Robin Camarote
How great leaders transform workplaces at Robin Camarote Consulting and Coaching
Leadership
Education: James Madison University
Washington D.C., DC, USA
Biography
Robin Camarote is an executive coach, facilitator, consultant, and speaker. She’s on a mission to help ambitious, goal-oriented leaders get the outcomes they want at work and in life by seeing their potential, focusing their efforts, and managing time.
Over the past two decades supporting clients in government and private businesses, she has consulted a variety of people and groups looking to improve their effectiveness, up their impact, and get more done. From interpersonal aspects of work to analytical and technical tasks, she helps clients clarify what is needed, what is missing, and what is next within their business. She engage with clients in three primary ways:
Individuals: Robin coaches motivated and determined people how to get outcomes they want at work and in life. Her approach is to help others see their potential, focus their efforts, and take steps towards their goals. She is an International Coaching Federation (ICF)-Certified executive coach.
Leaders & Teams: Robin assists with leadership development and employee engagement workshops and meetings. She brings an organizational development coaching mindset to her consulting work, which encourages long-term, transformational change.
Companies: Robin partners with companies to design leadership and employee growth-strategies to further their goals.
Passion
I am a creative problem-solver who is hell-bent on helping others get the results they want in life and work. As a strategy consultant and executive coach, I enter every engagement with resourcefulness, tenacity, and a can-do attitude. (All the credit goes to my no-nonsense parents who modelled this for me at a young age). In fact, I thrive in chaos; I scan for patterns, make connections, and design a way forward.
I am most passionate about helping others get more impact and fulfillment out of the time invested at work. I believe life is both too short-- and too long- to spend it spinning your wheels professionally.
Outside of work, I love traveling with my husband and kids, trail running, and cooking from my garden.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
Everything is negotiable
Topics
Best Story
I got a job in a big management consulting firm after college, and I loved it.
For the first decade, I steadily climbed the corporate ladder. My management style- a kind of benevolent dictatorship- seemed to be holding up as I got more experience on increasingly bigger projects. Finally, I won a big promotion.
With it, I got a new team assigned to me. I went from peer to boss overnight. The heat was on, but I was too busy being busy to realize what was happening. When I called my first meeting after the promotion, I felt particularly overwhelmed.
I felt that explaining why I wanted things my way to my new team slowed us down. Under increasing pressure, my management style shifted from a caring, benevolent dictator to a dictator – plain and simple. Honestly, looking back, I was mean. Certainly, without intending to, I’d become the world’s worst manager.
There were warning signs. There was pushback. The team pointed out problems and asked for changes. And I resented them for wasting my time. Then, one Friday afternoon, half of my team quit. 10 people out of 20.
As the last one walked out, I knew what was about to happen. I started to cry. Like an ugly cry. I had failed big time and hurt a number of people in the process. I put my face down on my desk. The tears made my cheek stick to all the papers and post-it notes. At that moment, suctioned to the desktop, I decided that I was going to be a good manager.
Figuring out what “being a good manager” meant has taken me on a 15+ year journey of learning, coaching, practice, and second chances that I’ll forever be grateful for. That moment changed the trajectory of my career. And the core of what I learned is this truth. No one wants to be managed.
People want to lead and be led. We must fundamentally rethink how we’re organized and how work gets done. We must lead the people, manage the work, and own our outcomes. Together.
Origin Story
Thinking I was taking a break before law school, I kind of "fell" into consulting after college. I quickly realized I loved working—I loved my office and colleagues, I loved the pace, I loved the client challenges, and I loved the little stuff like getting dressed up, riding the train, and going out to lunch every day.
One year turned into ten. And while there were certainly growing pains along the way, I still loved consulting a decade into my career. But as I was promoted into senior management, I faced serious issues leading and motivating my growing team. I was frustrated and on edge a lot. Then I added marriage and early motherhood to the mix, and ... I was a mess.
I was increasingly resentful of the demands of leadership and less tolerant of anything I deemed non-essential to our work. I realized that while I loved working, I had to have an impact and feel in control of my time and energy.
Who would have thought...I would hit a breaking point. I lost my ability to "psych myself up." I was stressed and burnt out. After a lot of reflection and coaching, I opted to leave my full-time job and work independently. This shift provided more flexibility and control while allowing me to focus on what matters most—my clients and helping them solve their challenges.
