Performance & Clarity Coaching at Stoa Life

Coaching

Think Clearly · Act Deliberately · Get Unstuck

Strategic coaching for high-performing individuals seeking clarity and results.

Our coaching is not therapy. It’s forward-focused, structured, and designed for high-functioning individuals ready to create change. Whether you’re navigating a career pivot, decision fatigue, or simply feel stuck, we’ll help you clarify goals, remove mental roadblocks, and build momentum.

How Coaching Supports Lasting Change

“I would like to share my experiences working with Catherine Hunt as she led my small government contracting company’s efforts to transform our leadership team and some of our key management, training, and hiring practices.

Catherine is uniquely qualified with a wide range of professional experiences that allows her to bring real-world, simple to understand solutions to any organization looking for a transformative change. She is a licensed psychotherapist, a former Federal Law Enforcement and Intelligence Officer, a business owner, a life/business coach, and has extensive experience in quality control planning, business leadership/management and well versed in international and cultural affairs.

My company has a requirement to hire individuals with no experience, very diverse backgrounds (age, gender, race), process them to receive a government security clearance and then train them to a high degree of expertise to function as specialized role-players for our customers. The cost of this in-house company training was about $1350 per employee with the annual cost exceedingly over $100,000. The problem was that a high turn-over rate of over 35% was not providing us a good return on investment. We asked Catherine to look at our hiring and training methodology to determine how to lower the turn-over rate and thus decrease our training costs.

Catherine quicky determined that we were not properly screening our candidates before hiring them. She suggested there are some personality traits/attributes that were not suited for the specific task we were training them for. Basically, we were hiring individuals that despite good qualifications and attitudes were destined to either fail our training or not meet our performance standards after passing the training. Additionally, she identified areas in our training cadre that needed improvement.

To address the screening problem, Catherine developed a tool or test we could administer to each candidate before hiring them. The tool was derived by using the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) 260 instrument, an off-the-shelf psychological inventory assessment.

Catherine’s research team adapted the CPI to determine the presence of positive or negative attributes indicating potential success or failure. The research involved conducting interviews and screening over 40 current employees to establish a baseline for the CPI. This was followed by several cycles of testing employees, analyzing the results, and reworking the test. The result was a test that could be given to any potential candidate as part of the screening process. An important and key factor is that the test was developed to avoid any discriminatory bias. As such, the test is legally defensible and certified to eliminate candidates without fear of legal retribution.

As I mentioned above, during this process, Catherine also discovered some underlying issues between our training instructors and our management team that was negatively impacting the delivery of training. To address these issues (lack of communications), Catherine led a three-day seminar which included using the Myers-Briggs assessment tool in conjunction with teamwork, team building and conflict resolution exercises as well as individual coaching sessions with our employees.

The results of Catherine work with my company were nothing short of extraordinary. The CPI based Pre-Employment Personality Assessment and Screening Test she developed resulted in a 87% decrease in our turn-over rate, significantly reducing our annual training costs. Additionally, the test has provided my company with a unique tool that provides the company with a significant competitive advantage as it clearly differentiates us from our competition. This test provides EKS with a higher quality of individuals, thereby enhancing our clients’ training. Her training seminar led to a significant improvement of our training cadre’s communication skills greatly improving our final product – fully qualified specialized role-players.

There is a natural hesitation from business owners to bring “outside” expertise to “fix” or uncover potential internal problems. I felt the same way and believed I could properly address my own company’s issues without any external assistance. However, many times it does take an outsider to identify and correct these problems. Catherine has a unique ability to gain an employee’s confidence and trust. She listens and can see through the fog to pinpoint the root causes of a specific problem. After identifying the problem, Catherine can clearly implement solutions that are lasting and provide immediate returns on investment. Her advice is always on point, relevant and without judgement.

She is no ordinary coach/therapist – one that may just have a degree with limited business and life experiences. Catherine’s vast “people/life” experience in highly diverse settings within the government and business private sector, domestic and international settings all come to bear with her services.

I unequivocally recommend Catherine Hunt and Stoa Life. Yes, she transformed our company by giving us a unique tool; yes, she improved our bottom-line; however, the most important benefit was learning and improving my own management/leadership abilities by observing her work with my employees. She is my secret weapon, oops, I just let the cat out of the bag.“