I want a coach!
There are various reasons why you might seek out a coach. Here are some of the things that have led people to work with Jen in the past:
To have greater impact…with ease
Jen can help you uncover opportunities to have a greater impact AND feel more ease and joy as you do the amazing things you do. Some common topics that people have wanted Jen's support around:
Managing more effectively
Giving impactful feedback and having direct conversations
Showing up as a leader
Checking one's own biases (or those of a colleague) and working toward equity
Creating a clear vision and goals for the organization, for your team, for yourself
Dealing with underperformance issues
Developing staff
Building not just a culture of high performance, but also one of trust
Managing up
Looking at your own stress, overwhelm and feelings related to work
Figuring out better personal systems to balance all the things that are important to you in life (aka not just work :))
Being more present and in tune with the world of your body
To respond to a moment
There are certain moments when coaching can give you the boost you need. Times like:
Trying to get a new job
Starting a new job
Facing challenges in your role
Trying to advocate for yourself
Managing a period of change
Having a conflict with someone at work or dealing with unhealthy workplace culture
Prepping to have a hard conversation with someone
Feeling stuck and trying to figure out your next steps (with anything!)
To receive support
There are specific profiles of people who Jen is uniquely prepared to support given her own identity and past experiences. Some of those folks include those who identify as:
People of color
Women
Managers of diverse teams
Talent/HR leaders and those responsible for internal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts
Senior executives
Mid-level managers
Young professionals
Culture-builders
Leaders managing change
If you have any questions or want to see if Jen would be the right fit for you,
find some time for a free consultation here.
Approach
What's it like to work with Jen? Here are some things that define her approach as a coach:
She's been in the same boat. It's likely that as a manager and a leader (and a coach to hundreds of people over her career from early professionals to executives with 20+ years of experience), she has faced the same challenges as you. She'll be able to share the strategies that have worked for her time and time again, in similar circumstances.
She may have been a librarian in another lifetime. Jen is a constant learner which then contributes to her clients' growth. Where helpful and relevant, Jen will weave in resources and tools (not just books!) that she has both collected and designed herself over the years.
She's not afraid to tell you if you have broccoli in your teeth. She's here to help you be more successful, so she won't hold back if she sees something that you should see too.
She'll be your cheerleader, but she will absolutely push you too. In both ways, you can always expect her to be in your corner.
She is a really good listener. She has a way of not just hearing what you're telling her, but also hearing what you're not. She knows how to dig below the surface to get to the heart of any matter.
She is driven to solve problems. She is genuinely fascinated by challenges and will roll her sleeves up, get in the work with you and be relentless about identifying solutions and next steps.
About Jen Chau Fontán
Jen Chau Fontán is an executive coach and somatic coach with over 20 years of experience in management and building talent functions from the ground up at various non profits. Jen has created systems for equitable practices in recruitment, hiring, performance management and staff development. She has also built healthy and engaging organizational cultures and internal programs around equity and inclusion. In these roles, Jen held many things in balance: systems and the individual, the external and the internal, the intellect and the heart. Today, Jen brings this balance to her coaching through her independent coaching practice at JCF Coaching.
At JCF Coaching, she holds space both for those who are looking to strengthen their management skills as well as those who want to do more exploratory work around their leadership and life (the latter usually comes with somatic coaching). She also serves as an adjunct coach at The Management Center where she previously served as a Vice President on the Progressive Sector coaching team.
Other work Jen has done to positively impact change in her own communities (and in particular work on changing unhealthy narratives and cultures around how we address race and racism) include:
Founding Swirl (in 2000), a multiracial grassroots organization committed to building community for mixed race folks and providing space for cross-racial, cross-cultural dialogue about race and identity.
Co-founding and co-leading a local NYC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Community of Practice for leaders in the nonprofit space who were dedicated to growing equity and inclusion practices inside their organizations.
Serving for six terms on the Selection Committee for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards in NYC to recognize excellent management practices in the nonprofit sector.
Sharing her perspectives on race and racism in media outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, and PBS's Asian America as an expert on topics surrounding diversity, race issues, and mixed race identity.
Jen received her BA in Women’s Studies at Wellesley College and her MS in Organizational Change Management from Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy. She received her certification in Somatic Coaching from the Strozzi Institute in January 2023. Born and bred in NYC (and always a NYC-er by heart), she now lives in Westchester, NY amongst the trees with her husband and daughter.