About
Executive Coaching Grounded in Leadership Experience and Organizational Psychology
I work with senior leaders who are carrying real responsibility — leading through complexity, pressure, change, and consequential decisions.
My primary work is executive coaching. Depending on the situation, that work may also extend into leadership team coaching or leadership advisory when broader team or organizational conditions are shaping the leader’s effectiveness.
The center of the work is always the same: helping leaders see more clearly, exercise better judgment, strengthen alignment, and translate insight into disciplined action.
My Perspective
My perspective has been shaped by more than three decades of senior leadership roles across financial services, technology, and public service, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, IBM, Citizens Bank, and the State of North Carolina. These were environments where performance, pressure, and accountability were not abstract ideas.
Strategy had to be clear, the execution had to hold, and the consequences of poor alignment were visible.
Those experiences taught me that leadership effectiveness is rarely just about the leader.
A leader’s behavior matters. So do the culture, systems, structure, decision rights, and operating habits around the leader. If those forces are ignored, coaching can become too narrow. If the leader is ignored, organization work can become too abstract.
The useful work sits at the intersection.
How I Think About the Work
In addition to my executive leadership background, I bring the lens of organizational psychology.
That means I pay attention to both the individual and the system: how leaders think, react, decide, influence, and behave under pressure — and how the environment around them shapes what is rewarded, resisted, avoided, or repeated.
I listen for what is said, what is unsaid, and what the system may be teaching people to do.
That is often where the real issue becomes clearer.
A communication problem may actually be an alignment problem. A performance issue may reflect unclear priorities. A leadership team conflict may be a decision-rights problem. A resilience issue may be a signal that the demands of the role, team, or system have outpaced available capacity.
The work begins by naming what is really happening.
What I Do
I partner with CEOs, C-suite executives, senior leaders, managing partners, leadership teams, and high-potential leaders navigating growth, complexity, transition, or sustained pressure.
Most engagements involve one or more of the following:
- Executive Coaching
Helping senior leaders strengthen self-awareness, judgment, influence, steadiness, and execution under pressure. - Leadership Team Coaching
Helping senior teams improve alignment, trust, decision quality, accountability, and coordinated execution. - Leadership Advisory and Organization Development
Helping leaders understand and address the cultural, structural, relational, or execution conditions affecting performance.
The work always comes back to three practical questions:
- What is happening?
- What is driving it?
- What needs to change for performance to improve?
“Coaching gave me a more focused, well-rounded, and practical way to approach both my personal and professional goals.”
MJ
Deputy Director, Federal Government
How I Work with Clients
Clients value candor, disciplined listening, practical judgment, and respect for the complexity they are carrying.
My style is direct, thoughtful, and grounded. I ask hard questions, offer honest perspective, and work with clients to translate insight into action.
I do not believe executive coaching should be detached from the realities of the business. Senior leaders are not leading in a vacuum. Their choices, habits, conversations, and decisions are constantly interacting with culture, expectations, incentives, stakeholders, and execution demands.
That is why my work is both personal and contextual.
I look at the leader and the system. Then I focus on the highest-leverage actions that can improve judgment, alignment, influence, and execution.
Background
My career has included senior executive leadership roles in financial services, technology, and public service, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, IBM, Citizens Bank, and service as Secretary of Revenue for the State of North Carolina during the 2009–2010 fiscal crisis.
I hold a Master’s degree in Social and Organizational Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. I have also completed executive education at Stanford, Harvard Law School Executive Education, Columbia University, and the Center for Creative Leadership.
I am an ICF-certified executive coach and certified in Hogan assessments.
If you are navigating significant leadership demands, team strain, broader responsibility,
or uneven execution, Let’s start a conversation.