Michelle Lewis, Director of Intellectual Property and Licensing, Circuit Therapeutics
I worked with Bob during my job transition through Lee Hecht Harrison and found his input to be highly relevant and helpful. He offered useful job search strategies, resume revisions, networking approaches, and interview techniques. He was also terrific at keeping my views realistic as the job search went on and was highly encouraging during the inevitable ups and downs of the process. I also greatly valued his brainstorming input during the negotiation process. I would recommend him for anyone seeking a well-connected job search coach, and particularly those seeking senior level positions in the high tech or biopharma business.
Mandy Schumaker, Principal and Coach, Higher Performing People
I am so grateful to Bob Loftis and NowForward Coaching. To have someone with Bob’s experience, tools, patience, and intuition to work with me has been amazing, freeing, and transformative. I have recently been out of work for a year (by design) but was struggling with moving forward down a career path that would be a good fit, fulfilling and matching my values. I felt TOTALLY stuck. Since working with Bob, I have been able to become crystal clear on what’s important to me in my life, what’s important to me in my professional life and use some tools that Bob taught me to stay anchored in those areas. I’ve been able to work through the self-induced roadblocks that were preventing me from finding the right next job in my career. I have since gotten clear on my path and Bob helped facilitate and guide me through the next steps to gracefully launch me into my new adventure. With Bob’s help I’ve been able to:
Get unstuck in my professional life
Determine what’s important to me (my values) in my professional life
Navigate a path for myself that is fulfilling, inspiring, and feels complete.
Bob, I can’t thank you enough for your coaching gifts, you are amazing!
Phil Nash, Senior Director, Industry Analyst Relations at DataStax
I’ve worked with Bob in two settings: at Symantec, where he facilitated career coaching and leadership development workshops, and as a career counselor advising me during our one-on-one sessions. In both settings I found him effective, reassuring, and inspiring. Bob combines practical advice with a warm, positive manner that motivates both personal and career development. By nature, this kind of work can be difficult, as it requires a certain level of self-assessment. He doesn’t sugar coat the evaluations and feedback necessary for true learning and change. He provides encouraging insights designed to help you find the right next opportunity or to handle a professional growth challenge. If you, or your company, are in need of career growth support and effective leadership development, a conversation with Bob is a good place to start!
Les Taylor, Executive Coach | Career Consultant | Leadership Development at CanQuest Cnsulting
I have not seen a more extraordinarily gifted networker who finds ways to connect people with possibilities. Being attuned to all business environments, Bob creates relevance through his curiosity to understand what the business drivers and obstacles are. He easily acclimatizes in coaching, training or organizational interventions to ensure he is aligning to the relevance to the desired outcomes and strategy. This goal orientation makes accountability for commitments an integral part of the client experience. Bob is well known and highly reputed for his results-oriented approach to career development. With heart and business acumen, he enables clients to define and position themselves and their brand confidently. He has been sought out by high potentials and senior leaders to move the needle on themselves and their teams.
Cheryl Gutierrez, Manager, Customer Experience, Global Support Community, Apple Computer
I was lucky to work with Bob at a critical time in my career, and my life overall. He was able to not only help me focus, but get my priorities in order. He used valuable techniques and tactics I still use today. He was always able to ground me regardless of the chaos that was surrounding me. I felt he was my biggest advocate and he helped me realize key potential. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Bob. I enjoyed his balanced approach and he quickly gained my trust. He helped me turn difficult times into a gift that took me on a path toward reaching my goals. Because of his encouragement, I pushed hard and achieved those goals: I more fully realized and used my strengths. In the end, I aimed high, negotiated confidently, and got more than I would have hoped for. Thank you, Bob.
Anita Kapadia, PMP, Senior Technical Program Manager at VMware
Bob is an excellent career coach. While coaching me, he first listened to understand my career goals. He worked with me on practical steps I could take to achieve my goals, and then guided me as I took those steps. Bob checked my progress regularly, and helped me stay positive when setbacks occurred. I felt empowered with him in my corner, helping me.
Bob also facilitated career-coaching sessions for women contributors at Symantec, emphasizing communication and leadership skills. In these sessions, Bob shared his valuable expertise. He collaborated with senior executives invited to speak on topics, and had participants practice what we learned. This 3-pronged approach was powerful, ensuring we learned by both listening and doing. I would highly recommend Bob's services to anyone who is in career transition, or interested in finding the next challenging opportunity, or even changing direction.
Robert provided me with invaluable assistance and coaching. I was getting back into job search after a long time at one company, so the resume - interview - networking strategy has changed a lot. Robert helped me effectively present my successes and skills in a new perspective, with a vastly-improved resume He guided me in refocusing my career possibilities and goals. He encouraged me to take some risk in smart ways, based on my values. After we spent time defining exactly what type of position I was looking for, we practiced interview skills, both on the phone and in person. The next time I went in for an interview, I aced it!
Nicole Hawkins, Sales Enablement Program Manager, Pure Storage
I started working with Bob to better define and realize my professional goals. Bob is a wonderfully skilled coach, a great listener and he’s easy to talk with. He provided a safe place for me to explore my possibilities and he encouraged me to move toward my greatest potential. He had strategies to help me break through my blocks in a productive way, while supporting and not judging. He challenged me to recognize my real feelings and needed actions. By better understanding myself as a whole person, I was able to clearly see my preferences, skills, and achievements. Through this process, I've increased my confidence. I've also refocused my vision for my life, and how I will create that vision. And this continues.
Lisa Engstrom, Director of Sales Operations, Symantec
Bob was my career coach during a highly transformational time for me this year. I was changing roles and had relocated to the US, so there were a lot of moving parts, sometimes working together, and sometimes less so. Bob helped me focus and move forward in areas that made the biggest difference to me. Our sessions equipped me to meet challenges much better, and much sooner, than expected. Best of all, I was growing in my impact as an Agile leader.
Previously, having these types of conversations seemed ‘heavy’ for me. I had the opposite experience with Bob: sessions were exploratory, broadening my field of vision. I would walk out with more energy and purpose. Due to the nature of changes I faced, and the pace, my coaching goals evolved, and Bob was very perceptive in adapting. As we were finishing the coaching process, I was fortunate to be promoted. I have no doubt that these sessions helped me step up and demonstrate that I was ready.