Paul A. Perez

senior consultant

Paul Perez, Senior Consultant

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Paul is a skilled combat-tested executive and leadership coach, organizational trainer, consultant, and cultural transformation expert with over 30 years’ experience identifying, developing and growing leaders for progressively increasing responsibility and success in management and executive roles across a diverse spectrum of industry verticals. Paul also has over two decades experience in workshop and seminar facilitation and keynote speaking. He leverages deep understanding of neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology to create unbreakable mindsets in individuals and organizations who daily face the daunting daily challenges of living and operating in a VUCA world.

Background & INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

As a retired executive Naval Officer, team-building, leadership and talent development and driving the strategic and tactical facets of mission are second nature to Paul. Paul’s experience includes roles as a combat Naval Flight Officer, Navy Human Resources Officer, Wellness coach, and management in marketing and operations in a multistate healthcare system. 

Paul’s integrated coaching, consulting and facilitation practice includes C-suite and junior executives in a wide range of organizations from startup to multibillion-dollar enterprises, including healthcare, professional services, insurance and financial services, shipping and logistics, manufacturing, tech and telecommunications sectors, nonprofit and military. 

COACHING APPROACH

Paul’s holistic approach is informed by many years of understanding and leveraging the dynamics of mission readiness, advanced training and praxis in Wellness coaching and programming, neuroscience and emotional intelligence and executive sourcing and placement. His solutions-focused framework involves supporting and challenging leaders and organizations in both their thoughts and behaviors. Paul believes in delving to the root of the presenting issue and discerning the deep-seated patterns and beliefs militating against leaders and organizations being the daily best versions of themselves. As such, he uses world-class neuroscience and cultural norming instruments to sleuth them out and works with leaders through the natural resistance they will encounter when endeavoring to make meaningful change that sticks. 

FACILITATION & TEAMBUILDING APPROACH

Paul began his instructor and master trainer journey in his 20s as a Navy flyer, training individuals and teams for effectiveness and cohesion in both peacetime and combat environments. He still maintains that mission-success is agnostic of rank or title, and it’s everyone’s job on the team to serve and cover each other’s sixes. One of Paul’s mottos for teamwork is borrowed from the Navy Blue Angels, “Fess it and fix it.”  and started from his early training in Navy ROTC when he was taught to never lie or cover up a gap in his knowledge, simply acknowledging, “I don’t know Sir/Ma’am, but I will find out.”  To this day, he understands that long-term success in any life capacity is best served by getting to the base of behaviors, where shame, fear and guilt live, and rooting them out to produce high-thrust, low-drag organizations. Organizational cultures where people are free to bring their whole selves daily save copious amounts of energy and posturing that are elsewise used to hide and manage other people’s images of themselves. These are the kinds of adaptive leaders and organizations that thrive in a VUCA world.

To this end, Paul’s facilitation style and content brings cutting-edge brain science, plenty of stories and humor, reflective journaling and experiential individual and team exercises designed to plumb the depths of the seat of behavior, the subconscious mind, and explicate patterns and blind spots to create breakthrough, all in a safe, judgement-free environment. Paul has found workshops are often best paired with targeted assessments which give actionable data, encouraging even deeper learning and ownership by workshop attendees. His 4A System of Assessment, Awareness, Acceptance and Action has served as a key to transformation. 

RELEVANT ASSIGNMENTS

  • Executive Coaching: Coached VP of Finance in support of him becoming CFO at a regional multibillion dollar healthcare system.
  • Coaching Culture: Worked with the C-Suite and board of a Native-Alaska tribal corporation focusing on how to use create EQ capacity development skills to drive a culture of more transparency and open feedback. 
  • Leadership Development Programs: Designed, trained, and led a variety of initiatives at both the individual and team levels. The intent of each of these programs was to drive change across the organization, in terms of talent development, retention, leadership and strategy implementation. 
  • Cultural transformation workshops: Designed and delivered a wide variety of culture workshops and programs at all levels in organizations since 2015. It was through this evolution of Paul’s professional growth he formed the 4A System noted above. Outcomes included dramatic reduction in loss and waste, retention improved by double digits, improved morale (measured by engagement surveys), productivity and profitability and a host of other metrics business leaders care about.

Education & Professional Affiliations

  • B.S. Microbiology, University of Notre Dame with minor in Naval Science (NROTC)
  • M.S. in Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching, University of Texas at Dallas
  • Professional Certified Coach, International Coach Federation
  • Certified Physician Development Coach, Physician Coaching Institute
  • Wellness Coaching and Wellness Programming (Wellcoaches, The Chapman Institute)
  • Adjunct Faculty and Executive Coach, The Center for Creative Leadership
  • Leader Coach & Senior Consultant, Right Management (U.S. subsidiary of The Manpower Group)
  • Career and Leadership Coach, Notre Dame Alumni Association 
  • Board Chair, Operation Military Family
  • Coauthored, “Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation in Health Promotion and Wellness,” The Art of Health Promotion, January/February 2012
  • Certified practitioner full suite of Human Synergistics culture and leader assessments  (Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness Inventories, Lifestyles Inventory Item Level Feedback & Acumen Leadership Workstyles, Management and Leadership Impact 360 instruments), EQ-Profile Emotional Intelligence Assessment, EQ-i 2.0, EQ-360, suite of CCL 360 instruments, WorkPlace Big Five Profile™, Change Style Indicator, Influence Style Indicator, Key Change Institute Certification in Applied Neuroscience: The Neuroscience of Difficult Change assessment.