I scout new paths and love to stand on the horizon in ways that make it safe for clients to join me at the edge of possibilities.
Minding the Gap Coaching Founder Sara Karlen Lacombe can help you unpack blind spots, identify and overcome fears, and clarify your vision. You’ll feel empowered to embrace who you are, believe in yourself, and belong to yourself. That’s how you mobilize and influence people. That’s how you find and cultivate a culture and work environment that align with your core strengths. And that’s when you see what’s possible and truly soar.
Sara’s life has been a never-ending quest to unravel the concept of humanity. She clearly remembers being enraged as a 7th grader learning about the plight of immigrants in New York City sweatshops. While studying history in college, she was shocked by destructive world leaders during the World Wars.
With greater awareness of history and leadership, Sara grew even prouder of her father, who spent his career in labor relations finding common ground between management and unions. Her plan to follow in his footsteps in labor relations changed, however, when she had an opportunity to manage campus recruitment in human capital for a global organization.
Picture a 22-year-old woman going up against masters of the corporate universe on the trading floors of Wall Street. That was Sara. She observed that many new hires either failed out of training programs or were terminated within two years. Through her own research, she learned that experienced professionals were facing a similar fate, losing their jobs due to “low performance.”
In both cases, lack of performance had nothing to do with ability. It was often tied to a lack of understanding about an individual’s strengths and motivations, and how they could provide the greatest value to themselves and the organization. Employees were viewed as commodities, and there was a fundamental misalignment between the individual, their role, and the company.
Sara would spend more than 20 years across five continents navigating the complexity of human capital, talent management, and business strategy. Her depth of experience interacting with individuals on every rung of the corporate ladder has provided her with unique insights into organizational dynamics and ecosystems.
Sara’s roles would thrust her into intense situations, from investigating sexual harassment allegations, to supporting individuals who were struggling with addiction, to helping women earn their fair share. In fact, Sara found that women working remotely were paid as much as 300 percent less their male peers because they were assumed to be working part-time. She helped women increase their bonuses by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sara’s efforts have never been driven by money. She is driven by fairness and humanity. Because she knows how to navigate the system, what questions to ask, and where to probe for answers, she has been able to achieve incredible outcomes and change people’s lives.
Sara grew increasingly frustrated by the lack of humanity in a corporate world that treated people as a means to an end and measured success based solely on achievement and financial gain. The penny dropped for Sara when she decided a CEO had unjustifiably berated her for the last time due to his own shortcomings, not her performance. Realizing she could help more people and herself by starting her own practice, Sara founded Minding the Gap Coaching in 2014.
Current clients include executives and professionals from Fortune 500 companies, foundations, multilateral and bilateral institutions, fellowship programs, academic institutions, the federal government, and startups. Whether standing in front of an executive team in a Manhattan high rise or living in Siberia, Sara has always immersed herself in the experience, taking advantage of every opportunity to learn, discover, and better understand humanity.
Sara looks forward to helping you align your core strengths and character, embrace who you are, and choose the role and culture that enable you to access your greatness.
Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program
Harvard Business School Executive Education Programs
William Smith College, B.A., History
Member, International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Professional Values, Strengths, and Story Survey (SVSS)
Myers-Briggs
The Leadership Circle
“Sara re-amplified me. Her coaching got me to go back and connect with my experience. To evaluate what serves, what doesn’t and how I want to bring this forward. Really great exercises. I reconnected with what I had put in a box and tucked away.”
