, my time and my money. I was so discouraged.
I was introduced to Al Spicer and while I didn’t know it at the time, my life was about to change in a big way.
I had doubts about whether some leadership “Guru” was going to cast some magic spell on me and fix my issues. After all, I was just a victim of bad luck and perhaps it would eventually just work out. I had to weather the storm like every other entrepreneur. “What’s he going to tell me that I haven’t already tried” I would say. Was I wrong.
Al took so much care in listening to me and my challenges and really helped me see that all of them were between my ears. I was my biggest liability!
He has given me a perspective that has helped me see with crystal clarity what I needed to change to be successful. That’s just the beginning of the story. Over the past 18 months of working with Al, I am now enjoying a record year in my business, my employees love working for me and my family is so grateful to have me fully engaged in their lives, both physically and emotionally. I have finally been able to enjoy a vacation with them barely thinking about work, all while experiencing the biggest financially successful time in my life. Al has been instrumental in helping me achieve my life long goals. Thank you Al.”
Mark Podl
CEO, Doran Scales, Inc.
“I have been working with Al for four years now and my leadership skills before I began with Al were not productive to building a great business and culture. Before working with Al, I dreaded going to work due to the culture and people I had in my organization. To get my old organization to function, I had to shift from my natural style of leadership which was exhausting and, at times, left me wondering what action to take in difficult situations. Al has helped me understand that I can lead as who I am and be even more effective than before. With his help, the company culture has changed and I have changed for the better. I have a business that I want to go to every day, and I now enjoy the process of leading and growing my company. I can say the ROI of coaching with Al is well into seven figures. It has been a valuable experience both for my development as a leader and for accelerating my business success.”
Andy Kotlarz
CFO, NOW Health Group
“Al’s collaborative coaching style and conversational manner helped me explore important issues and solutions. Al was able to offer coaching strategies and specific suggestions for me to use in my daily routine, as well as in my personal interactions with peers and our employees. These new tools and insights have helped me to improve my self-awareness and the impact I have on others in our organization. As a result of Al’s coaching, I’ve improved my ability to lead, build trust, and create greater employee engagement and effectiveness. I anticipate this will impact our company to achieve tangible benefits of potentially $1 million, by helping us implement our continuous improvement efforts and achieving improved operating efficiencies. Working with Al was a valuable experience. I highly recommend him and would readily seek his support again.”
STEPHANIE MORITZ
Chief Communications Officer, American Dental Association
“Al Spicer is a masterful executive guide, coach, confidante and friend. His depth of knowledge, expertise, business savvy and strategic mindset are second to none. His personable approach makes it easy to unpack challenges, gain immediate insight and apply solutions rapidly that net substantive results. Through Al’s coaching, I have become a stronger and more successful C-Suite leader, professional and individual. Al is a great sounding board for real-time challenges as well as ongoing coaching, professional, and team development. I have found the tools he uses, such as DiSC, to be very powerful with helping me to navigate different styles across the organization and reveal the full potential of my team. As a result of our work together, I’m seeing greater collaboration, motivation, connectivity, and results by me and the team from applying the work we have done together. Al’s coaching was the missing ingredient I needed to unlock my full potential.”
JAMES KELLY
Bond Analyst, New York, NY
“This is the first time in my life that I feel like I have total clarity around my career and something I can go after and get excited about! It wasn’t even close to that when we started. It’s funny, but I have more time in my life, even though I’m doing more! Life is fuller and became less frenetic. I’m doing more with less time. I can’t believe the changes that have happened in only 3 months!”
JEFF ENCK
Senior Investment Advisor, Shane Investment Property Group
“For so many years I have only been able to accomplish a fraction of what I really wanted. I am now on pace for a record year in commercial real estate sales and have peace in areas that I assumed would trouble me through my life. Al has taught me to fully understand myself and, more importantly, to take control of my mind and overcome poor habits. Every great dream, athlete, or competitor needs coaching. Highly skilled coaches make highly skilled individuals. I am extremely fortunate to have Al’s commitment to my success!”
NEIL ROCHLANI
CFO, QualSight, Inc.
“I worked with Al from November 2008 to September 2010. It was an eye-opening experience for me. Even though I am introspective by nature, each coaching session often brought a great new insight into my behavioral and/or thought patterns that for whatever reason I could not see. I would have never achieved this amount of self-awareness with just my own self-reflection and for this I am very grateful for my coaching experience with Al. I highly recommend him.”
DAVID ZACCHEI
Director of Learning & Organizational Effectiveness, Pfizer, Inc.
“During the 4 years I worked with Al, he coached me through several major life and career challenges. As a result of Al’s exceptional coaching, I grew as a leader, coach, consultant, husband, and father. Through our work together, I developed greater confidence in my ability to accomplish any goal or overcome any challenge. All areas of my life improved – including my family relationships, my sense of purpose, and my own coaching ability. There were many times when I felt stuck or dragged down by the job circumstances. Al would help me reconnect with what is truly important to me, pointing me to my power, my wisdom, and my values. I was then able to clearly see what actions I needed to take to address my situation. He brings a rigor to coaching that I admire, whether it is in the assessments he uses, the assignments he suggests, or the discipline with which he documents our discussions, it is always clear that Al takes the coaching work very seriously. He has a way of helping me hold myself accountable for what I say I want to do or change, without ever making me feel like I’m failing. Quite the opposite – Al encourages, questions, and challenges, with a clear intention of helping me achieve what matters most. I always felt that Al was right there with me, as my reliable, clear-thinking, committed partner. I would summarize my experience with Al as a coach in this way: he is 100% committed to helping me define what is most important in my life, and he will do whatever it takes to help me achieve it!”
