Client Spotlight: Sherri Nixon
When Jonathan Robert, CEO of Crushrite Concrete and now an FOM Coach, initially went through our coaching program, his Terminal Manager, Sherri Nixon, noticed big changes. He began using what he learned from coaching with his employees and when work crises arose. He also encouraged his team to journal and to discuss their challenges directly with him. “When Jon brings a new initiative to us, I get excited,” says Sherri. So when Jon offered Sherri the chance to get coached with FOM, she jumped at the opportunity.
Sherri was matched with FOM Coach Lynn Stevens, who she describes as insightful, graceful, relatable and compassionate. “I loved absolutely every minute that I spent with Lynn,” says Sherri. “She has a unique ability to put everything in perspective through her coaching skills and life experiences.”
Before coaching, Sherri was struggling to meet her high expectations of herself. “I spent a considerable amount of my life not reaching my goals and being hard on myself for it,” she says. “I used to see it as failure.” Since coaching with Lynn, Sherri is no longer as hard on herself and allows herself to re-evaluate and re-establish her goals as she progresses. “It has been so freeing to no longer feel guilty and instead learn lessons from my past.”
Though she never would have described herself as a control freak, coaching showed her that she had perpetually been trying to control situations, that she liked being right and that she wanted others to know it. Now, Sherri employs a specific FOM Coaching™ tool daily, both at work and at home: “Let go of that which you cannot control.”
At work, Sherri used to monopolize meetings and make snap evaluations about people. Now she listens and doesn’t judge. “I have the confidence to discuss things at work that I didn’t before,” she says. “I can give people the information they need and it’s up to them how they respond.”
At home, Sherri’s husband has noticed that she’s now able to look at the big picture rather than focusing on what’s going wrong, which she used to do. “It’s as if you’re taking medication, but you’re not!” he told her.
A fellow Crushrite Concrete employee, someone who works in a totally different manner than Sherri, was also coached with FOM. Since coaching they have both been able to appreciate each other’s skills and leverage those strengths to get the job done as a team. Coaching gave them the ability to talk without their comments being viewed as criticism or judgment.
After her 1:1 coaching program ended and while in our maintenance program, Sherri experienced two particularly tumultuous and life-altering events – she lost her entire home in a fire and became responsible for parenting her grandson. “I can say with 100% confidence that had Lynn not been there to encourage me to use the skills I learned during coaching, I would have had a hard time surviving that mentally,” says Sherri. “I will be eternally grateful for having Lynn in my life.”
After the fire, many people remarked to Sherri that, “at least no one was hurt,” but she was hurt, emotionally. Lynn helped her take the time she needed to grieve and process her thoughts and to put things in perspective.
When it comes to parenting her active and inquisitive 20-month-old grandson, the tools she gained from coaching have been put to good use. Her mental load is lighter and she feels free and unencumbered, enabling her to properly focus on her grandson.
Sherri sees coaching as a key tool for addressing recurring issues in our lives. “If you don’t deal with the big issues in your life, all the little stuff becomes collateral damage,” she says. “You can put band-aids on those issues, but they’ll keep coming up until you have the tools to deal with what’s really causing the turmoil.”