Coaching Connections, the HBS career coaching program, is offered exclusively for Herberger Business School graduate students. This distinguished program empowers students with personalized career guidance, strategic mentorship, and professional development resources tailored to meet the demands of today’s competitive business landscape. We partner with graduate students, faculty, and other stakeholders to offer personal and professional development coaching services. We believe in guiding graduate students to find their clarity and focus as they seek their next step in business and leadership. We connect our clients to applicable resources and bridge relationships for their defined success and seek to offer a sense of belonging through active engagement and uplifting encouragement.
The coaching sessions played a crucial role in enhancing my resume, expanding my professional network, and providing valuable career guidance. Thanks to these sessions, I successfully secured a position that I am genuinely enthusiastic about.
MBA Student
Coaching Services
Career Planning & Alignment
Over the coaching engagement, the coach helps you identify your career vision and align your experiences to that vision. Over several sessions, you will explore various career paths to determine your direction as you refine your professional brand identity. These coaching engagements have resulted in students getting new jobs and promotions and/or changing industries.
Leadership Development
Some students are satisfied with their current job and/or company and want to improve on their leadership and team skills. The coach partners with you on your leadership goals to create an action plan for sustainable change. Similar to Executive Coaching, these coaching engagements have resulted in students bettering self and their teams by learning skills in communication, empowerment, delegation, influencing, approachability, strategic planning and many other leadership skills.
Work-Life Balance
As a graduate student, life is hectic. You try to balance family, career, friends and your classes. Over the coaching engagement, you learn to re-balance your life by adding small and manageable self-care steps for personal development. These coaching engagements have resulted in students sidestepping burnout as they regain their balance with the additional responsibilities.
Gallup Strengths Finder
Discover your talents by takingthe Gallup Strengths Finder assessment for free! Through the coaching engagement, learn how to aim your strengths to make decisions for your professional and personal goals and in your daily activities. Using your unique strengths assessment results, the coach partners with you by asking insightful questions for you to better understand self and to gain clarity with your direction and next step.
New Manager/Leader Advisory
Becoming a new manager/leader or gaining a promotion can feel overwhelming, especially if you transition from an individual contributor role. Over the coaching engagement, the coach partners with you to help you better understand your leadership style and to explore possibilities in a variety of managing situations. These coaching engagements have resulted in students becoming more confident in their new leadership roles.
Coaching Success Story: Mark Stueber '23
MBA Coach Lisa Fournier sits down with Mark Stueber '23 to talk abou his experience with MBA's Coaching Connections. Mark is the Commercialization Development Manager at Michael Foods.
While pursing his MBA, Mark was a Coaching Connections client for several months where he homed in on the types of positions he wanted to apply for, refined his interview skills, and was encouraged to apply for positions outside of what he normally would have.
Learn more about Mark's experience, what a typical day of work at Michael Foods is like, and how Coaching Connections helped him find himself.
Meet the Coach
Dr. Lisa FournierProfessor of Management
Coach Lisa Fournier brings years of leadership, project management and entrepreneurial experience to the Coaching Connections program. Lisa partners with her clients and guides them in aligning who they are with where they are going. In addition to holding a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership and a Master in Project Management, Lisa is also a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and Integrative Health Coach.
“Since working with the coach, I have expanded into new spaces along with received a promotion in my current work.”
"I was able to see what I do every day is much of what I want to do later but I just didn't know the terminology. I was able to see how what I perceived as weaknesses can be used as strengths.”
“The coaching and mentoring helped me keep my focus on my core values and what was truly important to me as I worked through many professional issues.”
