For Dianna Anderson, leadership has been an integral part of her life since her early years. Reflecting on her upbringing, she shares, “Growing up, gymnastics and leadership were intertwined for me. As long as I can remember, I was obsessed with gymnastics.”
Despite the lack of competitive gymnastics programs in her area, Dianna’s passion for the sport drove her to seek opportunities wherever she could find them. As Dianna recalls, “At fourteen, I became the head coach for the after-school children’s gymnastics program for our city where I led a small team of fellow gymnasts from my high school to teach kids the basics of the sport we loved.”
Dianna would go on to coach her high school gymnastics team for two years after the coach left, while also coaching herself to multiple years of provincial-level success. This early formative experience deeply influenced her approach to leadership, and instilled in her a passion for helping others realize their potential.
From Early Career to Coaching Pioneer
Dianna’s professional journey into coaching began with a serendipitous discovery in 1994. She recalls, “I opened the newspaper in Houston and read one of the first articles written about this new thing called professional coaching. I knew immediately I wanted to do that.” This revelation led her to become one of the first graduates of Coach University and a founding member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), making her part of the early wave of professional coaches who shaped the profession. She recalls conversations at the first ICF conference where participants pondered whether coaching would take off or not; “We weren’t sure!”
As she began her coaching practice, Dianna noticed a recurring theme: her clients were most successful when they adopted a coaching approach to leadership. “When people got curious about how others viewed situations, asked questions instead of pushing answers, and focused on finding common ground, they were able to resolve differences, build stronger relationships, and get things done.” This realization was a turning point, leading her to develop an “in the moment” coaching approach that could be integrated into everyday conversations. She did this at a time when it was widely held that coaching could only be done by expensive, professionally trained coaches in hour-long sessions.
The Birth of Cylient and the Coaching Culture
By 2005 Dianna could see the transformative potential of “in the moment” coaching as the foundation of organizational culture. After co-authoring the first textbook on the ROI of coaching, Dianna and her partner joined their respective companies together to focus on creating coaching cultures. They eventually renamed the company Cylient, which Dianna explains is “a derivative of the word consilience that means unity of knowledge where different fields connect through shared truth.”
At the heart of Cylient’s philosophy is the concept of a “Safe and Seen” coaching culture. Dianna describes this culture as one where traditional leadership, focused on controlling processes, is balanced with a coaching-based approach that emphasizes realizing human potential. “The intention of a coaching culture is to wire up a new shared worldview of leadership that empowers the organization to navigate complex change more effectively by intertwining these leadership styles in a balance that is appropriate to their industry and values.”
Transformative Impact on Organizations
Cylient’s “Coaching in the Moment” workshop have made a significant impact globally, with over 55,000 participants. The shared language and approach fostered by Cylient’s methods have led to profound organizational changes. Dianna shared that, “One of our clients that did pre and post measurement through their enterprise-wide engagement survey saw improvements of as much as 9 percent in all areas where individuals rated their experiences with their supervisors. Another client demonstrated significant positive impacts on team retention, employee satisfaction, and engagement.”
Dianna highlights the practical benefits of establishing a coaching culture, noting that, “Our clients consistently report leaving our workshops with the confidence to engage in conversations they previously avoided. And those are consistently the conversations that get things done.” In a recent implementation with mid-level managers 98 percent of participants reported being able to use their new skills immediately. As one client put it, “Coaching in the Moment is positive, practical and intuitive. It has helped me get to underlying behaviors that were influencing poor performance. The entire concept of Untying the Knot is useful to me not only as a manager, but also to help other managers untie knots and get to the heart of issues.”
The Future of Coaching in Organizations
Looking ahead, Dianna is passionate about the future of coaching in leadership. She hopes that “within the next decade what we now call insight-based coaching will be ingrained as the globally preferred leadership style.” However, she also expresses concern that the current emphasis on everyone having access to a professional coach might overshadow the drive to instill coaching as a leadership style. “It gives the impression that the responsibility to offer coaching lies with the professional coaches, rather than with the leaders of an organization,” she explains, emphasizing the need for leaders—and all people—to integrate “in the moment” coaching into their daily interactions.
“The ROI lies in balancing these two approaches,” she asserts, highlighting the need for coaching to efficiently deliver value to avoid being viewed as too expensive to be scalable, which caused the demise of some early attempts to build coaching cultures. Dianna offered the analogy that “teaching leaders “in the moment” coaching skills is like providing them with home repair toolkits that enable them to handle more challenging conversations by themselves, in the flow of work. Professional coaching services will still be needed to support people through more complex challenges, just like calling in professionals to do more complex home repairs.” Dianna observers that, “The better leaders are at using their “in the moment” coaching skills, the higher the ROI of a coaching culture will be.”
Rewarding Moments and Vision for the Future
Throughout her career, Dianna has been deeply moved by the stories of those who have used Cylient’s methods to overcome challenges and build stronger relationships. “Some of the most rewarding moments in my career have come when teams or even an entire division of a company used Untying the Knot as a shared language that united people to take on challenges that eluded them previously.” These experiences continue to fuel her belief in the power of coaching to bring about meaningful change, increasingly, at scale.
Looking to the future, Dianna is excited about her upcoming book, which she believes has the potential to guide organizations –and even the world—toward a more sustainable future. “I’m currently working on a book that shares my vision of how wiring up Untying the Knot as a leadership style and globally shared language of change has the power to put the world on a path to a more sustaining and sustainable future.” She sees the evolution of “in the moment” coaching as essential to addressing the complexities of today’s world, and her book invites readers to join this journey to co-create a brighter future.
Conclusion
Dianna Anderson’s journey from a passionate gymnast to a pioneering force in the world of coaching reflects her unwavering commitment to leadership, learning, and the realization of human potential. Through Cylient, she has created a legacy that continues to transform organizations and inspire leaders worldwide. Her work not only shapes the future of leadership but also embodies her belief that meaningful change is only possible through meaningful conversations that inspire people to take courageous action, together.
