Cara Nance

Cara N. Nance, M. Ed.

Founder, Tutum Leadership Coaching

Empathy | Communication | Achiever | Relator | Arranger

The daughter of a Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, Retired Marine Corps Director of Force Preservation, and middle child between two brothers, daily lessons growing up were from teachers called 'Mom' and 'Dad' who also shared lessons from John Wooden to General Colin Powell.

With over 25 years of coaching and leadership experience, Cara is a passionate advocate for leadership focused on shared goals and coalition building using the CliftonStrengths® assessment as the driving force and tool for both personal and professional development.

Earning a Bachelor's of Science in Kinesiology and a Master's in Education with a concentration in Social Justice Education, Cara served almost 20 years in the public education sector with the last half in Student Services, both at the school level and central office. Cara saw first-hand the need for more post-secondary options for skilled trades training, leadership development woven throughout curriculum, and personal accountability especially regarding financial literacy.

Cara's CliftonStrengths® Journey:

Cara's CliftonStrengths® assessment journey began in January 2009 when she took it as part of her graduate assistantship while working with Residence Life at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Like many of us experience when we take 'personality tests', Cara was handed her CliftonStrengths® assessment results without the opportunity to process and make meaning from the valuable content, so it went in the 'that was cool' pile and pushed to the side.

Fast forward to June 2016 when Cara took the CliftonStrengths® assessment for the second time while working on the High School Intervention Team in Wake County Public School System's central office, supporting all 34 high schools in the Raleigh, North Carolina area as a Behavior Coach. Talk about making meaning!

The facilitator took all 21 Intervention Team members who supported all schools K-12 in the district through what Cara now knows as Gallup's 'Name It, Claim It, Aim It' process and held space for the team to first identify the value each brings by just being themselves. Then, by the afternoon of the all-day retreat, the team was afforded the opportunity to think strategically about what they did well as a team and how to improve and balance each other out through the mindful use of each other's strengths. They were afforded the time and space to make meaning of their assessment results. Total game changer. Cara's passion and advocacy for the CliftonStrengths® assessment tool was born that day.

Cara believes in using the CliftonStrengths® assessment when used with intention towards creating a culture of strengths, rather than a one-time experience. Everyone has talents they bring to their communities and organizations, no matter their title or lack thereof. We all have something to contribute and the CliftonStrengths® assessment helps us identify what these innate contributions and talents are. Further, support from a coach helps maximize these talents so they one day become strengths.