Dennis LaMountain, MS, ACC, CSS
Principal/Professional Coach
For Dennis, achieving peak performance has required that he combine the sum total of what he has learned at various stages of his life. What started out as a life in which he was embarrassed and ashamed of an “invisible disability” (stuttering) lead to work with organizational leaders in world-wide companies. He went from a person who could not even say his name without stuttering to someone who was has made several presentations at large national conferences. Yet, he still remembers vividly how it feels to have an “invisible” disability!
Like his business partner, Camille, he is now circling back to direct his coaching skills (and knowledge of workplace expectations) to help other people with “invisible disabilities” (e.g., AD/HD, Executive Functioning deficits, and co-existing learning disabilities) to find their own paths to success. His extensive experience in career coaching, selection, hiring and personality/trait assessments enhances his AD/HD Coaching and is highly valued by young adults who are entering the work world, as well as older adults in career transition.
Dennis’ Path to Peak Performance has included jobs in banking, insurance, the U.S. Navy, Cornell University, and a Fortune 50 manufacturing firm before he founded his own consulting firm in 1981. He earned a BS in Business Management from Northeastern University and an MS in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior from Cornell University. His leadership experience includes roles as a U.S. Naval Officer, a Manager of Management Development in a Fortune 500 company, and numerous volunteer positions on non-profit boards and committees.
Dennis has served dozens of clients in the manufacturing, government, service and non-profit sectors. He has designed performance management systems for both large and small organizations. He designed and conducted leadership training programs in a variety of settings and transitioned to primarily one-on-one coaching (mostly in the manufacturing and government sectors) in recent years.
Dennis was at the forefront of 360 Feedback and Executive Coaching movements, speaking about both topics at national conferences as early as the late 1980s. As LaMountain & Associates evolved into a multi-faceted Talent Management firm, he acquired extensive expertise in designing organizational competency models. He has partnered with several consulting and training firms on both small and large projects throughout the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Dennis has done a substantial amount of Executive Coaching, yet he enjoys coaching leaders at all levels of organizations. He has also worked extensively with technically trained leaders (mostly engineers and scientists), including dozens of individuals with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
While most of Dennis’ clients have held corporate or public sector positions, Dennis has discovered that he also enjoys working with individuals who are not being funded by an employer. As his business partner, Camille, started to do more and more AD/HD Coaching with college students and other adults, he became very interested in this unique aspect of “Talent Management.” In 2014, he completed JST Coaching’s Intensive Training on Coaching Teens & College Students with AD/HD and is now focusing much more on AD/HD Coaching.
In 2015, Dennis was certified to do Career Coaching for people with ADHD and/or High Functioning Autism. Conducted by Wilma Fellman, and sponsored by the Edge Foundation, this Career Services Specialty Training has allowed Dennis to work with people who need additional support to ensure that they land in a job or career in which they will have the highest probability of being successful.
In January 2016, Dennis earned the designation Associate Certified Coach (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation.
AD/HD Coaching draws from Dennis’ keen understanding of what is required to be successful both in school and at work. He brings a strengths-based approach to AD/HD Coaching, while helping clients compensate for any deficits that may be creating obstacles along their Paths to Peak Performance. He has always stressed the importance of goal setting, action planning, and accountability in his work with clients. The role of the AD/HD Coach as an accountability partner is extremely compatible with the style of coaching that Dennis has developed over more than thirty years of experience.
Dennis’ many published training packages include: “Interviewing and Selecting,” “Giving Bad News,” “Face-to-Face,” and “Delegation” (produced and marketed world‑wide by International Training Corporation), as well as “How to Participate in the Performance Management Process – The Manager’s Role,” “How to Participate in the Performance Management Process – the Employee’s Role,” “How to Receive a Delegated Assignment,” “PRIME Match,” (an Upward Feedback Process), and the “PRIME Peer Feedback System.”
A recognized authority on a variety of topics, Dennis has been quoted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Industry Week, The Training and Development Journal, Training Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, U.S. Air Magazine, and various regional newspapers.
Dennis is a former American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Chapter Board President and Regional Conference Program Chair. He is a national member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and served on the Richmond Urban League Board for six years, including a term as Board President. He is a graduate of the first Leadership Metro Richmond (LMR) class and has held several volunteer leadership roles, including Chair of the Leadership & Learning Team.
In addition to work and volunteer activities, Dennis is known for his competitive distance running, winning local and regional races, as well as National Gold and Silver Age Group medals in races sanctioned by The Athletics Congress (TAC). He also enjoys bicycling.
