Brooke Olson Vuckovic is a coach and educator specializing in leadership and career development. Brooke brings to her work a combination of results-oriented pragmatism, intuition, and business acumen. She is known for her “tough” compassion, emphasis on curiosity and experimentation, and a highly-personalized approach to her coaching work with her clients.
Clients and Private Practice:
Brooke started her private practice in 2001, marking the beginning of her own career transition. Her diverse client base reflects her belief that coaching is, above all, a rich and engaged conversation in which individuals evaluate where they are in their work and life, hear direct (and sometimes difficult) feedback, and, with this information, create their vision and action plan for change. That conversation—the coaching relationship—means that her focus is on the individual, rather than a specific “tier” or industry group of professionals. As a result, Brooke’s clients come from all walks of life—from senior executives and “high potentials” to entrepreneurs and academics. Her current and recent clients are in sectors as diverse as finance, consumer products, technology, law, education, management consulting, government, and non-profit management.
Teaching:
In addition to her private practice, Brooke teaches at the Kellogg School of Management and has co-developed coaching programs for multiple Executive Education programs (including the Executive Development Program, Kellogg’s Management Institute, Energizing People for Performance, Reinventing Leadership, and the Post-MBA Program). Brooke also coaches in the New Leadership for the Family Enterprise Program, Women’s Senior Leadership Program and in numerous programs through Kellogg’s Center for Nonprofit Management. One of her favorite activities at Kellogg is teaching Leadership Coaching to full-time MBA students in Evanston.
Background:
Brooke’s approach to coaching is informed by her multi-disciplinary background. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Chicago, where she also taught business communications at the Graduate School of Business. Before becoming a coach, Brooke’s research focused on how “narrative” and “story telling” helped individuals define who they are and what was important to them and their communities (a theme she returns to again and again in coaching insofar as powerful story telling relates to powerful leadership). Brooke’s professional background was in adult-education and non-traditional learning. Her experiences include executive positions at Cardean University, whose online MBA program was developed with Columbia University Business School, Stanford University, London School of Economics, and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
Brooke has served on the advisory boards of Syrus Global (now part of SAI Global) and the Center for International Rehabilitation. She is certified through the Coaches Training Institute and the International Coach Federation and is a certified Emotional Intelligence evaluator and coach through the Hay Group in Boston. Brooke pursues continuing education on a regular basis—aiming to improve the breadth and depth of the tools and resources she brings to her clients. In the past two years, her practice has been most strongly influenced by her work in mindfulness-based stress reduction and leadership practices for executives (and all other human beings).
Brooke lives just outside of Chicago with her husband and three daughters.