Jill Bornstein received her ICF certification in June of 2021 and is the founder of Upnext Leadership Coaching. Jill specializes in developing new leaders, rising executives and high performing leadership teams. Her competencies as a successful growth accelerator, business strategist, team champion, and partnership builder were built during her prior business experiences as a Fortune 50 finance executive, an elected community leader, and a president of several nonprofit boards. Jill draws from this wealth of experience to help move her clients forward to reach their goals and prepare them for whatever’s up next in their careers.
Recently, Michael Neuendorff of Bay Area Executive Coach Training had the opportunity to talk with Jill about her career and her coaching journey.
Michael Neuendorff: I always find it interesting how people come to settle on a name for their businesses. How did you decide on “Upnext Leadership Coaching” as your business name?
Jill Bornstein: My goal is to offer clients a positive, upbeat environment that challenges them and moves them forward in ways that prepare them for what’s coming next. When I thought about a business name, I combined the “up” from upbeat with the “next” from coming next and felt that combination really embodied my coaching philosophy. When I work with clients, I want them to feel my positive view and I want them to imagine overcoming obstacles and really achieving. I challenge them to think: “what’s up next?” Whether it’s fundraising, whether it’s a promotion they want, whether it’s creating a new team environment or making choices about work-life balance – all of those things can be supported and accelerated with the right coaching.
Michael Neuendorff: I love that term “upbeat” and I try to bring that level of enthusiasm to my work as well. After 13 plus years, I’m still very excited about the work I do. You’ve been in business just over a year 
now. What have you learned about starting up a new coaching practice?
Jill Bornstein: There’s five key things that I’ve learned this year. First, make sure your client is really committed to being coached. I’ve had a few scenarios where someone was ordered by their boss to be coached or they were offered the free opportunity to be coached, and that kind of forced situation is seldom a successful and fulfilling relationship for either the coach or the coachee. You just end up wasting each other’s time.
Second, although you likely have a niche that’s going to be your space, when an opportunity comes along that maybe is not exactly in your niche, you still can have a committed relationship with that coachee. It makes sense to go for those kinds of engagements because you’ll learn a lot in the process of doing so.
Third, the coaching session structure really matters. The strong opening, the check-ins, and asking for client feedback at the end of the session is really important. If you don’t have that structured approach you’re just not going to be successful with the client.
Fourth is “listening.” The deeper you can listen the better, and from good listening the right questions to ask the client will just flow to you. Train yourself to hear those keywords.
And fifth, have your own coach. That’s very important. I have a coach I met through the Center for Executive Coaching a while back and we’ve continued a productive relationship to this day.
Michael Neuendorff: One thing I get from your answer is to be discerning with who you work with in the sense that they want to be coached. And that seems to be really important. I’ve heard this before, and I think it’s important for newer coaches to understand that this idea is not to be confused with your second idea, which is to choose to work with people who aren’t exactly in your niche. You don’t want to confuse the two.
Jill Bornstein: Exactly.
Michael Neuendorff: What’s worked for you to get your practice off the ground?
Jill Bornstein: I was actually pretty strategic in my first 100 certification hours. I went to some leaders that I knew and I asked them how I could work with some people on their team. I was able to prove myself as I completed my certification hours on more or less a barter basis. That was super helpful for getting the next engagement with them. The other thing I tried is using my network effectively and not just sending out emails that said in essence: “Hi, I’m a coach now.” I really thought about how receiving an email from me could be of real value to the recipient. How could it help them?
So strategically, I sorted my list and determined who’s in a new leadership role, who’s gone to a new company, and who might be concerned about building a better business culture. Then I started sending out targeted email communications to my network.
The last thing I did at the beginning of the year was to ask myself: “Well, what kind of mix of clients do I want to have this year? How much time do I want to spend in a team approach, meaning engaging with a leader and his or her team and working through team issues, versus one-on-one coaching?”
