Mary Trombitas: Mother, Leader, Coach, Author, Podcaster and Speaker

Mary Trombitas has years of experience to back the many diverse facets of her business. As a certified human resource professional (SPHR and SHRM-SCP), she has worn many hats. On top of having the hardest job in the world—being a mother—Mary is also a leader, a coach, an author, a podcaster and a public speaker. Additionally, as the founder of Targeting Leadership, she’s one tough cookie! Mary Trombitas is not just trained in leadership, she has grown up in leadership.

Twenty-Five Years In The Making

Mary Trombitas spent 25 years in leadership roles in various professional and corporate environments. Her career started by searching for improvements. When she consulted with a company, she began by looking at who they were and what they represented. Finding where there was room to improve—to become bigger and better—was her ultimate goal. Those twenty-five years taught her more than any training, certification or CE course ever would. Her hands on experience was priceless.

Two and a half decades came to an end in 2006. Over that time, she encountered a high number of unethical situations that pushed her career in a new direction. The horror stories really struck a chord with her.

Learning of illegal activities, terminating presidents of organizations, terminating people as a result of embezzling money eventually took its toll. A low-point came when she had to terminate a person for lying on their background check regarding illegal activity—but not murder; murder never came up. We won’t discuss the time someone lied to her about committing a murder. We’ll pretend the issue of murder never even surfaced.

Mary believed reaching larger companies would bring a better world. The bad news was it didn’t change; the problems only got worse and push eventually came to shove. “I didn’t want to work in that environment anymore. I wanted to change the environment itself. Employees shouldn’t come to work fearful for their jobs or of their coworkers. They shouldn’t fear their leaders or discrimination or harassment. People lacked courage to do and say the right thing. They feared standing up for themselves would threaten their jobs,” Mary mentioned in our interview. We know that the truth can often times be harsh.

A Targeted, Positive Change Was Necessary

At that point, it was time for Mary to venture out on her own. She planned to keep her focus on leadership and personal development. Stepping out on her own brought with it courage. As a result, Mary has changed many lives in terms of coaching on a 1-to-1 basis.

Her goal now is to have a greater impact and reach the masses. She wants to correct what’s happening in the professional workplace. “Leaders don’t understand followers and followers don’t understand leaders,” she said. It seems there’s an ongoing professional language barrier. Reaching those masses is done through her written work and her podcasting show titled Targeting Leadership.

Leadership Means Being H.U.M.A.N.

In her book, Mary explains the H.U.M.A.N. acronym: Honest—Unbiased—Motivating—Accountable—Natural. Mary was most effective was when she was part of an organization with clear vision. Without overanalyzing and overassessing, Mary projected her best self simply by listening to employees as well as her instinct. In her professional opinion, it’s important for any leader to respect the role of a leader.  A real leader leads for the greater good and makes the decision at hand with the long term process in mind.

The Main Focus for Mary Trombitas

She tends to work more with aspiring leaders and C-level executives who want to improve themselves. “Entrepreneurs are a different niche of leadership,” Mary offered. Entrepreneurs do come into her line of sight, but each one is different. She noticed fairly quickly they have the same common traits in terms of drive, a never-ending passion for their business, a slight ego and the yearning for success. The interesting part of entrepreneurs Mary witnessed is that they come to her at various points in their careers. While she does enjoy working with entrepreneurs, her expertise is best applied to employees within a cultivated and cultured organization.

The Future of Targeting Leadership

A smaller and more targeted focus on leaders is in the works. It’s all part of the process of developing her leadership brand. In terms of people who come to her, she determines the outcome based on the commitment. Working with Mary is not a matter of committing to the duration, it’s whether her prospective students will make the commitment, period.

Break The Cycle and Upcoming Books

Her book entitled “Break The Cycle: Become the Leader People Need Today” is available and is the first of many to come. A leadership book series is currently in development, where she focuses on various chapters of life. They will speak to the past experiences through which Mary has successfully navigated. The main focuses of the upcoming books are life and leadership and discussing how integrated the two principles are. Various generations of people will also be targeted to show how they can each lead their own lives.

Targeting Leadership airs every Thursday morning at 10am EST on the Helium Radio Network. To listen to previous episodes of her show, open our digital library. Catch up on your own personal development!

Thank you for your attention and … keep leading!