PBN Leaders & Achievers 2023
Mary O’Sullivan
Encore Executive and Professional Coaching
Owner
WHEN MARY O’SULLIVAN advises women on how to make career changes or adjust their professional lives, her advice often boils down to making sure they assert themselves.
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“Stand up for yourself [to make changes] and go to the cocktail party,” O’Sullivan said. So, if the boss invites you for drinks, make sure you go and practice how to network professionally, she said.
Men, on the other hand, often need help with motivation, said O’Sullivan, owner of Encore Executive and Professional Coaching in North Kingstown. O’Sullivan also said that she focuses her coaching on communication, emotional intelligence and soft skills.
O’Sullivan has owned Encore Executive for nearly a decade. She focuses on working with leaders to improve their organizations and employees, and has helped professionals make positive changes in their careers and personal lives.
She said she wants to work on morale across companies, as well as build relationships between employees and bosses. O’Sullivan works with leaders in education, medicine, law, business and technology.
O’Sullivan spent more than 30 years in the aerospace and defense industry before getting into professional coaching. She also spent a decade as an English teacher in New York, and also delved into working in sales.
After several career transfers of her own, O’Sullivan knows what it is like to find and keep the career you actually want. She has worked with small-business owners and large companies alike on company culture and structure, including CVS Health Corp. and Hasbro Inc., among others.
O’Sullivan has a graduate degree in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University, as well as a number of coaching certifications and advanced education coursework from several universities. She turned her graduate work into a 2021 book titled “The Leader You Don’t Want to Be: Transform Your Leadership Style from Command and Control to Transformational Visionary.” O’Sullivan has also written several articles on leadership and a focused steps-to-success guide.
O’Sullivan has also served as a volunteer coach at the Massachusetts Conference for Women since 2015. Today, she is focused on positive approaches to improving the professional and personal lives of leaders, as well as the businesses they serve.