I also chose to partner with another coach who I met through the CEC and I’ve been subcontracted by her to help her run some larger projects. I also aligned myself with a platform coaching company and I’ve gotten some great experience through them. This combined strategy has worked really nicely this year to help me get valuable experiences by tackling a lot of issues clients find especially helpful.
Michael Neuendorff: And that leads me to ask: how are you helping leaders navigate the “new normal?”
Jill Bornstein: I’m doing a lot of culture rebooting with my coachee leaders. I’m really working on building true team engagement with them by helping them understand each individual on their team. Yesterday I was working with a leader and he said to me: “In our remote-work world, we’ve learned that we still need to come together once a quarter because we just can’t get deep enough working remotely.” A huge part of what I’ve been doing is helping teams adjust and adapt to “new normal” situations like that.
Michael Neuendorff: What do you do differently when it comes to working with teams versus coaching an individual leader?
Jill Bornstein: When I’m working one-on-one with the individual leader, we actually tend to focus more on a behavior of theirs and getting a mindset change from them. And when I’m working with teams, we tend to focus more on specific problems. Let’s say morale is the issue. I’ll work on fixing the organization’s overall morale as opposed to working one-on-one with the leader where I’m assisting them with mindset shifts. The coaching technique is different.
Michael Neuendorff: So, with the leader, you might be establishing a new behavior, for example, or seeking to change perception about how they see the situation or the world. But with the team, it’s somewhat more tactical in that you’re not necessarily trying to create a mindset shift in the team as much as help them to focus on their number one concern at the moment. 
Jill Bornstein: Yes exactly. For example, I started working with this leader and he came to me and said: “I need to work on accountability. I’m just not getting it from my team.” It became really evident we needed to shift his mindset.
There were silos in his team that inhibited their ability to work together. Once we started getting in there, we impacted accountability in his behaviors and he started adjusting how he worked. And it’s really been a great success for both him and his team in achieving what they need.
Michael Neuendorff: Your bio states you’re a partnership builder. What does that mean?
Jill Bornstein: When you think of a relationship between two people, one of the things that maybe isn’t always clear is what each person’s expectations of the other person are.
This lack of understanding is where the breakdowns happen.
When I think about a coaching partnership and my expectations of my coachees and their expectations of me, it’s upfront, we’ve contracted it, we know what it means, and therefore we can build and collaborate together. And I think if you don’t do that from a coaching standpoint, or even in your everyday interactions, when expectations aren’t clear, you just can’t get to where you want to go. To me that’s the big differentiator.
Michael Neuendorff: Do you find you need to explain partnership building to people when they read your bio?
Jill Bornstein: I’ll get into it when I’m talking to a potential client or once we start our engagement. Just reiterating what’s in my bio only works if we aren’t clear on our expectations about each other. We continually revisit that idea to make sure that expectations continue to be clear and that we’re also meeting each other’s expectations.
Michael Neuendorff: And that reminds me of what you had said earlier about being a little more discerning about who you work with. When expectations are clear, people want to be coached, they understand what coaching is, and that they have some big objectives that they’d like to work on. When those elements fall into place, the chances of success are much greater.
Jill Bornstein: Right, exactly.
Michael Neuendorff: So we talked about you working with leaders versus working with teams. When you work with leaders, do you focus on specific areas of leadership with them?
Jill Bornstein: One of the biggest areas they’ve been wanting support on is building trust, building cultures, and building connections because of the remote and hybrid situations that teams are now in. Without that focus, teams just don’t perform like they should. During COVID, it became accepted that we were just going through a special period, but now that we are moving into the new normal, leaders want to focus on that.
The second place that I’m spending a lot of time in right now is preparing leaders for a new role and then helping them throughout the transition. I had a client this year I was working with. She was looking to get to the director level and after she got it she said to me: “Well, I need you to stay with me. I need you to help coach me through the first four months because I’m in a new role and I need to make sure that I get off the ground in a great way.”
