January Chapter Meeting
You’re Not Coaching - You’re Advising. Let’s Fix That!
Many HR professionals consider coaching a core part of their work. Yet in a difficult conversation, it’s easy to slip into advising, fixing, or taking responsibility for someone else’s decision. In this interactive session, dual-certified health and life coach Katherine Fry shares ten practical coaching techniques HR professionals can use across hiring, employee relations, investigations, and performance management. Participants will practice asking higher-quality questions, listening with curiosity, and helping others build ownership through real-life HR scenarios. They’ll leave with a personalized plan to strengthen their coaching skills and put them to work immediately.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Distinguish coaching from advising, directing, and problem-solving in common HR conversations.
- Use coaching techniques, including active listening and higher-quality questions, to encourage reflection, ownership, and accountability.
- Apply appropriate coaching techniques to real-life hiring, employee relations, investigations, and performance management scenarios.
- Create a personalized action plan to practice and strengthen their coaching skills in day-to-day HR work.
Meeting agenda
7:45 AM – 8:00 AM: SHRM Skagit-Island Chapter Updates
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: You're Not Coaching - You're Advising. Let's Fix That!
About our Speaker
Kathryn Fry, Executive Coach | Burnout Expert | Thought Intelligence™ Pioneer
Katherine Fry’s career vision is bold: to revolutionize the HR profession by replacing archaic leadership and management practices with approaches rooted in neuroscience. Katherine has been named the 2024 and 2025 Top Burnout Coach in the United States by Evergreen Awards and Best Future of Work Keynote Speaker by Biz Weekly. She is the CEO and founder of Marble Peak Consulting and creator of Refresh HR, a first-of-its kind app, providing HR professionals and people leaders with 24/7, on-demand access to 100+ accredited SHRM and HRCI recertification workshops.
As president of Elevate HR and founder of HR Empower Hour, Katherine is the driving force being a growing, modern-day movement that helps HR professionals reclaim their energy, amplify their influence and transform organizational culture from the inside out. Her signature framework, the ETHOS Method, improves leaders’ mental health in less than five minutes a day; proving that meaningful change doesn’t require more time, rather, just practice with a powerful, proven tool. Her breakthrough workshop, Ditch the PIP, went viral in 2023 and has guided 15,000+ HR leaders worldwide to replace outdated performance improvement plans with a neuroscience-backed, six step framework that drives accountability and measurable performance gains. Her most-requested keynote, Thought Intelligence™: The Unknown Prerequisite to Emotional Intelligence in the AI Era, equips leaders to upgrade their thinking, unlearn ineffective leadership habits, and implement strategies that beat burnout—both individually and organizationally.
Known for her high-energy delivery, science-backed insights, and immediately actionable tools, Katherine is a three-time speaker for HRCI’s global audience with a three-part-series launching in 2026, trusted executive coach to senior HR leaders and a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop presenter for SHRM chapters across the country.
Katherine doesn’t just teach Thought Intelligence™—she embodies it. As an ultra-runner, skier, environmental advocate, and volunteer, she finds renewal and growth in nature, perspective through travel, and joy in her family and community near Aspen, Colorado. Katherine’s mission is clear: to empower people who empower people with Thought Intelligence™.
