Sandra Martínez
Leadership Coach

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“Much of coaching is about activating the curiosity and courage of the client to explore beyond their current (and perhaps less conscious) ways of thinking and acting so that they may grow to become more resilient and effective leaders.”

Sandra believes in an individual’s capacity to expand their awareness and to learn to thrive amid the challenges that life presents.  She experienced the tests of leadership first-hand, having worked as an entrepreneur and consultant in numerous sectors, including healthcare, tech, the arts, finance, and national security.

Sandra creates a safe environment for explorative conversations while encouraging constructive shifts in perspective, reflection about assumptions, and experimentation on the part of the client to expand their range of behaviors beyond their current patterns.  In this way, clients are able to build their resilience, elevate their level of confidence, and learn to exercise better judgment.  Sandra seeks to reduce stress for the client by expanding their understanding of self and context and helping them develop skills so they can move with greater ease in urgent, volatile, ambiguous, and conflicted situations.  She is a quick study in discerning the client’s business context and the organizational dynamics the client is experiencing.

In recent years, she has conducted workshops, both in-person and virtually, to support leaders in navigating the complexity of their leadership challenges, as well as in developing greater understanding and elevated skills in conducting inclusive conversations and learning in the context of race and racism.  Her work as an executive coach supports national and global C-suite teams and virtual tech teams to build trust and bring alignment, collaboration and coordination to vision, strategy and execution, scenario planning, decision-making in uncertainty, organizational culture and change, innovation, complexity, paradox and polarities, and applied diversity & inclusion work.

Sandra earned a doctorate in Business Administration with a focus on leadership and organizational culture and change.  She was an adjunct instructor and researcher at the Wharton School.  She served as the Defense Transformation Chair at the US Army War College.  She has presented internationally on effective leadership in complex environments and authored numerous publications.  She remains abreast of advances in our understanding of leadership, complexity and strategy.

Experience

  • 15 years coaching senior leaders in all sectors and with a global scope
  • 20 years working as a consultant in organizational culture, change and strategy in the public and private sectors
  • Published in international journals and book chapters on the subject of leadership
  • Former faculty member of the US Army War College
  • Adjunct instructor and researcher, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
  • Worked for three years in Latin America supporting female entrepreneurs and regional family businesses

Education

  • Ph.D., Business Administration, Focused on Leadership and Organizational Behavior, New Mexico State University
  • M.A., International Management and Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico
  • B.A., Music, Colorado Women’s College
  • International Coach Federation Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
  • Assessor/Scorer for Maturity Assessment Profile (MAP), measuring stage of adult development (vertical development)
  • Polarity Mastery Program
  • Assessment Certifications: Leadership Circle Profile, MBTI, FIRO-B, DISC, EQi, Enneagram, Polarity Thinking Assessment

Personal

  • Avid pianist playing classical favorites and learning jazz
  • Before coaching and consulting career, owned and directed a gallery of contemporary art representing contemporary US and Mexican artists
  • Fluent in Spanish

Learn more about Nebo’s services.

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