Rewarding Relationships
Robyn Ward is the CEO and Founder of Rewarding Relationships. We offer Executive Coaching, Cultivating Safe Spaces Facilitation, Business Consulting, Social Impact Metric Consulting and Allyship Workshops.
Robyn Ward is a Certified Executive Coach (ICF/ACC) Certified Cultivating Safe Spaces Facilitator (CSS), volunteer counsellor (ENH), speaker, activist, and change-maker. She has mixed European heritage (Ukrainian, English, German) and is the proud mother of two Indigenous teenagers. Her life and her family's life is rooted in the Anishinaabe 7 Sacred Teachings: Respect, Courage, Wisdom, Humility, Truth, Honesty and Love. These values guide her daily and hold her personally and professionally accountable throughout her life.
For 20 years she has focused her professional development on four fields: psychology, business, coaching and technology. When she’s not supporting clients or facilitating workshops, Robyn is a Board Member and consultant at Animikii. As well, she serves on the Board of the ICF Vancouver Island Coaches Association and she serves as a (non-Indigenous) Matriarch at the Sage Initiative.
She is an ally and social justice disrupter to all spaces lacking inclusion and human rights, frequently Womxn, BIPOC and 2SLGBTQQIA+ intersections. Her focus is healing, connecting, nurturing and supporting healthy relationships internally and externally.
Certified Executive Coaching
Executive Coaching FAQs
What is Executive Coaching?
An Executive Coach is a thinking partner, that guides you through the learning, growth and change needed to advance your career in impactful and sustainable ways that are most meaningful and rewarding to you. Executive Coaching is a personal one-on-one support for professional growth and development. Together, coaches and clients(/partners) focus on setting goals, working through challenges, creating an action plan, a work strategy, seeking clarity, and celebrating successful outcomes.
Other service professions, like consulting and psychotherapy, are based on the wisdom and expertise of the professional. In coaching you—the client—are the expert.
One of my favourite lessons that Elaine Alec shared with me is that traditionally when youth in her community would go to the Elders to ask for advice, the Elders would respond, “You know the answer. Go to the water and wait for it.” The Teaching here is that each person needs to have faith in themselves. No one can give you the answers to the questions you seek but you. You know the way, in your heart. Only you have the knowledge, power, and wisdom to know your heart; to know yourself enough to lead you in your next right steps.
Another favourite teaching is, “The quality of your life depends on the quality of the questions you ask yourself.” Elaine begins her circle with the questions “Who am I?”, “Who do I belong to?”, and “What’s on my heart?”. One of the secrets to cultivating a safe space starts with knowing and understanding yourself through asking these quality questions.
Your coach’s role is to ask high-quality questions, to ask powerful questions to spark introspection. To act as a sounding board, provide observations, feedback, and witness insights by listening fully and actively, challenging gaps in thinking, and fostering shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives.
What are the benefits of Executive Coaching?
Executive coaching motivates, empowers, increases self-awareness, increases self-confidence, improves relationships, provides clarity of intentions that transform into measurable achievement, increases empathy and understanding for yourself and others, improves communication and interpersonal skills, improves productivity and individual performance, expands personal strengths, and increases the resiliency and courage it takes to reach for your dreams.
- Improved relationships
- Improved communication
- Improved interpersonal skills
- Improved productivity
- Improved individual performance
- Increased success for work-related goals
- Increased personal resilience
- Increased self-awareness
- Increased self-confidence
- Increased clarity of intentions
- Increased empathy and understanding for yourself and others
- Increased personal strengths
- Increased workplace engagement
- Increased confidence in problem-solving challenging situations, or increased level of team collaboration
- Increased the resiliency and courage needed to reach for your dreams
Who do you work with?
I coach and train individuals, corporations, executives and leadership within organizations, Indigenous entrepreneurs, BIPOC and 2SLGBTQQIA+ professionals, educators, government workers, community influencers, post-secondary students, and mental health support workers,
What is the time commitment?
Coaching is designed to produce results quickly. I recommend starting with 5 weekly, 30 minute or 1-hour long sessions to begin the coaching relationship. You can reschedule or cancel at any time, but clients usually feel the benefits of our coaching relationship after one session together.
How does it work?
It begins with the drive to explore, grow and learn. Initially, we'll book an introductory meeting and start with a 30-minute honest conversation, that includes a few questions to explore your unique opportunities for personal reflection and professional development. Then we'll create some agreements for what the coaching relationship can do for you and together we'll form a plan to work towards your specific goals.
The International Coaching Federation released a study in 2009 that claims an average of "700% return on investment" for executive coaching clients.
What are your rates?
I offer a sliding scale for my fees because I don't want finances to be a barrier for us to work together. Most of my clients have been part of the Womxm, BIPOC and 2SLGBTQQAI+ communities and I really enjoy working within these communities to disrupt, dismantle and demolish current systems of oppression. Connect anytime to book your first session of coaching free!
*Elaine Alec has a self-guided online course, Intro to Cultivating Safe Spaces with a special offer of $100 (worth $250)!
Start Executive Coaching
1. The first step is to book your first free session for Executive Coaching with me to get you started in working towards your goals and dreams together.
2. The first session is a free 30 minute session to have a brief introduction to one another. From this meeting you'll get a sense for what a regular coaching session would look and feel like. We'll leave the session with the open option for you to consider continuing coaching together, no commitments necessary.
3. Then you can decide if you would like to schedule a few regular sessions with Robyn to continue working together. I recommend weekly or biweekly coaching sessions for the first few commitments, to create a regular pattern of growth in your week. As well, I have an optional Executive Coaching Form to get you started thinking about where you are, and where you want to be.
4. Feel the benefits of Executive Coaching throughout all aspects of your life!
Cultivating Safe Spaces
Cultivating Safe Spaces was developed by Elaine Alec and it provides you with the tools and understanding you need in order to support meaningful relationships and Cultivate Safe Spaces. This training will provide you with knowledge and practical tools to support your ongoing commitment to healing, connecting, nurturing and supporting healthy relationships internally and externally.
Every individual has the unique opportunity to show leadership and play an important role in creating change and influencing those around you. This presentation could have an enormous positive impact on the way you communicate, respond and manage relationships not only within your working environment but throughout your entire network. This training will provide you with tools and language to cultivate safe spaces for your families, friends, teams, clients and partners.
People learn about Cultivating Safe Spaces to:
- Learn how to build a successful business with a heart-centred approach.
- Learn to cultivate safe spaces for others.
- Promote diversity and inclusion.
- Learn more about what reconciliation can look like as an ally.
- Learn how to decolonize their work, in policies and processes with a reconciliation framework.
- Reduce team burnout, exhaustion, or conflict.
- Promote healing and wellness.
- Gain confidence and move deeper into their own healing.
My public workshops are listed on Eventbrite or you can fill out my Cultivating Safe Spaces contact form to start talking about hosting an event together.
Decolonizing HR Practices - Media Kit
Below is a video example of applying the Cultivating Safe Spaces framework to decolonize HR practices in business.
Start Cultivating Safe Spaces
1. The first step is to fill out the Cultivating Safe Spaces form.
2. Once this is completed, Robyn will reach out to you within 5 business days to schedule a meeting to discuss workshop preferences and goals. I offer private, public and corporate sector workshops at varying lengths of time (1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour, 1 day).
3. Learn how to Cultivate Safe Spaces.
4. Feel the benefits of Cultivating Safe Spaces throughout all aspects of your life!
