Meet Alicia Del Real of The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Del Real.

Alicia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was the quintessential super-motivated corporate working mom. During my seven-year tenure at PepsiCo, I gave birth to three boys and never slowed down my career aspirations. My first newborn came to conferences with me and I invested my personal income to hire babysitters for 14 hours per day while I sprinted back and forth through enormous hotel conference centers to nurse when I had the chance to escape.

After the birth of my second son, I accepted a new role as a National Account Manager that included 30% travel. I was on flights to Boston at least every other week. While pregnant with my third son, I took yet another role leading a 200 person sales organization within PepsiCo that required me to be present in the distribution center early each day, often by 4:30am.

Although it was never easy, I loved it. I enjoyed my job because I genuinely enjoyed the people. It has always been a personal challenge balancing life in a dual-career household, but I have a passion for doing rewarding work and I’ve been fortunate that each and every role at PepsiCo was increasingly rewarding.

In addition, while working my way up to the executive level, I was also earning my master’s degree in Organization Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania. This program required me to travel to Philadelphia one-weekend each month for 2.5 years. This degree is focused on the human side of business, which is precisely where my true enthusiasm and intrigue resides.

When the opportunity presented itself to leave my rewarding and stable corporate job to join The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence, it was an extremely difficult decision. The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence wanted to expand to Chicago and was looking for me to build out the Chicago market. In addition to business development, I would get to perform the type of work I enjoy – executive coaching and organizational consulting. This was the perfect complement to my prior experience and now completed Master’s Degree. Though changing careers was a risk, I was optimistic about the potential.

Today, I’m happy to say that I’m one year into my new role as Senior Partner and Executive Coach. I’m grateful to be doing work that I love. My previous roles were gratifying because so much of my energy was focused on developing people – but I knew there was a lot more to it than that. Now, my primary focus is on my clients and helping them to achieve their full potential. I’m incredibly impassioned by this work and appreciative to be doing what I love every day.

Has it been a smooth road?
There have been many challenges along the way, some of which I anticipated and some which I have found surprising. Building awareness and signing clients has been much harder than I envisioned. It was much easier to get meetings when I had the PepsiCo brand behind me. Now, one of my biggest hurdles is getting in front of decision makers.

I also took for granted all the resources that a large corporation offers. In my new role, I’m my own office manager, tech support, website builder, admin, etc. and the list goes on. Everything takes more time because I’m figuring it out and learning in the process. Suffice it to say that although I certainly have more flexibility in my new role, I’m finding that it’s necessary to put in long hours to achieve success.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our practice is for leaders who want to be more effective in today’s rapidly changing and often turbulent business climate. We believe emotional intelligence is the single most distinguishing characteristic of truly exceptional leadership. At The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence, we offer practical, results-oriented programs for leadership development and corporate culture change.

Through our unique process we are able to get valuable insights, including what’s holding you back from reaching your potential that people might not be telling you. We have the most robust 360 process that I’ve seen in the marketplace. Its labor intensive on our end but it gets our clients rich and transformative information that translates to sustainable results.

We obsess about your human architecture. Relationships matter now more than ever and social capital breaks down when you don’t have role models across every level of the organization building trust. I’ve witnessed the power of trust and the impact a lack of trust has on culture.

One of the things I’m most proud of are the client success stories. The work we do certainly improves effectiveness at work, but it also improves the quality of relationships at home. It is common for us to hear that the biggest impact came from an improved relationship with a child or spouse. The work we do impacts all facets of life and for me knowing that we are helping to improve the quality of life for these smart, busy, successful leaders, makes it worth the time investment.

Our results are a reflection of the incredible team we bring to every assignment. Every executive coach at The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence brings a successful career as a business leader and holds a minimum of a master’s in Organizational Psychology. There are so many trendy leadership models and assessments, instead we focus on the most powerful force which is knowing yourself and building self-knowledge. Emotional intelligence starts with the individual and leveraging one’s self-knowledge to be more collaborative and effective socially.

What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
I’m excited to be launching a new coaching program focused on high potential emerging leaders. Most of our current clients are already senior leaders and they often tell us that they wish they had these insights 10 or 20 years sooner. This new program aims to provide these senior level candidates with an opportunity to dive deep and emerge with a greater sense of self and purpose to drive their future successes both personally, and professionally.

Today’s fast paced and turbulent business climate doesn’t often allow for time to reflect. We can get caught up in the chaos of constantly jumping from one thing to the next. At The Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence, we create space and a tailored curriculum for contemplation; we challenge our clients to go a few levels deeper within themselves. We use both literature and film as mediums to get our clients thinking about their role in the underlying dynamics of effective collaboration. I’m confident that our new program for emerging leaders will prepare participants for their next leadership role and future development.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2159 West Caton Street
  Chicago IL 60647
• Website: www.AdvancedEQ.com
• Phone: 215-817-4614
• Email: ADelReal@AdvancedEQ.com

Image Credit:
Saverio Truglia

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.