The Tools in My Toolkit
(and How I Use Them)
I'm not a coach who shows up with one method and applies it to everyone.
I bring the right approach for the right moment, customized to you.
Here's primarily what I draw from:
Adult Development Frameworks
I'm deeply trained in approaches that help us understand not just what you're doing, but how you're making meaning—and how to expand that capacity. My foundation is informed by the work of researchers who study how adults grow in complexity over time. This includes Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey's Immunity to Change (which helps us uncover the hidden commitments keeping you stuck), Jennifer Garvey Berger's MindTraps and GrowthEdge Coaching techniques (which help you see the mental models limiting your leadership), and frameworks from Appreciative Inquiry, Action Inquiry, and dialectical thinking.
Complexity Science Approaches
Leadership today is not a linear, predictable endeavor. It's complex, dynamic, and full of paradox. Complexity-informed approaches help you see the system of yourself and the system around you as a whole—so you can work with the dynamics, not against them. I bring tools from applied complexity science: Polarity Mapping (learning to manage tensions rather than solve them), the Cynefin framework (understanding what kind of problem you're actually facing), Safe-to-Fail Experiments (trying small, low-risk moves to learn quickly), Social Network Mapping (seeing the invisible architecture of influence around you), and approaches from Human Systems Dynamics.
Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence Practices
You can't lead well if you're dysregulated. You can't make wise decisions when your nervous system is in fight-or-flight. You can't show up with presence and gravitas when you're running on empty or ricocheting between reactivity and burnout. I draw on the study of the nervous system and neuroscience to help you understand how to work with emotion, regulate energy, maintain calm in the midst of uncertainty, and manage reactivity before it manages you. I'm a certified mindfulness instructor and bring a variety of mindfulness practices—including and beyond meditation – both directly into our sessions and into the work you do between sessions. Just as we develop your cognitive muscles—your capacity to navigate complexity, see more systemically, strategize more effectively—it's equally important to build your emotional and energetic muscles. This is how you develop strength and resilience. This is how you deepen your leadership presence. This is how you lead from a place of groundedness, not just grit.
Organization Development and Change Leadership
Leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum. You're operating within a system—a team, an organization, an industry, a marketplace—and that system has its own logic, its own dynamics, its own invisible architecture. I bring decades of experience in organizational transformation including large-scale change initiatives, and companies growing from scrappy startups to scaled enterprises. I've designed organizational structures, evaluated organizational health and effectiveness, and helped leadership teams navigate becoming more aligned, more agile, and more intentional. I draw on design thinking and innovation processes to help you not just react to the system around you, but shape it. Whether you're grappling with team effectiveness, talent management, or how to lead through a major organizational redesign, I help you see the larger patterns at play—and then figure out where you have leverage to create real, lasting change.
Management Best Practices
Leadership isn't all mysticism and transformation. Sometimes you just need to know how high-performing teams actually work. I spent a decade coaching top leaders at Google and their senior teams, and I've seen—and contributed to—the playbooks that make teams exceptional. I know what good decision-making governance looks like, especially in times of complexity. I understand how to foster psychological safety. I've helped teams design processes for annual routines—goal-setting, budgeting, planning, prioritizing, resource allocation—that don't feel like bureaucratic drudgery. I support leaders in distributing the load (so no one burns out) while also building connective tissue (so the team actually feels like a team, not just a collection of individuals). So while we're doing the deep, transformational work on your inner operating system, I'm also helping you apply the practical, proven management practices that make leadership sustainable, scalable, and effective.
Assessment Tools
I draw on a variety of assessment instruments, which can be helpful to initiate the engagement and/or understand the opportunity for you according to a specific business challenge. I may recommend a 360 interview-style assessment, the Leadership Circle Profile, or the Hogan Assessment, depending on what will serve you best. Sometimes you already have clarity, or you've done assessments recently that we can draw from. I also use targeted assessments for influence, change leadership, and stakeholder analysis when they're relevant. The goal is always clarity and actionable insight, not data for data's sake.
The key is this: I don't throw concepts at you. I synthesize. I listen for what's needed. I bring frameworks in service of your growth, not as a substitute for it.