About Cindy Stone Barkanic, MPA, PCC

Committing to a coaching path is just that – a commitment, and it will take a lot a dedication and accountability.  My commitment is to provide you with a caring, supportive, and balanced environment.

With a nearly 38-year career in the federal government, I have vast experience in the intelligence field, retain a Top Secret clearance, and have an in-depth knowledge of how bureaucracies work. I've worked in very stressful situations most of my career and know what it's like to have sleepless nights. I retired as a Senior Economic Expert and routinely garnered kudos from high-level US policy makers for written products and oral briefings that clearly and concisely conveyed key regional trends. I earned the Career Commendation Medal and nearly 50 Exceptional Performance Awards. My husband and I live in Bethesda and have two sons. My hobbies are fitness, gardening, baking sourdough bread, and Sudokos!  

Why I'm passionate about coaching: Some of my most rewarding career moments resulted from coaching and mentoring. I helped develop employees with diverse backgrounds and skills and raised clients' awareness about how to best address development areas, reach goals, and be resilient. I waited a really long time to get my last promotion into the senior ranks even though I was such a hard worker and had an excellent reputation! Mentoring played a key role in helping me get there, and once promoted, coaching helped me grow into it and explore new challenging leadership frontiers. I fell in love with coaching, got trained up and certified, and  have more than 500 coaching hours under my belt. I will partner with you in creating the professional career you imagine. With a proven history of client success in Career and Leadership Coaching, my individualized approach will help you attain your goals.

My coaching philosophy and what it will be like being coached by me: We are all unique. I believe in coaching each person based on where they are and where they want to go. I will partner with you on your journey toward meeting your goals. I will help you appreciate your talents and strengths and polish them further. I'll help move you to new areas of self-discovery and self-awareness. And we'll co-create concrete steps to help you achieve improved performance and satisfaction. We'll go beyond transactional to transformational. My top Gallup Strength is Relator, which shows up strongly in how quickly I connect with my clients and gain their trust. Rounding out my top 5 Strengths are Achiever, Responsibility, Harmony, and Learner.

My coaching specialty: Clients have trusted me to coach them on a range of issues, including...

• Learning more about their strengths...and leveraging them for new growth.
• Moving from good to great...and moving from great to even better!
• Crafting development plans...and looking for new challenges.
• Moving from "being stuck" to feeling like there are exciting, doable choices.
• Navigating team dynamics...and working with and communicating more effectively with others.
• Time-management, both professionally and personally.
• Identifying values...and decision management.
• Being more comfortable in stressful situations...and honing executive presence.
• Dealing with tough family situations, particularly mental illness.