Jim Cooper brings a wealth of business knowledge and experience to his executive coaching. Jim was a business leader for over 30 years before becoming a coach. He is extremely credible to client executives based on his ability to pick up the strategic and operational nuances of the executive’s situation. From that understanding, he bridges seamlessly between helping the client balance managing daily operational challenges and the strategic work of developing their own capabilities and those of their team.
Jim has worked with a wide variety of global organizations and industries, including: 7-Eleven, Bell Helicopter, Cisco Systems, Cornell University, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, MetLife, The University of North Texas, Southwest Airlines, and the US Missile Defense Agency. His assignments have included leaders across the C-suite, as well as emerging leaders and high potential talent. Jim has logged over 2,500 coaching hours.
Jim’s coaching approach is grounded in the results of globally accepted assessments such as the Myers Briggs Type Inventory, Korn/Ferry Voices & Teams assessments, Center for Creative Leadership Benchmarks, the Hogan portfolio of assessments and the Mult-Health Systems EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment. He builds on that foundation to interview clients and their stakeholders on the critical business outcomes they are charged to deliver, the personal attributes that will enable those outcomes, and new or changed behaviors others will notice as those attributes are developed. From there, he works with his clients to create a tailored coaching plan, and executes the plan based on proven International Coach Federation competencies.
As a business leader and general manager, Jim has managed high growth business units from early stage to mature business units with backlog’s exceeding $150 million. As a senior sales executive, Jim led the overall account management team for global accounts with annual sales performance exceeding $100 million. As a senior business executive, Jim managed a complex post-merger integration project for a high-tech manufacturer, positioning the acquired business to thrive in its new parent company. As a senior military leader and unit commander, Jim took failing units and brought them to full operational capability in minimum time. As a senior staff executive, Jim developed and led Malcolm Baldridge quality initiatives for a large defense organization. As an entrepreneur, Jim leveraged his strong technology and business foundation to establish and operate three successful consulting and executive coaching firms and to enable his clients to successfully lead their teams to superior performance.
Jim is a thoughtful contributor to industry, sales leadership, and coaching blogs, including forums hosted by organizations such as the Forbes, Harvard Business School and the International Coach Federation. He regularly shares his experience and perspective via his blog and newsletter, “The Advisor,” stressing the importance of leadership, team effectiveness, emotional intelligence and the development of a coaching culture to organizational success. He is a past member of the National Speakers’ Association.
Jim is based in the Asheville, North Carolina area. He received his BS and MAT degrees in electrical engineering and secondary science education from Cornell University. He holds an MS in engineering management from Northeastern University. He received his coaching education at the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. He holds the Professional Certified Coach credential from the International Coach Federation.