Scale

Who is Scale?

Scale is a coaching organization focused on founders, executives and leaders. Scale is led by Virginia Bauman and Casey Gipson, former founders and executives themselves, who understand first-hand the value of coaching.

Who do you coach?

Our clients tend to be founders and executives. This page details how we help founders and executives who are seeking cooperative support for managing ADHD. Often they are seeking to develop new skills, learn more about their specific ADHD, and organize their roles and responsibilities to suit their current functional challenges.

Managing ADHD for executives and founders often involves creating more productive relationships within their company in addition to managing their own executive function, motivation, and mindset.

Our clients usually have the ability to pay for this work through their company (through funding or revenue).

How do you structure your engagements?

We work on a monthly retainer and do not have contractual multi-month agreements, however we recommend at least a 3 month engagement to get the most out of our time together.

For ADHD clients we recommend weekly touch points, alternating between coaching calls that last an hour and shorter supportive check-in calls where we see how you are relative to your intentions and help you to make supportive changes.

We are also available to clients during set office hours for additional support.

How do we kick off the relationship?

We have an ADHD specific questionnaire to understand more about your current challenges (ADHD is highly contextual). Our first session will be a deep dive to review your answers to this questionnaire and will help us design our time together.

ADHD education is an important part of what we do. At the beginning of each relationship we look for opportunities to increase clients awareness of ADHD in a lightweight fashion. We may recommend attending our ADHD for Leadership Primer or clients through a subset of that material. ADHD education supports both client and coach communicating effectively with a shared language.

Where does coaching happen?

Sessions are often over the phone. We have found video to be distracting and limiting. Working on the phone allows client and coach to listen deeply and allows for either person to engage in dual attention stimuli more freely. We also encourage this medium as a way for clients to practice attentive active listening. We may occasionally recommend video, but only if it’s additive (for instance if we are doing a physical problem solving externalization where visuals are important).

How much time should I plan on dedicating to this?

Engagement will explicitly take 2-4 hours of your calendar a month. Sessions are 60 minutes, but sometimes we suggest additional time if something is unresolved and we are close to finding clarity. Preparation or follow-up for our sessions does happen, but that work is in support of your goals.

When do you coach?

We coach from 9 am-5 pm EST, Monday through Friday.

How do I prep for a session?

Some clients like to reflect on a list of questions prior to a session. Others prefer to show up and use the spaciousness of the session to see what is most valuable to explore together. How you like to work determines how much pre-session process we want to commit to.

Can you walk me through a typical session?

First, we check-in, sharing what state we are in. We talk about what has happened in between sessions. We identify any trouble spots as it relates to your specific experience of ADHD, whether it’s in executive function, motivation, emotional regulation, or awareness. We then determine the focus area for the session based on your current desired goals. We use the bulk of the time to explore your topic of choice; in this section, we ground in your full self as much as possible to tap into your creativity, your curiosity, your confidence, and your courage. I keep time and when we get to the final 15 minutes of the session we bottom line what you're taking away and define any commitments and accountability structures that feel supportive.

If I need something in between sessions, are you available?

Absolutely. We encourage folks to text, email, and are happy to schedule short conversations for small matters or move up session times if need be. We answer questions, share resources, and give feedback to my clients outside of sessions frequently.

How do you handle feedback?

Proactively! We schedule a feedback session after the first two months of working together and determine how often we'd like to check-in after that. I always welcome feedback in writing or verbally at the end of any session. It's important to co-create our feedback process so that it is accessible to you. If I say something that creates harm you are never obligated to tell me, but I do welcome and invite you to do so. By addressing harm with me you should know that you will not be asked to hold the emotions that come up for me. I have my own coach and therapist along with peer support. I am committed to your safety and explicitly design the capacity in my work to be able to hold the gravity of reparative processes.