The following are pages related to Denise Burrell:
Denise Burrell, CHRP
Denise Burrell is committed to enhancing the development of individuals, teams and organizations through coaching, leadership training, and team support and interventions.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate having TPG involved in our training this past year. You have been lifesavers! We have loved working with your team. You are all the epitome of professionalism and excellence. I knew anything we gave to you to work on would be done exceptionally well and on time.
- Training Manager, Government of Alberta
August 1, 2020
Denise provides a great balance of thought provoking and engaging discussion with a light hearted touch making the sessions both constructive and enjoyable.
- Executive Manager
October 2015
It’s been over four years since I had the opportunity to work with Denise as my coach. However, I still regularly think through the areas that we worked on together, and regularly use them in my daily work and life. From the setting of my goals for our time together, to our regular meetings, to the open, honest and encouraging discussions, Denise created an atmosphere where I felt she truly had my best interests in mind. I feel I have a much better understanding and confidence in my strengths, while also being better equipped with strategies to address areas of lesser strength. I also appreciated the way Denise understood me as a whole person, as our conversations covered both the work environment as well as out-of-work areas. I am grateful to Denise for her commitment to helping me grow as a leader, and for all I learned (and continue to put into practice) during our time.
- Manager
October 2015
Having Denise as a coach was invaluable. She offered practical tools for helping define my short and long-term career goals. I gained confidence through the process and came out with clear understanding of my strengths, weaknesses and a solid plan to achieve my personal career goals.
- Maura Sutherland, Barrister and Solicitor, Alberta Justice and Solicitor General
October 2015
I always look forward to my conversations with Denise. She is able to strike a balance between listening, sharing her experience/ ideas, and asking the right questions. She leaves with me helpful insights and/or questions to ponder. Denise has helped me in many aspects of my career, from developing staff to career planning. She has been a vital resource to me, both personally and professionally.
- Director
October 2015
Denise has the ability and insight to help uncover the fundamental of an individual's goals and aspirations and utilise this to facilitate the creation of wholistic and integrated career/life pathways.
My time spent with Denise, and completing agreed to tasks, has help me succeed in mapping, understanding and improving the path forward for me, my family and my staff.
- Manager, Alberta Municipal Affairs
October 2015
I began my coaching experience with Denise in January 2011, and it continued for approximately one year. At the time, I was in a senior manager position, and since then I competed for, and was successful in moving into an Executive Director position. I believe Denise’s coaching was instrumental for my continued growth in the public service. I appreciated that Denise used open ended questions to explore topics that I raised during our sessions, to help me further understand what was the real ‘challenge’ I was trying to address. She was able to assist me in my own internal analysis about ways I could further improve my engagement with my peers. With the team of professionals that I worked with, she helped me explore my own leadership style. I found particularly helpful an instrument she provided to me regarding conflict management (Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument). I answered a series of questions in between our coaching sessions and we then explored my results and how to use my particular conflict style effectively.
I found that Denise was able to provide me with a number of practical techniques that I continue to use today, such as when I am chairing meetings, I will end the meeting with a brief summary of the actions agreed upon, and inviting participants to confirm their support for the direction. This helps me articulate the path forward, and also provides an opportunity for anyone to present a different perspective.
Through her advice and coaching, I do feel I am more articulate with my expectations, that I have enabled a more open and collaborative environment where differing perspectives are welcome and considered when making strategic decisions, and I feel overall I am contributing effectively to the success of my organization. I would highly recommend Denise as a coach – I was fortunate to have this opportunity to work with her.
- Executive Director
October 2015
Choosing Denise Burrell as a Coach proved to be an absolute ‘game changer’ in enabling and nurturing both the Science and Art of personal and professional leadership!
Denise fostered a warm and inviting atmosphere – creating a safe environment that allowed for frank and robust exploration of what made me ‘tick’ as a leader. This was profound for me in that with several graduate degrees and many years of experience in progressive leadership positons, I did not require further development of the ‘technical’ aspects of leading teams and complex work. Instead, I discovered that what I really needed, and received, was an ‘inward exploration of me’.
Although at first, this required some courage, my coaching experience has proven to be so valuable and necessary in my progression as a strategic leader, that several of the Senior Managers whom I lead have since begun seeing Denise – building the capacity of ‘tomorrow’s leaders today’.
