Life Experience & Background
Madelyn Griffith-Haynie
B.A. - Theatre, University of Tennessee
M.A - Theatre, (pending thesis) University of New Orleans
CTP - Graduate, Coach U's Coach Training Program
A.C.T. - As OFI's founder, this designates me as one of its grads as well
MCC - International Coach Federation (ICF) Master Certified Coach
THE SHORT VERSION:
I was a professional actress, acting coach, & director for over two
decades, and taught theatre classes at the University of New Orleans.
For 7 years I ran my own consulting & training firm, TimeSteps
Enterprises, working with clients with businesses of all sizes,
assisting them in resolving information management issues.
An ADD Coach, speaker and trainer, I have been working with ADD since
my own late-life diagnosis in 1987, coaching ADDults and delivering
individualized ADD Coach training to parents, spouses, HR
professionals, therapists, doctors and coaches interested in the ADD
sub-specialty.
MUCH [Much!] MORE:
MY EARLY YEARS: I was born near Carmel, California at the Fort Ord hospital; the name on my birth certificate is Madelyn Griffith. I am the oldest of 5 children, two girls and three boys. All of us were alive by the time I started grade school. My father was an Air Force scientist and my mother was an extremely well-educated woman who chose to be a stay-at-home mom until after my oldest brother and I were in college and the younger siblings were in high school.
Typical of military families, the Griffiths didn't stay in one
location very long. We relocated every year of my life until high
school, which I started and completed at the W.T. Woodson High School
in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside the Washington beltway, while my
father was stationed as Congressional Liaison. My "chronic
'underfunctioning'" and was probably attributed to our peripatetic
lifestyle rather than Attention Deficit Disorder. Never in anyone's
wildest dreams did we imagine that I would end up working in the ADD
field since none of us knew the first thing about ADD in those days.
I had dreamed of being a professional actress since I first read a
biography of Sarah Siddons as a child, and majored in Theatre in
college, "on the ten-year plan," I said jokingly, as an explanation
for my numerous starts and stops that I now know are typical of
ADDers. After spending 5 years "paying my dues" in touring
companies, maintaining no address other than the theatres I played,
carrying more of my "wordly goods" than anyone could believe could be
loaded into (and onto) a sports car, I moved to New Orleans as
Actress-in-Residence for their professional acting company.
ABOUT MY NAME:
I relocated to marry the man who appended "-Haynie" to my maiden
name. No actor can afford to lose touch with her name, so
hyphenation was the only solution. Three years later, I headed
straight for the bright lights of Broadway, awaiting our official
divorce decree. By that time, I had become known as "that actress
with three names," even though no one could remember exactly which
three they were! I kept the hyphenated version when I registered
with Manhattan's Actor's Equity, the union for stage actors, which
was my first love, and it became the official listing for SAG (Screen
Actor's Guild) and A.F.T.R.A. (TV and Radio Artists).
Once I started leading TeleClasses for Coach University, I became
"MGH" because two of the TeleClass leaders had the same first name.
The nickname stuck, so my plan to return to a "simpler" name once I
left acting was no longer an option that made any sense -- any
benefit derived from returning to "Griffith" would be offset by the
confused questions about "MGH!"
THE ROAD TO COACHING:
I loved everything about acting except the business itself, so I
started looking for a career where I didn't have to worry that only
2% of the work fit my profile (and where nobody would ever try to
tell me what to do with my hair or my headshots again!) Fascinated
with computers, I taught myself how to use them in the CPM days
(before MS-DOS, Windows or the internet), and threw myself into work
situations where I had to figure out how to do what I had been hired
to do as I did it. I loved it!
I didn't love working for someone else, however, so I started my own
company, TimeSteps Enterprises, and hung out a shingle as a
consultant and trainer, specializing in information management
systems issues. My clients included an international public
accounting firm, an NBA basketball team, the American arm of a
European mega-conglomerate, a SOHO law firm and many small
businesses, home businesses, and start-ups. Every year I became more
a coach and less a consultant until I finally stopped all forms of
consulting completely to focus on Business Coaching.
Since January, 1994 my focus has been on Personal Coaching, and
I focused my practice on adults learning to live with ADD. A senior
trainer on CU's faculty for 7 years, training coaches with every
of practice focus but ADD, I founded The Optimal Functioning Institute™
(OFI) to offer a comprehensive training specifically for ADD Coaches.
At the same time, I founded a national sliding-scale ADD Coaching
Clinic to help otherwise qualified candidates get to the point where
they could AFFORD professional ADD coaching and to give OFI Coaches
a supervised setting in which to hone their ADD Coaching skills.
The current phase of my life is dedicated to helping ADDults "develop
systems to allow them to reach their goals and live their dreams,
shifting expectations of failure to expectations of great success."
OFI's motto, 'If the shoe doesn't fit, don't blame the foot!" sums up
my approach: ADDer's do indeed need to develop unique methods to get
things done that work with ADD -- but we are not broken and don't
need to be 'fixed.' My own personal motto was suggested by a
spiritual mentor, "If you're not havin' a good time, you're not doin'
it right!"
COACHING LANDMARKS:
A founding member of The International Coach Federation (ICF) and the American
Coaching Association (formerly NCN, the National Coaching Network),
I was the second graduate of Coach University (CU), and maintain professional
memberships in CH.A.D.D. and ADDA. Regularly invited as a presenter
for these organizations, I have been featured nationally in all media
as an "expert" on adult ADD, participated on a 4-person panel that
organized and facilitated ADDA's first ADD Coaching seminar and, to
my surprise and delight, was selected to answer an ADD question sent
to Scientific American for the "Ask the Experts, Medical" section.
At the bottom of this page is the link to the article if you'd like
to read my answer.
Sponsoring the OFI ADD Hour™ since 1994, (now eight free national TeleSupport
Groups), I also founded and chair CU's ADD-SIG, the virtual ADD-ICF
chapter, ICF's first national chapter.
COMING UP:
An exciting developmental project honors my first career -- a
one-woman show, "Passing for [almost] Normal." A comedy, yet
bittersweet and heart-warming, it will give the audience a snapshot
of several ADD "flavors": Dr. Kliebar (an ADD "expert"), Trudy (a
hyper-organized, hyperactive, AD/HD Coach with a "seriously
high-profile client"), Robbie (a dreamy little nine year old boy who
"just doesn't care about anything"), Cuddles (lovable, needy and
"hooked on men"), Wilma (fightin' for her kids) and Marge (star of
the smash hit call-in radio show, "Cooking by Ear").
Eccentric from the outside, a glimpse into their interior worlds
will afford viewers an understanding of the ADD reality that will
allow them to gradually shift their perspectives to one of empathy
and admiration.
If I can ever clear my plate long enough to put priority focus
on this particular project, it will debut in New York City before
I take it on the road to serve as a companion piece to my weekend
seminars, as a stand-alone entertainment vehicle.
Click here
if you'd like to read my answer (hit the "back" button at the top
left of your web browser to return here when you're done).
|
