Endorsements

Scroll down: Turnarounds | Supervision | Consulting/executive coaching

Some turnarounds

“… probably the fastest turnaround we’ve ever seen” – Chairman of the board for a joint venture in health insurance where Paul was lead coach/supervisor for their LEAN project and executive coach to the CEO

“… we’re still harvesting from your strategies” – a comment 3 years after I left the role as Business Unit Manager for Sterling Commerce, Nordic Europe

“…because he’s one of the best in Europe” – a business owner when asked by one of his CEOs why he hired an executive coach from Norway to coach a German management team, in German. I later led a difficult turnaround as consultant to one of his boards. We succeeded against all odds, despite negative media coverage and public scrutiny; manoeuvring through a sequence of decisions, analyses, formalities and ended the project writing a much-needed corporate governance guideline.

Supervision

Paul is a mature supervisor with deep experience from different methods and settings. Although his supervision degree was for psychotherapy and counselling, he meets people where they are and so just as easily handles supervision for coaching and mentoring. – D.S., Executive coach, PsyD from US

Paul you have been a great supervisor during my CBC education through the Centre for Coaching, London. […] Your honesty, support, sharing of theories and own reflections, and your direct, specific and challenging questions, have created many useful reflections for me moving forward. Your flexible and solution oriented mindset have also been very beneficial. I have enjoyed every supervision session with you Paul. Your personality and broad experience are very much appreciated and I look forward to future potential cooperations with you. – G.S., Engineer, Senior HR consultant, Norway

I value Paul’s accommodating style, his experience and depth of thinking. He is good at establishing rapport and a trusting working relationship fast. He is a good listener, and whilst keeping a positive atmosphere he is also good at spotting small contradictions in what I say or possible parallel processes between my coaching client and I, and/or the client and his/her wider system and relationships. I highly recommend Paul O Olson as a supervisor. – B.D., Experienced leadership coach, Denmark

I have had Paul as a supervisor in my process towards my accreditation as Master Practitioner in EMCC. These discussions have been very important to me in this process, I simply couldn’t have done it without Paul. We have had discussions about the mentoring of the present and what mentoring of the future may look like. The discussions have been very evolving on my part and also made me reflect on what I am doing now on a deeper level. – T-E.G., Mentoring programme manager and President EMCC Norway

At times I had great doubts of my own abilities to pull through. Paul sensed my doubts and resistance and he elegantly and cleverly helped me to counter my resistance and pull through. Fortunately he was able to see more of my potential than I myself could trust, and giving me new perspectives and support in ways that touched both my mind and my heart. The proof of the pudding is of course that I made the Master Practitioner, which would never have happened without Paul’s intelligent interventions. I experience him solid as a rock! – K.M., Executive coach, ex-CEO, Norway

I am happy to state that, quite serendipitously, I enjoyed and benefitted from a supervision session with Dr Paul O Olson during the UNM’s Institute of Mentoring Conference in 2018. Dr Olson had attended a workshop which I and a colleague had facilitated during the day. His feedback was both constructive and generous, allowing me to gain confidence from what had been a challenge delivered in a new environment. My session with Dr Olson was invaluable; to have time and space to reflect with and individual from a different  culture, background and profession was a genuinely enriching experience from which, not only I, but my clients, have gained much.  – J.L., University lecturer and coach, UK.

Consulting and executive coaching

What makes you unique and exceptional is your robust background in GE practices, coupled with your thorough understanding of mentoring and coaching, topped off by your PhD in Psychology. That’s a rich and truly wonderful stew of skill sets, talents, and gifts that you bring to every client, and it gives you an exquisitely wide and deep tool kit with which you can be of service to your clients. – A.N., Fortune 50 executive coach, USA

What characterises you? Spontaneity: I sensed a lot from that in you. Generosity: you are a giving person, even when it is not asked for – and I mean it in a positive, not a “dramatic rescuer” way. Being nice while being critical 🙂 you can share your negative feedbacks in an encouraging way. Complex thinking: you can relate to a number of different aspects of a situation and can bring in relevant perspectives to enrich the conversation. Your colourful background and experience is fascinating: from clinical psychology, to executive position…you have already been there. I personally like your stories and the way how you engage in casual conversations – someone who can tell short and interesting personal experiences in a fascinating way. Z.C., high-level coach and trainer, ex VP, Hungary

I have known you for several years and our meetings/sessions have been of great value from my point of view, due to your deep insight within leadership and factors of competence that lead to accelerated value creation. You have had deep insight and contributions concerning performance and optimisation of management teams with topics such as readiness to accept and implement change, managing towards aggressive targets, overall view, ability to inspire, respect for other people, creating team players, showing courage in leadership and the importance of communication. In conclusion my assessment is that Paul is outstanding to help maximize value creation within management teams – independent of industry, nationality and culture. – J.D., ex Sr Exec VP global airline, Chairman of several corporate boards, Denmark

You are a serious person with stamina, experienced, analytical, good listener, maybe not the quickest to actions, both a lone wolf and a team player. You can be a bit too academic in the approach in a business situation, but have a lot of knowledge waiting to be unlocked into business opportunities. – H.F. Consultancy managing partner, Sweden

Having said that I see a man who has a natural authority and gravitas which easily creates followership because of his rich experiences and great competencies in business and leadership. […] Your brand “Nordic Heads” fits perfectly to my impression of your personality and phenotype. I can really think of you as a Viking: looking for the “New World” on the basis of curiosity, love of adventure, courage, assertiveness, determination, energy and at the same time I see a well educated and immensely trained self-reflective intellectual man with deep interest in people. […] What I really appreciate – straight to the point, open minded and totally reliable and trustful. You are one of those few guys with whom I could make an appointment to meet in 5 years in a café in Casablanca and I know, you will be there. Most important to me: You are a “hombre sincero”. – P.E., Experienced executive coach, President EMCC Germany

There is a popular idea that we need to think out of the box, an idea that is not so simple to live up to, but in many ways I think Paul does just that. It is needed from an executive coach in order to help executives and managers on all levels to be able to shift perspectives and see more of the whole picture and not only make good, but great decisions. To give a more complete idea, Paul is a visionary that can fathom complexity and make that complexity understandable. He is also able to incorporate evidence from different theories and research orientations in his practice, a quality that differentiates the master level coach. – P.L., Master practitioner executive coach, ex VP Research