Ryan — Coaching Team, Valence. Ryan introduces General Mills employees to Nadia and walks through a complete coaching session — from starting a conversation using the voice feature, to exploring root causes of a difficult feedback situation, to role-playing and receiving a summary and scorecard.

Valence's AI Leadership Coach Nadia — A Guide for General Mills

Nadia is Valence's AI-powered leadership coach, made available to General Mills employees as a thought partner for any challenge that comes up at work. She is always available, voice-driven, highly personalized, and trained on General Mills' own frameworks — so the coaching is grounded in the context you actually work in. This guide walks through how to start a conversation, what a complete coaching session looks like end-to-end, and how Nadia learns about you over time to become more useful with every interaction.

What Nadia Can Do for You

• Always on, always available — no scheduling required. Nadia is at your fingertips at any hour. Five minutes before a difficult meeting, after a challenging interaction, or any time you want a thought partner — she is there without a booking window or waiting period.
• Trained on General Mills' frameworks — advice that fits your context. Nadia speaks the language of General Mills. She has been trained on the frameworks you encounter in your day-to-day and will refer to them as she helps you think through any situation, making sure her guidance is relevant to how your organization actually works.
• Voice-driven conversations are fast, natural, and context-rich. The easiest way to use Nadia is to talk to her. Speaking allows you to give rich context quickly and naturally, which makes her coaching more specific and actionable. The more she understands your situation, the better her guidance.
• From root cause to role-play to scorecard — one complete session. Nadia does not just give advice. She works with you to identify root causes, develop a structured approach, practice the conversation through role-play with real-time feedback, and wrap up with a summary and scorecard that you can take forward.

Getting Started with Nadia at General Mills

What is Nadia and what kinds of situations can she help with?

Nadia is an AI leadership coach available to you as a thought partner for any situation that comes up at work. Whether you want to prepare for a difficult conversation, work through a leadership challenge, get feedback on how you handled something, practice for an upcoming interaction, or just think out loud with someone — Nadia is designed to be that trusted resource. She learns about you over time, remembers your previous conversations, and tailors her guidance to your specific context and goals.

How does Nadia know about General Mills' frameworks and culture?

Nadia has been trained on General Mills' organizational frameworks and leadership context, so she can refer to the specific models and expectations you encounter in your role rather than giving generic coaching advice. When you describe a situation, she takes the General Mills context into account — making her guidance feel relevant and grounded in your actual working environment rather than abstract best practice.

What does a complete coaching session with Nadia look like?

A typical session starts with you describing a situation or challenge using the voice feature. Nadia responds with empathy, asks reflective questions to understand the root causes, and then works with you to develop an approach. For situations involving difficult conversations, she can take on the role of the other person and practice the conversation with you in real time — giving feedback on each response you send. At the end, she provides a summary of what you discussed and a scorecard identifying areas to focus on for continued development.

Full Video Transcript

What is Nadia and why is she available to General Mills employees?

Ryan: Hey there, this is Ryan from Valence's coaching team, and I'm so happy to introduce you to Nadia, Valence's AI-powered leadership coach, made available to you at General Mills. Think of Nadia as a coach in your pocket — whenever you want a thought partner at work, or maybe you just want someone to talk to. Something happened, and you'd want to talk to a friend, a peer, a coach, a mentor, or maybe your boss. In all cases, Nadia is meant to be that thought partner who can help you prepare or tackle any situation that comes up at work.

She's always on and always available. You don't have to wait for a specific time window to talk to her — she'll be at your fingertips at any given hour. She's voice-driven and will talk to you as if you're having a normal conversation with a human being. Most importantly, she's highly personalized. She's going to learn about you, learn about the context that you're in, and cater to your situation with all of that taken into consideration. She's delivered in the flow of work — you could take five minutes to check in with her before or after meetings, or have a quick chat before you walk into a situation where you could use some help.

Nadia speaks more than 50 languages — give it a try in the language you speak besides English as well. And besides that, she also speaks the language of General Mills. She's trained on all the frameworks you would see in the organization and will refer to those as you're thinking through guidance, to make sure she's taking the context you work in under consideration.

What does a real coaching conversation with Nadia look like?

Ryan: Let me show you what it's like to have a conversation with Nadia. Once you're logged in, you'll have a homepage with a lot of context and different options to start a conversation. I'm just going to show you how to start a chat — click on the button in the top right corner, and it will take you to the core of the experience: chatting with your coach.

Nadia knows me really well, so she remembers a lot about me and will recall and suggest possible conversations I could follow up on. Let me show you what it's like to start with a specific case in mind.

"Hey Nadia, I'm about to walk into a conversation with a team member which I'm a little hesitant to go into. I want to give them some constructive feedback, but in the past they've not taken that really well, and I've been met with defensiveness. What should I do?"

I use the voice feature to give Nadia context, and immediately she's using that information, taking empathy into account, and telling me how to start approaching a solution. She's empathetic and understanding, but she's also a strong coach who is going to jump into problem-solving with you to figure out the best way forward.

I had this conversation earlier to show you what it looks like. Nadia started suggesting ways to prepare for this situation — she asked me a few clarifying questions, explored the root causes behind the defensiveness, and gave me concrete approaches to create the right environment for the conversation. She also recommended a role-play exercise where she analyzed every response I sent to give me feedback on how I could do better.

We wrapped up with a quick summary of what we talked about, and she gave me a scorecard so I could understand what to focus on going forward. I hope this gives you a great example of how Nadia is a leadership coach who learns about you as you talk to her — and who helps you grow through the challenges that come up in your day-to-day.

Thank you so much for your time. I hope you have a great experience with Nadia. Please reach out to us or a member of your internal team if you have any questions. Have a great day ahead.