Cindy Marteney

Overview

An experienced executive coach, Cindy Marteney is known for creating trust and momentum with high-profile clients, who value her focus, clarity, and supportive presence as they navigate major changes in work and life.

Cindy’s career startedin  Naval Intelligence, and she won the Navy Achievement Medal for her analytical work in Rota, Spain. She progressed into leadership in high tech in Boston, holding leadership positions in both growing companies and within the global consulting services group at Lotus/IBM. Cindy is remembered by former colleagues as much for the breakthroughs they experienced in their own lives with her help as for the business successes they shared.

Today, she regularly offers workshops on Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others, Difficult Conversations, the Three Pillars of Leadership, and An Integral Approach to Personal Branding.

Cindy relates to type 8 in the Enneagram

Passion

When I first started coaching, I didn’t know what to call it and was just happy to be remembered for being a “mentor”. For a decade I ignored my calling, feeling I still had things to learn in business, whether integrating business practices when IBM bought Lotus, riding out the Internet boom and bust, or building a family business.

A decade later, I sought the most rigorous coaching program I could find (can you hear my “type” playing out here?!). This inquiry took me to New Ventures West’s Integral Coaching program. The deep philosophical, linguistic, and neurobiological roots created a rich foundation for my coaching practice, but there were a couple of areas I wanted to explore more deeply, including the language of action and somatics.

Fascinated by what it takes to cultivate the “body of a leader,” I found myself drawn to the Strozzi Institute, where we learned to combine the language of action with the physical metaphors of aikido—including ground and center, the ability to extend oneself as well as blend with others, and the capacity to create harmony where initially there was conflict.

Inspiration

I’m inspired by the Eastern wisdom traditions, which have a special emphasis on mindfulness and compassion. I am also inspired by sports, games like chess, and the arts—anything that takes practice to achieve excellence and thus offers windows into achievement under pressure and the role of mastery in leading to brilliant improvisation.

I studied for six years with a Zen teacher, Daniel Doen Sensei, who founded the Lost Coin School, a modern Zen lineage that includes the insights of Gurdjieff’s 4th Way. I have also studied with the Enneagram Institute. I am most interested in the different strategies of the nine types and helping leaders understand how these strategies play out in their teams as well as in themselves.