We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Hoffman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

With the Current Solutions is on a mission to empower professionals to take charge of their learning and development. The name With the Current reflects life’s continuous force. Like water, meaningful growth requires both flow and force, knowing when to adapt and when to push through.

My journey began as an HR professional, with over 10 years of experience spanning industries like higher education, hospitality, and healthcare, in roles ranging from Specialist to Manager. For me, work was never just a paycheck. I was an ambassador for the companies I worked for. I was fueled by a collegiate spirit, a drive for improvement, and a passion for people.

Toward the end of my corporate career, I became deeply interested in training, coaching, and development. It all crystallized during an all-day John Maxwell training. That’s when the light bulb went off. I realized I wanted to spread the message of leadership development, inspiring and motivating others. Just weeks later, I was laid off.

Although the experience was painful, I now see it as a turning point. It rerouted me toward a path of deeper purpose. I reflected on my own career and what made the difference between the great bosses I had. Those that were servant leaders who empowered through confidence and diversity, and those who fell short, relying on control and micromanagement.

This realization became my mission: to help professionals take ownership of their development rather than rely on leaders who may not always be equipped to help them thrive. In many organizations, a lack of trust and synergy between employees and their bosses leads to disengagement, frustration, and even poor mental health. Just as a challenging home environment can take a toll, so can a toxic workplace.

With the Current Solutions exists to break this cycle. My work helps others reach their full potential by understanding their unique strengths, breaking down barriers, and finding balance and well-being. This mission is rooted in my own experiences of feeling misunderstood, even while giving my best.

To every professional ready to move from surviving to thriving: the current may be strong, but together, we are stronger.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Imagine a world where every ambitious professional not only knows their strengths and behaviors but can use them to thrive. This is the vision driving my work as a high-performance coach.
The transition from corporate HR to high-performance coaching has been seamless and deeply fulfilling. Now, I get to focus putting the human potential back into human resources working with principles on resilience, mental fitness, motivation, habit formation, and personality. My work combines the science of behavioral assessments with practical coaching strategies to unlock individual potential and help clients thrive in their roles and lives.

My coaching is aided by transformational assessments that uncover critical aspects of personality and behavior. These assessments provide insights into work-related behavioral trends such as adherence to rules, competitive drive, customer service orientation, sense of urgency, persuasion, independence, and strategic thinking. Why does this matter? Because these insights ensure that individuals are aligned with roles where they can thrive and that their behaviors are understood, coached, and supported- not mistaken or misinterpreted.
This data serves as a foundation for structured, impactful, and empowering coaching conversations. Clients leave with greater clarity about their strengths, areas for growth, and actionable strategies to improve performance and well-being.

I bring a results-oriented, adaptable, and energetic style to my coaching. My high extraversion and influential nature enable me to drive progress and inspire action. But I’m also deeply self-aware, having learned from my own experiences where my urgency and fast-paced approach sometimes caused me to miss key details. If I had access to this type of data earlier in my career, I could have avoided some hard lessons, like managing pressure situations where I acted too quickly.
This self-awareness informs how I coach others. For instance, I recently worked with a client who excelled in technical expertise but struggled to connect with senior leadership because his presentations were overly detailed and technical. Through coaching, we reframed his communication style to focus on storytelling and high-level insights. As a result, he was able to capture his audience’s attention and elevate his impact with leadership.

What makes my coaching unique is my ability to combine compassion and empathy with strategy and authenticity. I empower clients to find their voice, overcome obstacles, and step into their full potential. My goal is to help people align their behavior and strengths with their goals so they can thrive in every area of life. High-performance coaching celebrates what makes each person unique and leverages those traits for success.
Whether I’m working with individuals or teams, my mission is to create a space for meaningful growth and transformation.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Human beings are not so different when it comes to how they want to feel whether at work or at home. At the core, people want to feel heard, seen, valued, empowered, and like they belong. As a leader, understanding this sets you up to lead with empathy. Your team is looking to you to see the best in them and help them grow into the best versions of themselves.

To foster alignment and high morale, communication is key. In my book, there’s no such thing as over-communication. When things are left to assumptions or mindreading, misalignment creeps in, leading to dysfunction and a breakdown of trust. Without trust and clear communication, a team cannot function toward a shared goal.
Always remember that recognition goes a long way. Celebrate wins publicly, it motivates not just the individual but the entire team. At the same time, feedback should always be private. Public criticism will erode trust faster than anything else and create a divide that’s hard to repair.

Another crucial element of maintaining morale is creating psychological safety. Teams thrive when they feel safe to share ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks without fear of judgment or reprimand. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to set this tone and model vulnerability. Also remember that leaders are not devoid of flaws. It’s okay to be vulnerable with your team. It creates a trusting environment where people feel empowered to bring their best selves to work every day. This will make them want to work harder not just for you, but for the cause. When you lead with empathy, clear expectations, trust, and recognition, and openness, your team is likely to be highly performing.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience has been a constant current in my story, but one moment of my life stands out as a true turning point.
In 2022, I faced my second layoff in two years. After spending over a decade in corporate HR, pouring my heart into creating better workplaces, I found myself at an unpleasant crossroads. It was a crushing blow. Not just financially, but to my sense of purpose, confidence, and identity. I had always been the one helping others improve and navigate challenges, and now, I had to do the same for myself.

My layoffs came shortly after I dove in headfirst, moving from Raleigh, North Carolina to Miami, Florida. I left my safe and stable home in Raleigh, and being a results-oriented person with a sense of urgency, abruptly embarked on a new adventure to shake things up.

After the second layoff, I felt defeated. But during reflection, change, and transformation, I realized that this wasn’t the end of my journey, it was the beginning to a redirection. I had been deeply passionate about coaching, strengths, mindset, and leadership development, and this was the chance to turn that passion into something greater.
I leaned into my resilience by reframing the situation: instead of seeing the layoff as a failure and as a reason to go back to North Carolina, I saw it as an opportunity to reinvent myself and dive into inner work and healing. I started building With the Current Solutions, combining my HR expertise with coaching to empower individuals and teams to thrive. It hasn’t been easy. Along the way there were financial hurdles, self-doubt, and countless moments of questioning. But I kept showing up, one step at a time, because I knew that if I could rise from this, I could help others rise too.

This moment in my life has taught me that resilience is not only about getting back to your original state, it’s an opportunity to find more growth, spirituality, and strength. With each redirection life throws at you, you have to learn to trust yourself to get back up stronger after each fall. Today, I’m proud of the work I do. I help others discover their potential, build mental fitness, and overcome their own challenges.
Let my journey serve as a reminder: sometimes, life doesn’t go as planned, but it always leads you to where you’re meant to be. Embrace the road less traveled, it will lead you to a life that is rich with meaning and purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.withthecurrentsolutions.com
• Instagram: @thecurrentlauren
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/withthecurrentlaurenhoffman/

Image Credits

Brooke Rosenblum Photography