Introducing Nadia: Your AI-Powered Leadership Coach

Ryan — Coaching Team, Valence. Ryan walks General Mills leaders through their first experience with Nadia, demonstrating how to start a conversation, use the voice feature, work through a difficult feedback scenario, and get a coaching summary and scorecard.

This is a guided introduction to Nadia — Valence's AI-powered leadership coach — made available to leaders at General Mills. The video walks through what Nadia is, how to start a conversation using the voice feature, and what a complete coaching session looks like end-to-end: from naming a challenge, to problem-solving the root cause, to preparing a structured approach, to role-playing the actual conversation with feedback, to receiving a summary and scorecard. Nadia speaks over 50 languages and has been trained on General Mills' own leadership frameworks — so the coaching is grounded in your specific context, not generic advice.

What Nadia Can Do for You

• Always on, always available — day or night. Nadia is not a 9-to-5 resource. She is available any time you have something on your mind: before a meeting, after a difficult interaction, or whenever you want to think something through. No scheduling, no waiting.
• Voice-driven conversation makes it fast and natural. The easiest way to use Nadia is to talk to her. Voice input lets you give rich context quickly — far faster than typing — and makes the interaction feel like a real conversation. The more context Nadia has, the more specific and actionable her coaching becomes.
• Nadia drives introspection with questions, not just answers. When you bring a challenge to Nadia, she doesn't immediately tell you what to do. She asks questions to understand the situation more deeply — helping you surface root causes and think through the problem in a structured way before arriving at a solution.
• Role-play lets you practice before the real conversation. Nadia can take on the character of the person you're preparing to speak with and practice the conversation with you in real time. After each response you give, she provides feedback on what you could do better — building both skill and confidence before you're in the actual situation.
• Every session ends with a summary, agenda, and scorecard. At the end of a coaching conversation, Nadia provides a recap of what you discussed, an agenda for follow-up actions, and a scorecard identifying areas for longer-term development. The session becomes a reference point you can return to.
• Nadia speaks your language — literally and organizationally. Nadia supports over 50 languages. She has also been trained on General Mills' leadership frameworks and context, so her advice is grounded in the specific expectations and language of your organization rather than generic coaching content.

Common Questions About Getting Started with Nadia

What is Nadia and what is she designed to help with?

Nadia is an AI-powered leadership coach built by Valence. She is designed to be the always-available thought partner that most people don't have easy access to at work — a trusted friend, mentor, or coach you can talk to about any challenge, at any time. She is purpose-built for coaching, meaning she knows how adults learn and develop, understands your organizational context, and builds a personalized understanding of your individual journey over time. Her most common use cases include preparing for difficult conversations, developing specific skills, role-playing upcoming interactions, setting and tracking goals, and working through leadership challenges in real time.

How do I start a conversation with Nadia?

From the Nadia homepage, tap "Start Chat" in the top right corner. Nadia will remember previous conversations and may suggest topics based on what you have been working on. You can follow one of her suggestions or simply start talking about what is on your mind. The voice feature — available at the bottom of the chat screen — is the recommended way to interact, as it allows you to give Nadia rich context naturally and quickly without typing out long messages.

What does a complete coaching session with Nadia look like?

A typical session moves through several phases. You start by describing the challenge or situation you want to work through. Nadia asks reflective questions to help identify root causes and clarify the problem. She then offers structured approaches or strategies and helps you develop a concrete plan. If relevant, she can move into a role-play where she takes on the character of the person you are preparing to engage with, providing real-time feedback on your responses. The session ends with a summary of what was discussed, next steps, and a scorecard identifying areas for continued development.

What are the most common ways leaders use Nadia day-to-day?

The most common use cases include: preparing for difficult or high-stakes conversations; role-playing feedback sessions or challenging interactions; setting development goals and staying accountable to them; building team cohesion as a leader; preparing meeting agendas and talk tracks; processing feedback you have received and turning it into an action plan; and working through interpersonal or team dynamics challenges. Nadia is also useful for simple productivity tasks like drafting emails or summarizing meeting notes — but her coaching depth is where she delivers the most distinctive value.

Full Video Transcript

What is Nadia and why was she made available to General Mills leaders?

Ryan: Hey there — this is Ryan from Valence's coaching team, and today I'm very happy to introduce you to Nadia, our AI-powered leadership coach made available to you at General Mills to have a coach in your pocket. Sometimes you might have something happen at work — an opportunity or a situation where you want someone to talk to. In your day-to-day, you might talk to a friend at work, your boss, a peer, or a mentor. We want Nadia to be that friend, that mentor, that peer, or that coach who can help you work through the day-to-day challenges you see at work.