- Dr. Ross Danyluk, Executive Director, Alberta Transportation
October 2015
As a new director in the Government of Alberta, Denise helped me get through the difficult transition of being an individual performer to learning how to get things done through other people. At our first meeting, Denise worked with me to identify those areas where I needed improvement. Over the next few months, Denise kept me focussed on addressing those areas even when it meant leaving my comfort zone. Whenever I stumbled, Denise was there to provide me with advice and support. The lessons I learned as a result of Denise’s coaching have made me a stronger leader and will serve me well as I continue to progress in my career in the Government of Alberta.
- Ryan Reichl, Director, Alberta Transportation
October 2015
“How can we make best use of our time today?” This is how Denise opened most of our coaching conversations together. We’d go on to discuss the ‘workplace dilemma of the day’ or more general topics like team-building, managing fears, and strengths-based leadership. Every time, Denise listened more than she talked. Her open questions combined with great subject-matter expertise left me feeling positive about my abilities and looking forward to taking action. By deftly getting me to answer my own questions she helped me to focus on building strengths rather than fixing weaknesses, and figure out how to get out of a rut. Since working with Denise I have looked for and taken on leadership responsibilities, and enrolled in the GoA Leadership Program. My work with Denise showed me that I could succeed at both.
- Barrister and Solicitor
October 2015
Working with Denise was a great pleasure. She created a safe environment for me to explore challenging situations, provided inspirational resources when I needed them, yet encouraged me to create my own tool to use to navigate the path forward. Once I created the tool, she played a strong role in encouraging my progress and ensuring I was accountable to myself and the goals I had set. This coaching experience exceeded my expectations.
- Executive Director
October 2015
My coaching experience with Denise has been so valuable! With Denise’s guidance, I was able to work through some complex challenges and have learned tools and techniques that will serve me well into the future. Denise is knowledgeable and professional, and I have benefitted greatly from her insights. I would highly recommend Denise as a coach!
- Executive Manager
October 2015
The instructor was excellent. She had a great attitude, was patient and funny.
April 2015
The instructor was amazing. She was expressive, upbeat, and entertaining. I appreciated her honest and realistic approach to learning.
April 2015
Denise was great! She was very knowledgeable and presented the material in a very positive way, capturing the attention of the participants. She shared stories, elicited discussions and made a difficult subject meaningful, with some funny moments as well.
March 2015
Denise is an experienced and knowledgeable trainer. Her input and feedback into the delivery of the training was valuable. Denise is energetic, intuitive and engages participants in a supportive manner. She was a pleasure to co-facilitate with and I would be happy to be a part of any training she was facilitating.
June 2015
When I started working with an executive coach I came into this experience with doubts about how this interaction could benefit me. Denise created an atmosphere of trust. Her gentle manner in challenging me to grow brought me closer to the answers I’ve been struggling to find. Denise met my expectations about addressing my specific questions and concerns and has been effective in helping me analyze and assess the situations I have brought forward in our discussions. What worked well for me was the set time every second week and face to face interaction. I will probably use the GROW model for goal setting and problem solving for the rest of my life. I am so grateful for Denise’s contribution to my journey in leading and I would recommend her to anyone.
- Manager
September 2015
She was fantastic and made the workshop fun and memorable. She gives great examples of situations and makes the material easy to understand.
September 2014
She is a wonderful instructor. She is full of vitality, she keeps the workshop fun, exciting, interesting, and the time flies by. She uses examples to teach us, she answers all the questions we came up with, she kept us on our toes. If we didn't want to answer in class she didn't force us - she let us become comfortable in our situation before asking us to participate. It was GREAT!!
September 2014
Excellent knowledge base, very energetic, strong presentation skills
September 2014
Denise was an excellent instructor. She presented the information in a very unique way which was both informative and interesting. I liked the fact that she gave both work and personal examples on the different scenarios. The information that was presented will be very helpful to put into practice at my worksite.
September 2014
She was very engaging and used many examples that were relatable in order to understand the concepts she was sharing. She was respectful and encouraged discussion.
September 2014
Denise was very knowledgeable and entertaining which definitely made the course more interesting. She used both personal and work examples to help students make use of course material. The day flew by which says a lot for a course!!!
Very lively and enthusiastic. She seemed knowledgeable and practised in this field. She addressed expectations of class members in her content.
March 2014
Vivacious and well versed in conflict resolution
March 2014
Wonderful, great energy. She gave you personal attention and great advice.
March 2014
Excellent instructor. I enjoyed the workshop and HIGHLY recommend people attend this workshop. The workshop is very informative and helps in dealing with people. Whether it is coworkers, managers, clients, patients, family members.... people that you deal with in your lives. I am very glad I went to this workshop and thank you very much for it.
March 2014
Engaging, energetic and comfortable in exploring real life situations. She is an excellent instructor.