ANDY KOSIAK
VP of Business Development, Micromatic, LLC
“There is a lot of curiosity about professional coaching and the benefits for business people. For me I was able to experience the skills of a superb coach, Dr Al Spicer, and it has helped me to work on creating my ideal life. I was introduced to Al through a company-sponsored program that was intended to uncover and empower human potential, helping employees to become self-motivated, effective and work together in teams. As a novice to being coached, I was skeptical, yet gave it a steady effort to learn how to understand more about my environment, my interactions with it and others, and then learning about my choices and how they create impact… What makes Al so effective as a coach is that he has helped me to learn how to become more aware and take more responsibility without “teaching” me; in essence by coaching me. Al has tremendous experience and talent in guiding me to become ‘the best version of myself’, while being a stand for my potential and my human realities.”
CHRIS TOFT
VP of Development, Advocate IL Masonic Medical Center, Chicago
“Partnering with Al for my personal and professional growth has been one of the smarter decisions of my life – and it wasn’t even my idea! Thanks, as always, for your support, guidance, and challenging me. It really helped me to learn how to quickly shift my perspective, in my desire to be far more effective both personally and professionally. Since working with Al, I’ve earned certain professional designations and awards. I am also far more nimble in my response to challenges. When my wife comments positively on how I respond to things, I know the work Al and I have done has given me lasting benefits. I wholeheartedly recommend Al to anyone interested in engaging him as his or her personal coach. You won’t be disappointed!”
MITCH BIENVENUE
President, Accomplish, Inc.
“Al’s coaching is one of the main reasons that I am now a successful independent businessman. The time we spent together helped to raise my awareness about strengths, challenges, and fears that affect my level of success as a professional. Our discussions were about more than just being aware; they were about deciding who I was going to be and what I was going to do in order to make positive changes. The results I achieved were definitely worth the investment!”
DENICE ANN EVANS
Entrepreneur & Award-Winning Filmmaker
“The coaching I received from Al Spicer was top notch! I have worked with other master coaches, but Al’s insights and models for success really struck a synchronous chord with me. One of the first things he did as my coach was to send me the famous “Goethe” quote about commitment to your life goals; “…that moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.” Al set the tone with this information and it showed up time & time again in my life, in ways I would never have dreamed of or imagined. Al’s ABSOLUTE confidence in me and my film project helped propel me to an even deeper level of commitment than before. He showed me how I was creating and moving “providence” through my own actions. It was not a coincidence that I kept meeting all the right people and being in the right place at the right time. It was not a coincidence that with every new interaction & accomplishment I propelled myself further and further into the life I had always dreamed of–the life of a successful, happy, powerful woman, mother, and filmmaker!”
Martin J. Fogerty
Attorney, CFP, & Business Consultant, Chicago
“As an attorney, CFP, and business consultant, I need to be able to serve clients from a particular place balancing strength, openness, and analytic solutions. There is an inner game I’m playing to maintain this particular balance. We are all playing an inner game, and how well we are playing often shows up in our life. Al “gets” this. The coaching process is like looking in a mirror and having the mirror tell you what has to happen for you to get what you want. Al never professes to know what I need to do – in fact he always says he does not know. The process brings the right answer out, and I was never let down by it. Coaching is a strengthening process that I encourage you to undertake with Al Spicer. You will emerge stronger and more effective than you are now. More importantly you will have a new level of awareness in your life that supports you for years to come.”
Randy Minier
President, Tuthill Drive Systems
“Your coaching has helped me to create a whole new meaning and definition for who I am and what I want out of life. Your ability to help me really see ME, has created an awareness of my potential and the positive impact I can hold for myself, and others I come in contact with every day. Wow, how lives can change, and I will forever evolve with the heightened awareness you helped me see.”
Christopher Saenger
Principal, Reliant Star Capital, New York, NY
“The work we did together has absolutely been vital to my success! Your coaching got me on the proper “trajectory” and I’ve sought to continue that. I refer to my notes and other tools you gave me regularly. Thank you so much for your help over the years – you are changing lives my friend!”
(Unsolicited response from a check in email 4 years following coaching completion).
Bob Dolan
Sales Director, Chicago, IL
“Who could believe that after three months I would be where I am now relative to when we began! When I first started this process, I was skeptical of the results. I thought the best you could do was skill identification and help me get a better job. As it turned out, that wasn’t the focus, thankfully. You helped me realize that strength really comes from within, that a change in focus and drive is all that I needed to change my future. It’s the best I’ve been in over a year and a half! It’s sad that my company doesn’t provide your services to its employees. I can’t see a person out there that couldn’t benefit from your assistance.”
Joe Hohman
Sales Manager of WORD FM, PA
“Al is a highly effective coach dedicated to helping me discover the more powerful, response-able leader within myself. Al has worked to understand what makes me tick, what’s made me effective and engaged in the past and where I get in my own way now. He does a superb job in listening to me and challenging my assumptions and complacency. He’s most interested in helping me access my authentic, relaxed, confident self in a consistent manner. I’m grateful for his partnership and recommend him to anyone or any organization looking to become more effective and powerful in the real world.”
Top qualities: Expert, High Integrity, Creative (from LinkedIn)