What makes Nadia different is that she is always on — always there in your corner, always available to share your thoughts, whether it's day or night. You don't have to wait for a 9-to-5 window. Nadia will just do that with you at any given point in time.

Talking to Nadia is super easy. She's voice-driven, and she's able to have an actual conversation with you — to make it easy for you to get guidance in a medium that is best for your situation. Nadia is highly personalized. She caters to the needs you have given the context around you. She learns a lot about you, about the work that you do and how you do it, and is able to give you advice that is practical and actionable in the moment. And she's in your flow of work. You could talk to Nadia for a quick five-minute chat before meetings, after meetings to reflect, or whenever you have a question and want some guidance on what you could do differently.

Nadia also speaks over 50 languages. If you speak more than one, please give it a try — we'd love to hear your thoughts. In addition, she's been trained to speak the language of General Mills. She learns a lot about the different frameworks you would encounter in your day-to-day at General Mills, and is able to tailor her advice to make sure you can follow those frameworks given the context of whatever situation you find yourself in.

What does the Nadia homepage show you, and how do you start a session?

Ryan: Let me show you what it's like to have a conversation with Nadia. After you've introduced yourself, you'll land on a homepage. The core of this experience is the Start Chat button in the top right corner. On the homepage, you'll also see everything Nadia is learning about you — themes from what you discuss most, things she's noticed about you, and specific topics that might be relevant. I highly recommend observing what Nadia is learning about you and revisiting those conversations, because she makes an excellent accountability partner for keeping you on track with improvements in your working life.

To start a chat, just tap Start Chat in the top right. Nadia will begin loading what she knows about you and suggest topics based on previous conversations. She might check in on something you've talked about before. In my case, I'm going to show you an example of a conversation that might be a little difficult to have. I highly recommend using the voice feature at the bottom of the screen — it's the easiest way to talk to Nadia naturally.

What does a real coaching conversation with Nadia look like — from problem to role-play to scorecard?

Ryan: "Hey Nadia, I'm preparing for a difficult conversation with my team member who I need to give some critical feedback. I'm a little hesitant to go into this conversation because my team member can get very defensive about the feedback I give him. I'd like to talk about this with you."

Using the voice feature makes it easy to give Nadia a ton of context — which makes her advice better — and also makes it easy to have this conversation naturally rather than typing out long messages. You can see Nadia is empathetic. She understands the situation. She's immediately structuring the conversation and giving practical suggestions: reviewing and refining feedback delivery techniques, developing a structured approach, or practicing through role-play to build confidence. In my case, I want to problem-solve first.

"Hey Nadia, let's just break down the problem at hand here. I'd like to focus on how I could best handle this situation in terms of preparation first, and then we could potentially role-play it."

Being able to talk to Nadia makes it easy to keep giving her context as the conversation evolves. Let me show you what a completed conversation looks like. I gave Nadia context before and went through a similar conversation where she started off by proposing three potential challenges I might face in this feedback conversation. That made it very easy to start looking at the specific problem I wanted to solve. Within minutes, I had a root cause of what could be causing the defensiveness.

As the conversation continued, Nadia suggested methods for how to talk to my team member. I picked my favorite — the one that felt most productive — and then we worked through it: setting the stage, asking open-ended questions, all the way through to developing an action plan and follow-up. After that, she suggested practicing through role-play. She assumed the character of my team member with a made-up persona to make it more comfortable, and we practiced the conversation together. With every message I sent, she was analyzing my responses and helping me understand how I could do better.

After we stepped out of the role-play, I got a good summary of what we talked about, an agenda for future conversations, and I could also ask Nadia for a scorecard on what I could do better. I hope this gives you a great example of what it's like to go through a coaching journey with Nadia on a topic that might happen in anyone's day-to-day.

What are the most common ways to use Nadia in your role?

Ryan: Here are some common use cases to leverage Nadia in your role. You could be learning a new skill, role-playing a difficult conversation, or setting up goals and keeping yourself accountable. You might be preparing for upcoming conversations or meetings — coming up with the agenda, the talk track, the notes, the next steps. Nadia can help with all of that.

She's also a trained coach, so she does well at helping you build team cohesion if you're a team leader, and can give you ideas as a team member on how to contribute more effectively. There's action planning and tracking. And there are also simpler productivity tasks, like writing meeting agendas or drafting emails, where Nadia can be helpful as well.

Thank you so much for watching. I hope this was a good summary to get you started with your AI leadership coach. Please reach out to us or any member of your internal team with any questions. Have a great day.