Let’s Befriend Dragons Together

Cindy Gross [she/her], Generative Coach & CEO of Befriending Dragons

I nurture equitable anti-bullying, anti-racist cultures via coaching partnerships with folks on their own personal culture change journeys.

#BlackLivesMatter #MeToo

Featured: Anti-Racism – From Learning to Action. Workshops + Coaching

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You’ve been to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and watched your yearly anti-harassment training. You signed up for an anti-racism book club and listened to some podcasts. Now what? You’re motivated, you want to do something, but… what? What do you do when someone speaks up about the racism they just experienced? What mindset do you want to be in when you decide how to respond to someone saying or doing something that upholds white supremacy? How does it affect your actions if you’re able to decide if a racist act is an individual responsibility vs. systemic oppression? How will you know when you’ve scrubbed every racist bone from your body? Spoiler alert – racism doesn’t reside in our bones, race isn’t found in our genes, and Anti-Racism is about committing to the journey.

We’ll focus on that move from learning to action. #BlackLivesMatter.

Generative Coach

I am a Generative Coach, an Adaptive Community Leader, an Anti-Racism Leader, an ex-techie, and the founder of Befriending Dragons. I nurture equitable anti-bullying, anti-racist cultures via coaching partnerships with folks on their own personal culture change journeys. Our internal DRAGONS make us small, but we can BEFRIEND them. We can regain our voices. We can heal. We can make tech stronger, better, more innovative. I lead and coach with empathy and an intersectional social equity perspective so you can unleash the change and impact you want to have in the world.

My clients are

• Women Pivoting at Work – you’re ready to define the way YOU want to show up at work, fully authentic with great boundaries, and commit to a journey to get there.
• Folks Deepening an Anti-Racism Journey – we explore where you want to go, what impactful actions you can take within your scope of control, and how align your goals with other stakeholders in the area you want to impact.
• Tech Leaders – you’re committed to DEI and want an individual action plan that creates true culture change. Regardless of your formal title or authority, you are ready to make a change and traditional DEI efforts aren’t getting you there.
• I deliver Anti-Racism workshops combined with individual coaching for folks to develop their own specific, ongoing intersectional Anti-Racism action plans that align with their own goals and scope of control.

Culture Change Partnerships

We share our knowledge and skills with your Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) groups, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), HR organizations, and internal executive, leadership, and career coaches. Cindy’s 25+ years as a techie make her uniquely qualified to bring culture changes to technology organizations.

My Story

I’ve met many scary dragons in my life – breast cancer, divorce, a layoff, changing roles and technologies, workplace harassment as a Microsoft woman in tech, fighting for LGBTQ+ and abortion rights in Idaho, constant striving to meet an impossible to meet bar for success, and the idea that we always have to put work first. Most recently I left the corporate world to strike out on my own, into a rich community filled with people like me who create justice, meaning, allies, and dreams. Each time I step back and look at the situation from different angles to get through it. I befriend each dragon, learn how to make it a part of my past, and take only the parts I want forward to the next stage of my life. That’s what befriending dragons is all about – take those scary things and blend the best parts into our lives. Then we can respond in the way we each need, the way that takes us down the path we want.

Hear more of my dragon stories here.

Schedule a Meeting or Contact Me

Cindy Gross She/Her/They – Cisgender straight white woman, atheist, sociable introvert, trauma survivor, 50+, depression and anxiety haver, American and Delaware Tribe of Indians citizen, English speaker, & breast cancer survivor. I reside on the stolen lands of the Coast Salish and Duwamish.