About the Authors

Susan K. Gilmore and Patrick W. Fraleigh

For 30 years we, Susan and Patrick, worked together in a variety of settings - large corporations, small businesses, schools, clinics, lumber mills, oil companies, churches, colleges and universities, hospitals, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations. We worked in major cities - London, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Bombay, Manila, Glasgow, Stavanger, Dallas, St. Louis, Seattle, Vancouver, Honolulu, Columbus, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Anchorage - as well as in Third World island communities - Kosrae, Pohnpei, Majaro, Ebeye, Palau, Chuuk and Guam, In many of these settings, each of us having a PhD in psychology was of little interest. In some of the settings it was something to overcome - in others it was essential.

Coaching others to reach their maximum performance levels was the unifying theme of our work.  Whether we were working with our own children, CEOs, non-English speaking grandparents/elders, day shift supervisors, elementary school children, HR facilitators, nurses, engineers, computer scientists, sheriff's deputies, geologists, accountants, professional golfers or opera singers our interventions were based on a personal performance paradigm. We insisted that people should learn to perform interpersonal communication skills the same way they are coached to safely and skillfully handle other power tools. Patrick completed his work on earth in 2020.  Susan is currently developing methods for parents to use a personal performance paradigm in coaching their children.