Hey, my name is Susan and I am a mother to two boys, an Entrepreneur, and a Professional International Coaching Federation credentialed Leadership Coach that partners with hyper growth companies to get the right team in place and support their growth and development. I founded PowerUp Leadership in 2018 with a vision of elevating leadership effectiveness in our workplaces. Our purpose at PowerUp is to Empower Teams to Realize Their Potential.
I believe that mindset is everything. It determines the level of risk you are willing to take, how you show up in your relationships, and most importantly how you show up for yourself so you can become the type of person that attracts and makes it possible for you to achieve your biggest goals and dreams.
In 2016, I sold my first business Higher Talent, and then went to work for one of Canada’s billionaire families, the Irving family, to grow their businesses by attracting and retaining high performing teams.
In 2018, I returned to entrepreneurship to launch PowerUp Leadership and have been leading a phenomenal team who is calling the business quickly as we focus on our purpose of supporting leaders to empower their teams to realize their potential.
If you are committed to your success and want to explore what coaching relationships might look like with me or one of our International Coaching Federation credentialed coaches, schedule a free chemistry call today!
Company: PowerUp Leadership
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Susan Power : Hey, my name is Susan. In 2018, I started up PowerUp Leadership, a boutique executive coaching, leadership advisory and talent strategy firm focused on growing leadership capability to inspire team performance. Our ideal client is hyper growth private equity backed technology, financial, and professional services firms that value attracting and retaining top talent. Our purpose at PowerUp Leadership is to Empower Teams to Realize Their Potential
As an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach, my experience includes over 3500 paid coaching hours working with 300+ organizations,. My focus is to help leaders articulate a clear, values based vision and strategy to motivate and align their team.
I built my consulting skills in Toronto at the global management consulting firm Accenture. In 2016, I sold my HR consulting business (Higher Talent) in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. From there, I then spent two years in an Executive HR Director role at JD Irving Limited, where I was responsible for leading a team to set and execute the human resources strategy for a division of five businesses.
However, entrepreneurship drew me back, and I have been scaling PowerUp Leadership for close to seven years, as a rapidly growing leadership development business. Our firm has 30+ ICF credentialed coaches across North America and we have worked with clients in North America and Europe.
Can you share with us your journey towards integrating AI into your business operations?
Susan Power : As a business owner in the people business, it is so clear to me how pivotal AI is to augment organizations existing team. We started internally to experiment and identify ways that we can more consistently and powerfully use AI to integrate it into our internal business operations as well as how we service our clients. One thing we started doing was rotate AI as a standing item during each Monday morning meeting to have each team member present to the rest of the team how they are using AI in their job. This served as a force function to start playing with AI as well as a knowledge sharing practice. Initially, we all started by have Open AI Chat GBT always open on our computer ready to integrate into our work so it was within eye’s reach for easy access.
What specific areas of your business have been most impacted by AI, and how?
Susan Power : My business is leveraging AI to provide more personalized coaching experience that can accelerate behaviour change for our clients. AI coaches are now complementing human coaches. The benefit of AI coaches is that they are available on-demand without scheduling in advance. AI coaching can offer real time coaching, and integrate with other data sources such as HRIS systems, 360 feedback, performance feedback, leadership assessments so it is very powerful in providing daily nudges that prompt leadership effectiveness.
How are you ensuring ethical considerations are taken into account in your use of AI?
Susan Power : PowerUp Leadership has very clear privacy policies and obtains client consent upfront in our coaching agreement for those that choose to opt into AI enabled coaching. We also abide by the The International Coaching Federation (ICF) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coaching Framework and Standards, our AI systems have a clear explanation of the core functionality of the system, details on the data privacy and compliance requirements; and relevant research and literature that forms the evidentiary basis for the methods and content used by the application.
What advice would you give to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business?
Susan Power : The advice that I would offer to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business is to become part of an AI mastermind. Each week time needs to be set aside to learn and augment your skills in the area of AI, and find ways to assign workflow to AI agents. A good place to start is to refine prompts for Chat GBT, and to figure out a task that you think AI might support.
It is also critical to tie AI to your business goals and strategies. It is simply a tool to increase productivity and integrate data across multiple platforms. I think by getting clear on what you are trying to accomplish with your business, this is still the fundamental place to start. AI is simply an enabler to realize the goals faster in a more powerful way.
How do you see AI evolving in your industry over the next 5 years?
Susan Power : My belief is that AI will continue to evolve in the leadership development space where eventually learning and development will become a much bigger component of each person’s day-to-day routine. With all the increased productivity that comes from AI, humans will continue to develop their capabilities. For 360 degree feedback, AI can support leadership development by:
Automating Analysis & Reducing Bias: AI processes and synthesizes feedback faster, identifying patterns that humans might miss. AI algorithms help eliminate recency bias and halo effects, ensuring more objective feedback.
Advanced Sentiment & Text Analysis: AI evaluates qualitative feedback (written comments) to detect sentiment, tone, and emotional intelligence indicators.
AI can highlight leadership strengths and weaknesses based on communication trends.
Personalized Coaching Insights: AI translates feedback into actionable recommendations tailored to the leader’s specific needs. Real-time coaching nudges or training content based on feedback trends.
My belief is that coaching will continue to become more accessible and affordable over the next 5 years because of AI where everyone will have access to multiple coaches across all facets of their life.
