How Your Mindset Shapes Your Audience’s Journey
Dana M. Smith, CHRO, board director, executive coach, and philanthropist learned at an early age that performance is “not about you, it’s about the audience.” It is about giving a gift to them through your telling of a story. It is about getting out of your own head. When people are overly focused on technique, they go inward, and it becomes about them. They lose the connectedness and the fact that it is about the relationship.
Focusing on the other allows Dana to listen deeply to whoever she is relating to – whether as a coach focusing on the client or as a board director focusing on the CEO. As an executive coach, she helps her clients to listen attentively to their Boards, C-suites, employees, and other stakeholders. Focusing on the other allows people to trust that all their hard work and preparation will be accessible when it is needed most. It provides the foundation for real business influence and impact.
Dana Smith on Executive Coaching and Reframing Your Mindset
In her coaching work, Dana stays nimble, pivots as needed, and meets clients “where they are at” – whether it be holding their larger agenda or the smaller agenda that runs through it. She helps clients process emotions, connect to their values, envision their futures, and expand their perspectives – all within the context of the business outcomes they are working to effectuate. Dana also keenly understands the difference between executive coaching, advising/thought partnering, consulting, counseling, and facilitating.
Often, clients think they need to eradicate negative self-talk. We are human beings, so invariably we will have all types of thoughts running through our heads all day – some positive, some negative. How do we change our relationship to those critical thoughts? How do we befriend them? How do we invite them in and do what we need to do anyway? How do we make room for uncomfortable feelings and bring them along? As in meditation, how do we have negative thoughts “move by like ‘leaves on a stream’” and not judge ourselves for having them and not fuse with them?
A simple reframe about one’s nerves – or shifting one’s relationship to their audience – can have a powerful impact. For example, do people tell themselves the audience is “against” them or wants them to succeed? Perhaps what they are really feeling is excited energy that can be harnessed.
A Mindset Shift in Action
One of Dana’s clients, a VP-level executive, wanted to improve the savviness of her communication, her executive presence, and her strategic orientation. Throughout their relationship, the VP was promoted to SVP and earned a seat at the executive table.
Stakeholders noted a “flip in the switch” in her approach, recognizing her growing confidence, capacity to influence, and ability to serve as a true business advisor to the C-Suite. Due to her people practices, the organization advanced significantly on Fortune’s Best Places to Work list.
Dana Smith’s Coaching Philosophy: Embracing Purposeful Connection and Impact
Dana possesses a Broadway background performing for tens of thousands of people, a masters in organizational counseling with a significant clinical component, executive coach-specific training, and a corporate career encompassing running HR and other functions for three public companies. She brings operating business and private equity experience to her work. She brings her full self, and all of her life experiences, to her clients and recognizes that they too carry their own life experiences to the partnership.
Dana Smith’s approach to coaching centers on the notion that people can realize strong business outcomes and live whole lives (in their communities, workplaces, relationships) in accordance with their values. “Coaching,” she says, “is about helping people see beyond what they think they’re capable of and discovering what truly drives them.” She focuses on shifting her clients’ mindsets to what is possible to facilitate growth. Growth can come in many forms (e.g., expanding market share, realizing an IPO, learning artificial intelligence, supporting health of the underserved, etc.)
Dana may encourage her clients to define their purpose through powerful questions: What do you want your impact to be? How do you want to be remembered? What footprint do you want to leave behind? Inquiries like these help them broaden their difference-making, often in a multiplicative way, and create a path that feels authentic to them – not a reflection of what society tells them they should be.
About Dana M. Smith
Dana has sat in the chair at the executive table. She has spent her career building high-performing teams and developing strong organizational cultures. With her guidance, Board members and executives have successfully managed transitions, driven organizational growth, and increased profitability.
She works with leaders facing complex challenges—whether they are balancing short-term and long-term priorities, finding the right equilibrium between authenticity and conformance to a corporate culture, or meeting the demands of business performance in a rapidly-changing world.
Alongside her professional achievements, Dana is a dedicated community leader. She is on the board of The Y in Central Maryland, where she has served as 1st Vice Chair and Board Governance and Nominating Committee Chair. Dana is also a director with Theater Washington’s board.
