Joy Patton

Are you a successful leader who has reached a roadblock? Do you ask yourself, "Do I have the courage to take the next step?" "What if I fail?" With my Leadership and Career Confidence programs, we will discover what is the limiting belief that is keeping you from your goals. Let me be your guide and you will discover that the confidence is within you. You will learn to embrace the inner cheerleader while quieting the inner critic.

I’m Dr. Joy Patton, career military intelligence officer turned professional leadership and certified career transition coach, and alumna of Georgetown University’s prestigious Executive Leadership Coaching program.

I was born in Bangkok, Thailand, I lived in Tehran, Iran prior to the revolution in 1979, and I attended North Campus International School in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for four years. In my coaching practice, I blend Eastern and Western philosophy and traditions. I am inspired by the late Thich Nhat Hahn’s practice on mindfulness and engaged Buddhism.

I chose to pursue the coaching profession so that I could be the coach that I needed in my 20s, 30s, and 40s and soon-to-be-50s. My specialty is helping leaders who have been promoted through their hard work, persistence, technical and functional expertise embrace their role as confident, emotionally-intelligent people managers.

I am a 22-year veteran of the United States military and I recently published a book titled Predicting Leader Survival in Covert Operations from Congo to Cuba which explores how personality traits influenced Cold War leaders’ confidence levels during tumultuous times. As a result, confidence coaching is an extension of my many years of research on personality traits and leader profiles.

My coaching style elegantly balances life, leadership/executive and career coaching and my philosophy is centered on Marion Franklin’s Laser Coaching methodology and Georgetown University’s motto Cura Personalis, a Latin phrase meaning 'care of the whole person.