Meet Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC | Executive coach and speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Katrina, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I worked for a prestigious Swiss bank. After I was promoted, I realized it would be harder to succeed as a woman in a traditional Swiss bank, even though I worked harder and more successfully than my colleagues at the time. They were going to promote a fellow man colleague over me. As I was a very hard worker and was ready to take the risk, I started my own business.

What should our readers know about your business?
As a financial analyst, I detected trends that started in the US and would come over the ocean to Europe with a lag time. I realized that executive coaching in 1998 would be a barely known trend but would flourish similarly as it was trending in the US. I started a cohort of people interested in coaching to meet together. This gradually grew into a national interest in Switzerland. I became the founding Board Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the first Master Certified Coach from Switzerland.
As a trilingual coach, I worked extensively for multinationals and United Nations organizations. With time, coaching schools started to flourish, and students were cutting prices to get clients. Therefore, since I had a lot of coaching experience, I started specializing in coaching the more difficult cases, such as brilliant but difficult leaders, which newer coaches avoided at all costs.
When coaching was paid well, companies started training internal coaches to avoid costs. Again, I further specialized in coaching bright but difficult leaders who were causing a lot of anxiety in their organizations. In other words, it was a true pain point for the organization, and the companies were willing to pay a senior coach to avoid the leader’s derailment or cause further suffering in the workplace.
I learned that you must be aware of the market trends and focus on where to best support the client and the organization with their issue.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This all depends on where your friend is visiting from. As a Swiss or northern European, I would show the fabulous shows in Las Vegas, the flashy restaurants, the casinos, and the Canyons in Nevada or Arizona. If someone from the US were to visit Switzerland, I would provide typical Swiss experiences that could only be done in Switzerland. It would be the Alps and some very typical places to see it. For experiences, for example, I would show my friend the Swiss cows fight at the beginning of the summer. The cow hierarchy needs to be determined before the cows are released high up in the Swiss Alps for the summer. Otherwise, they might fight between themselves without supervision and hurt themselves. These types of typical experiences of each country will be highlighted. Then if a person is a foodie, good restaurants would be recommended. A list of outstanding hikes with fabulous views would be suggested if they like to hike. It depends on what my best friend enjoys. Then I would like to surprise her/him with a memorable and unusual experience.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Although my husband wanted to work for a private Swiss bank, he accepted that I start my own business and provided the financial security. My mother was an adventurer and traveled the world learning about religion. Her curiosity and fearless spirit of adventure encouraged me to venture independently.

Website: https://www.ExcellentExecutiveCoaching.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/drKatrinaBurrus

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinaburrus/

Twitter: https://instagram.com/drKatrinaBurrus

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExcellentExecutiveCoaching

Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/drkatrinaburrus

Image Credits
I have the rights to every image I have sent you. Doug Ellis made the photographs. I certify that I have the rights and permission for the images in Part 8 of this form.