Meet our Fall 2024 Fellow - Carrie Bero

We are happy to introduce you to Carrie Bero, a facilitator, program manager, lifelong learner, and an IFCE Certified Life and Leadership Coach. Carrie is an experienced leadership and organizational development professional with a commitment to fostering equitable and inclusive workspaces where everyone can thrive. Carrie was a student from our Winter 2024 Cohort and now returns as our 6th, Fall 2024 Fellow. During her time studying with the IFCE, Carrie demonstrated leadership and integrity.  She is also just a joy to work with and a caring and insightful coach. Not only did Carrie receive the highest Capstone project score in her cohort, 100% of her classmates would recommend her coaching services to their network. Read on to learn more about Carrie’s coaching work and what she has been up to since graduating. Follow her on LinkedIn to connect and check out her newly launched website to learn more about her offerings.

Can you tell us about yourself?

Hi, I'm Carrie! I’m a curious, reflective, and growth-oriented person. I carry many identities, including being a partner, and a mom to a funny and sweet six-year-old. I love being outdoors, hiking with friends, reading, writing, and experimenting as an amateur gardener. I find joy in thoughtful conversations, good books, and building genuine connections with others.

Professionally, I’ve spent over 10 years in education, leadership programming, and learning and development. My passion lies in developing people-centered leaders who strive to create equitable and inclusive organizations. I’m driven by the desire to support others in their personal and professional aspirations, implement equitable practices and processes, and build intentional communities where people can connect authentically with one another. 

What motivated you to become a coach?

Over the past 10 years, I've had a quiet curiosity about coaching. I love connecting with others and learning about what interests and motivates them. I believe it is meaningful and powerful to offer full presence to others by asking thoughtful questions and listening deeply. After exploring this curiosity around coaching over the years, I finally decided it was the time to pursue formal training and build my skills in community with others.

In my full-time job, coaching is an impactful skillset to complement the work I do every day: designing and delivering leadership development programming, providing training and resources to people leaders, and supporting our performance management process. I’m motivated to build trusting relationships with those I work with so we can partner more effectively to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. 

What services do you offer?

At my current employer, I offer one-on-one coaching to support individuals in taking

action to leverage their strengths, build their effectiveness, and work towards their career goals. In addition to offering internal coaching at my employer, I am working to launch a life and leadership coaching business. Through this business, I will partner with clients to help them get clear on their values and goals, explore what is most important to them, and identify meaningful and actionable next steps. For leadership coaching, I am particularly interested in working with clients who believe equity, inclusion, belonging, and diversity are inextricable to providing strong, people-centered leadership. For life coaching, I’m eager to partner with individuals who seek to unlearn perfectionism and the grind of productivity, and who desire to explore their values to reimagine and build a more beautiful and fulfilling values-aligned life. 

What are your core values and how do you approach coaching?

My core values include equity, growth, integrity, intentionality and presence. I approach coaching as a partnership and intentionally work to build trust with those I partner with. In the coaching process, we work together to get clear on the person’s values, goals, motivations, and how they can work towards their goals in a values-aligned way.

In my coaching practice, I offer a calm and curious presence, ask questions, offer observations, and lean into pauses and silence as an opportunity for reflection. What was it like being an IFCE student?

Being an IFCE student was a continuous invitation to step outside my comfort zone. The instructors created a supportive environment where we could learn, apply, and practice coaching fundamentals. The cohort model fostered meaningful connections with thoughtful, brilliant peers, each of whom taught me something new and exposed me to different coaching approaches and passions. I loved hearing about their motivations, values, and how they intended to connect with and support others. (Shout out to the Winter 2024 Cohort - y’all are the best!)

Two aspects of the program I especially valued were peer coaching and the feedback from mentor coaching sessions. Through peer coaching, I met weekly with a classmate to process what we were learning and practice our coaching skills together. The mentor coaching sessions provided detailed feedback on my recorded coaching sessions, helping me to build self-awareness, experiment with new approaches, and grow more confident in trusting both my skills and intuition.

What have you been up to since graduation?

Since graduation, I’ve stayed focused on continued learning and skill development. I coach on a weekly basis, with peers from the program, and internally at my current employer. This intentional and consistent coaching work is especially important to me because it keeps me grounded in my personal why: connecting meaningfully with others to support them as they work towards their personal and professional goals in a values-aligned process. 

In addition to weekly coaching, I have also continued to explore and take action on business development, using much of what I learned from the IFCE business module. I’m eager to build a strong foundation to be able to connect with a few clients in the near-future. 

What advice would you give to individuals thinking about becoming a coach?

Explore and listen to your curiosities, get clear on your “why”, and stay grounded in your values. Coaching is incredibly rewarding and every coach brings their own perspectives and skills to the process, in service of the client. Figure out what you uniquely have to offer!

Interested in working with Carie?

To learn more about Carrie’s work as a Life and Leadership Coach, check out her newly launched website, email her directly, and follow her on LinkedIn. You can also visit her alumni profile on the IFCE website to learn more about her work.

Carrie is a compassionate and heart centered coach. 100% of her peers enthusiastically recommended her coaching services. We appreciate the integrity, joy, and care that Carrie brings to her coaching work and all that she puts her mind to. We can’t wait to see what comes next in her journey. Please join us in following along to see what comes next!