04/10/2026
Let me tell you about my favorite client. Let’s call her Beth.
Beth is part of a four-person Executive Leadership team. Her title is SVP Operations and her job description tells me she oversees Business, Sales, and Customer operations for her organization. Her day to day tells me she runs point to ensure the operating rhythms are adhered to at the ELT level. Overtime this has become about 25% of her responsibility yet she carries no authority, KPI, or financial compensation for this work.
When I met Beth, she was very crispy around the edges. We could say, she was on the fast track to burning out and in her estimation, the rest of the ELT had no idea. Though they did wonder why she was short with them frequently.
We hit it off right away and both knew we wanted to work together but there were a few obstacles. First, she didn’t feel secure telling the ELT she found someone who could help because they were not yet aware there was a problem. Second, she wasn’t sure how to pay for my services.
I introduced her to my 1:1 Strategic Support for Women in Executive Leadership package where I would work with her one on one until her ELT was ready to bring me into the room, or until she was able to guide them to a better place. When I suggested she use her Learning & Development budget for the program, as she would if she were to hire a coach, we knew we had a plan that would work.
In our first week together, we spent two half days walking through the high-level company structure, goals, strategic initiatives, took deep dive into her downline, their accountabilities to the functioning business and their accountabilities to the strategic initiatives. We were looking for structural and team dynamics, gaps and blind spots, key challenges.
In our second week we reviewed my suggestions and started to make a high level plan of action. In our third week, we were already seeing the weight of the world lift off her shoulders.
We have work to do and the hard parts are still in front of us, but she is now supported with a confidential, trusted right hand who is able to see things from the outside.
If this sounds like something that would be useful to you, let’s talk.
