The Interview: Simone Thomas
In 2021, during the COVID and racial reckonings, Simone Thomas had a professional reckoning that led to a career pivot from executive communications to coaching.
Simone is the first coach I’ve interviewed who works internally for a corporation. She is a leadership and career coach with S&P Global and shares a bit about who she coaches in this capacity, and why she pivoted to coaching. Connect with Simone on LinkedIn.—Steph
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Simone Thomas, and I am a full-time leadership and career coach with S&P Global. I also have my own coaching practice called Coaching with Simone. I’m originally from the Bronx in New York City, and currently live in Durham, North Carolina.
What is your training and certification as a coach?
I am certified through Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) and hold a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential through the International Coaching Federation. I also have an MBA from Fordham University.
Tell us more about your previous career; how does that influence you as a coach?
In college, I interned with, then later was hired onto, the product management team at Verizon. That evolved into a marketing communications role, and finally I transferred to internal communications and engagement. Some years later, I joined S&P Global’s internal communications team and led executive and enterprise communications.
In 2021, while we were going through the COVID reckoning and the racial reckoning, I had a “purpose reckoning.” I enjoyed certain aspects of my communications role, including hosting town halls and round tables, writing messaging on behalf of leaders, traveling with leaders, things of this nature . . . but I wanted to make a greater impact and questioned my purpose. This coincided with an insightful conversation with the executive I reported to at the time. I said, “You know, our managers need coaching on how to communicate more effectively.” And she replied, “Have you ever considered becoming a coach?”
“Simone,” she added, “you are credible with people at the company. They trust you, they listen to you, and you have influence.” I’d never considered those skills or strengths as assets that were transferrable to another career before. But I’d worked with a coach myself, and I had leadership support to move into a coaching role. It was amazing.
When you considered that S&P Global managers could use coaching to improve their communication, what did you see? What did you hear?
We have 7,000 managers globally, but I was never really sure whether the messages we delivered at the enterprise level were reaching employees in the way we intended—that's where middle management comes into play, helping to distill high-level corporate objectives and imperatives so that team members understand their roles and how they fit into the larger picture (and all of this is linked to employee engagement and performance, so the connections need to be made.) I didn’t have a clear sense of my impact.
There are other factors of communications and leadership that I began to wonder about, too: Are our leaders being inclusive in meetings and with how they engage their team members? Are we hearing some of the quieter voices? How are our managers leading with a coaching mindset?
What variety of topics do internal clients bring to coaching calls?
I would say a lot of it falls under theme of “stuckness.” There are people who have been in the same general role for a very long time and feel stuck, or others who might be new to the company—whether they joined through a merger or acquisition, or are recent university graduates—and feel overwhelmed by career options and possibilities. Managing change is also a big one because our business continues to evolve. Still others might wonder whether their work is impactful, and if S&P Global is the right place to make their desired impact. We coach people of all levels, all tenures, across business units.
Did you have an “a-ha” moment when you realized the power of the coaching model for yourself?
It happened in my CTI training during an exercise around creating vision and purpose. This was 2021, and there were so many problems in society, and I was considering how I could make my mark. When you're overwhelmed, the first thing you think is, well, I'm only one person. What needle can I possibly move? But at some point I realized that I can make an impact person-by-person, and that would be okay because it would have ripple effects—the transformation I could evoke in others would scale, and that's what I wanted. If we all had a coaching mindset, the world would be an entirely different place.
What are you like as a coach?
Let me channel some of some of my feedback . . . Great listener. People feel like I'm giving them my undivided attention. I know for sure that I insert humor in coaching, too, and I show up with “courageous authenticity,” meaning I have to be me, and I have to, at times, push and challenge others to find courage in themselves.
What do you wish everyone knew about coaching?
That coaches aren’t here to tell you what to do. As a coach, I'm helping you to realize things about yourself so you can achieve your goals. I set expectations at the beginning of a coaching engagement—what it is, what it's not, and what you can expect from our time together—because some people come to coaching and say, “Simone, I thought you would solve this more for me. Tell me what to do.” But imagine a stranger telling you how to live your life or direct your career—does that make sense? Keep in mind that we just met, and you're the expert of your own life. That's the other thing that people seem a little unsettled with—that they are the experts.
What is your vision for the coaching industry?
My dream is for greater access to coaching for those who want it. The majority of coaches I know are over the age of 40. It would be great to see younger people in the profession because greater diversity in coaches has the potential to attract greater diversity of clients.
I'm going to touch on race and gender, too, because who you engage as a coach matters. I have global coachees who will meet during their evening to speak with me on East Coast time, who have said, “Oh my goodness, Simone, I'm so excited that you are now a coach because you're a woman or you’re a Black woman who's just going to understand.” And let me qualify this—all Black people do not have the same experiences, but chances are there's less explanation that needs to happen. You don’t get the full benefit of coaching if you have to spend time explaining how you’re experiencing racism, for example, and providing education to a coach who may be far removed from those experiences. Also many women talk to me about menopause, or share that they are pregnant and processing what that means for their life and career—but they may not feel as comfortable sharing that with a male coach. So, by virtue of my identity and the space that I hold for them, my coachees are able to share their dreams and challenges in a way that feels authentic. And we know that coaching only works if people are true to themselves about themselves.
What advice would you give to white coaches—or any coach—when race, gender, or other differences present in a coaching context?
Be cognizant that cultural differences exist and that race plays a bigger role than one may think. There are differences in lived experiences. Don’t use the coaching time to get curious about something you might not understand that is specific to race, or experiences that you're not as familiar with. Coaching is not about the coach’s understanding, it’s about the coachee.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.