To date I've helped hundreds of leaders and organizations manage workflows, lead with courage, and transform their workplaces. I've never felt more certain that I was on the right path in my life.
Example talks
Leadership for All: Keynote/Workshop
Someone once told me to wait my turn and here's what I think about that now.
As the oldest of four kids, I grew up with a leadership mindset. From an early age, my approach was ‘command and control.’ Looking back now, I can appreciate how obnoxious that might (must?) have been at times. But when you view yourself as a leader- or feel compelled to pipe up when decisions are being made- you tend to accumulate leadership roles without really trying.
So early in my career, I assumed my perspective was welcomed. It wasn’t. As a junior staffer at a large management consulting firm, I learned quickly that the expectation was to observe quietly and execute quickly. After offering a solution to a client’s problem in a meeting, I was pulled aside by a senior partner and told to “wait my turn.”
Stunned and worried about derailing my career so early on, I complied. But not for long. I came to believe strongly that leadership is a critical skill that can and should be developed by everyone. In fact, it’s critical to our individual satisfaction and business success.
Now as a leadership development trainer and coach, I know leadership is not just about holding a title or position; it's about inspiring and motivating others to achieve a common goal. And that can and should come from all levels, all roles, and all people in the organization. In fact, without it, we’re underutilizing the available brainpower.
In this keynote, I offer perspectives, examples, and practical strategies for building a culture where everyone can lead, regardless of their position or background, and where leadership is seen as a collective effort rather than the sole responsibility of a few individuals. By fostering a culture of leadership for all, organizations and communities can achieve greater success, innovation, and resilience.
Rethinking Leadership for Greater Engagement & Productivity
The title “people manager” puts people in resistance mode, slows progress, and makes work miserable. Most stereotypes about work are negative: the message is that it’s necessary for a paycheck while it’s also a place workers want to get away from ASAP. Of course, there are exceptions, but that’s because there are jobs where people aren’t managed.
No one wants to be managed.
We’re wired to follow a leader and we love collaborating with a team. But we don't want to be managed.
The Gallup organization routinely surveys workers across the world. Engagement hovers around 15 percent. Gallup reported, “Employees everywhere don't necessarily hate the company or organization they work for as much as they do their boss. “
So, it’s not the work per se, it’s the experience of being directed and controlled. Google “what people hate about their boss” and you’ll be returned a familiar list: incompetence, rudeness, unpredictable emotions, and taking credit for others’ work
How work gets done in organizations requires a fundamental shift in mindset.
The solution is ubiquitous leadership and ownership. It’s teaching, expecting, and allowing everyone to both lead and follow and to own their actions and results.
It requires embracing the truth that leadership isn’t a title, it’s an action and relationship. Collectively, we must manage the work and lead the people.
What you’ll learn
-How damaging manager/employee dynamics are and how to explore options for working differently
-The possibilities that open when organizations phase out the role and title, “people manager” and then expand leadership training to match this new style.
-How to shrink the resistance gap between management and employees by shifting focus from managing to leadership, collaboration, and accountability, the three accelerants of growth.
Imagine, for a moment, if everyone in your organization gave “it” their all – for themselves, their colleagues, and their leaders – and held nothing back; what would be possible?
A Great Place to Work Starts with YOU
Only 21 percent of employees feel engaged at work and 33 percent feel they’re thriving overall, according to Gallup’s 2022 State of the Global Workplace Report. These figures leave a lot of room for reflection and rethinking our relationship with work and with each other.
As a leader in your organization, you see the toll low morale, motivation, and engagement have on your workplace. And you might relate. Leaders, of course, aren’t immune to some of the same stresses and frustrations. You may feel the added burden of having to put on a happy face and keep forging ahead.
You may worry for yourself and others that time is passing while wondering if you’re on the right path
Life is both too short and too long not to feel fulfilled and engaged with our work. After all, we’ll spend more than 13 years of our lives there.
Having a sense of positive impact and satisfaction at work is possible for you and your employees. And it might be more achievable than you think. This talk focuses on our individual roles- and responsibilities- for making our organizations great places to work. It challenges some of our default thinking on what work “should” be and opens new possibilities.
What you’ll learn:
-How our traditional thinking and assumptions about work are holding us back
-How work has changed over time and evidence that we’re on the cusp of massive change in how we’re organized to get work done
-Why disengagement is so common, how it’s perpetuated, and how we can start to shift our workplace cultures
-How to dramatically improve engagement by focusing on leadership and ownership for all