And then finally, the one other specific area that I am spending a lot of time in is with people who are leaders for the first time. I find this really interesting. I have four sons who are new to the working world and I’ve heard some alarming stories about the times they had managers who weren’t properly trained in leadership and how counterproductive that was for everyone affected. Oftentimes, the staff didn’t even have work assigned to them and they just sat around bored. I have a lot of passion for working with first-time leaders. It actually enables me to build a connection with the entire organization.
Michael Neuendorff: Fascinating. I think there’s a trend towards pushing coaching down to lower levels in the organization, because onboarding is not enough. Training is not enough. When you add coaching into the mix for newer leaders, it can make a big difference. Jill, I know you already have your coaching credential, and my understanding is that you’re working steadily towards your PCC credential. What’s been your experience in the marketplace with clients being interested in you having an ICF credential?
Jill Bornstein: It’s not that anyone specifically ever asked me for it, but I think the understanding that you have that credential goes a long way. While anyone can put their name out on the window that says they’re a coach, I think it gives my clients a lot of confidence to know that I’ve gone through a rigorous program. I’ve done my hours and I’ve taken a test to demonstrate my knowledge. And as coaching becomes more commoditized or, as you said, pushed down into the organizations, credentialing is even more important because as a profession, we need to maintain high standards. This is one way to make sure that happens.
Michael Neuendorff: I couldn’t agree more. I believe that the credential is not only a part of the hiring criteria, it works to make you a better coach. So even if the client didn’t require it, you already know you’re a better coach because of the journey that you’ve gone through to achieve that credential.
Jill Bornstein: Exactly.
Michael Neuendorff: What’s up next for you in your coaching journey?
Jill Bornstein: Three things. One is I really want to continue focusing on leaders who want to reboot their culture. And it’s not like adopting a new culture, it’s really about taking what they have and reinvigorating it. When you focus on better culture you get better performing teams.
Second, I have this passion for new leaders. I think it’s important to stay connected in that space because you learn so much from them that you can also impart to the experienced executives you’re working with.
And third, and this is a fun one, I’ve partnered with a standup comedian named Christina Leary. We’re working on a new program that talks about bringing joy into the workplace and using truth and joy to help engage the workplace culture. So it’s kind of a fun little twist on corporate training that we’re working on, which I’m really excited about.
Michael Neuendorff: Partnering with a standup comedian to develop corporate training! Yeah, that’s exciting. I’ll be really interested in learning more about that once you have the program together.
Jill Bornstein: It was one of those things we got together not knowing each other. And we walked out of there and we said: “Wow, like trust, truth and humor.” You know, if you can make them laugh, they take in your message. And so it’s been very interesting.
Michael Neuendorff: I actually saw a book recently that was written by at least one professor from Stanford about the importance of humor in the workplace.
Jill Bornstein: Yes. It’s becoming widely recognized.
Michael Neuendorff: My feeling throughout this interview, Jill, is that you’re loving your new life with Upnext. How has your life changed since you left the corporate world and went into running your own coaching practice?
Jill Bornstein: Well, there are a couple of things. One is I just love all the interesting people I’m working with. I feel like my network has gotten bigger since I left the corporate world and started my own practice. Two is flexibility that I find fantastic. I can take my laptop computer with me and work with my clients from any location that has an Internet connection. So that’s been really, really nice. And then the third thing I’ve learned through coaching is how to improve myself. The growth that’s on-going for me has been tremendous.
Michael Neuendorff: I can feel that and I resonate with that because that’s one of the reasons I entered into the field, because I knew that I could only help my clients if I myself were dedicated to learning and growing and becoming better. And that’s been the case. Thanks so much for being here with me today. It’s been really fun talking with you and you shared so much great wisdom that you’ve accumulated in a short amount of time getting your practice off the ground. Thanks for being so generous with us!
Jill Bornstein: Well, thank you for having me on Michael. I really enjoyed it.
You can view the video version of this interview by clicking this link.
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