What is executive coaching?

In a mission-driven organization, leadership is the essential factor that determines success or failure. Every day, leaders are called upon to make decisions that that can have a ripple effect on teams and individuals as well as throughout the organization itself.

For decades, executives operated under the assumption that leadership is an innate skill and that only “certain types” of people can be leaders. The reality is that leadership is a skill, and like any other skill it needs to be developed and nurtured over time, solidified with experience, and honed with feedback and practice. The executive who is sent out alone and asked to propel their organization to success from within a bubble is set up to fail.

Executive coaching is an invaluable partnership that standardizes the honest feedback and fine-tuning every leader needs. Unlike a board member, direct report, a friend, or former colleague, an executive coach has one singular focus: shaping you to be a better leader.

Do you want to succeed as a leader?

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Executive coaching is an invaluable partnership that standardizes the honest feedback and fine-tuning that every leader needs. Unlike a board member, direct report, a friend, or former colleague, an executive coach has one singular focus: supporting you to be a better leader.

What your executive coach do?

Your executive coach serves as a mirror, sounding board, and personal strategist, helping you tease out the important questions you need to ask yourself and working with you to find the right answers.

  • Where in your life could you improve your performance?
  • What opportunities might you be missing?
  • Are there skills or habits getting in the way of you being a better leader?
  • What’s the best skill you have that you’re not making good use of?
  • Are you not seeing key talent on your team that could help reach the objective?
  • How are you empowering your staff to be their best selves?

Your executive coach will help you explore all of this.

Who is executive coaching for?

It’s for any leader who wants to succeed—from the ambitious go-getter early in their career who just got a promotion to the proven performer trying to translate success in one field to another to the seasoned leader who wants to move from markers of success to mastery.

Ready to start your executive coaching journey?

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Brigid McCormack

Brigid McCormack is an evangelist for exceptional leadership. Brigid believes leadership is a skill that can be developed, cultivated, and honed over time. For the past 24 years, Brigid has worked inside mission driven organizations. As an executive and leader, her passion has been to identify and develop strong leaders, create inclusive cultures and enable employees to not just have meaningful careers but also to flourish. Brigid now works as an executive coach with leaders on an individual basis to accelerate or enhance their leadership skills.

Her journey began with a love of the natural world. At a young age, her father took her birding in California’s Sierra mountains, and Brigid quickly learned the names and sounds of all her favorites: the pileated woodpecker, the cedar waxwing, and the red-winged blackbird. Serving in the Peace Corps, she confronted the polluted legacy of a century of an extractive economy in Ukraine.

After eight years as a major gifts fundraiser—first at the Wharton School at the University of California and then at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business—her passion for protecting nature drew her to senior leadership roles at ClimateWorks and Audubon California. She has spent the last five years advising high net-worth clients entering the climate philanthropy space.

The drive for coaching

Herself the beneficiary of terrific mentors and executive coaches over the course of her career, Brigid always placed a premium on building the leadership skills of the team around her—from the early career managers to seasoned directors to C-suite. Among her proudest accomplishments is empowering some of California’s rising conservation leaders.

While her passion for the natural world has never waned, Brigid has shifted her focus to working closely with the leaders who will propel mission-driven organizations to success.

Qualified and inspired

In addition to her own executive experience, Brigid is Hudson Institute trained executive coach, a Dare to Lead trained facilitator, and a Tara Mohr Playing Big Facilitator. She has a BA in History and BS in Biology from Santa Clara University and a MS in Environmental Management from University of San Francisco.

Brigid still takes time to get outside and listen to the birds of Northern California, while hiking, running, or backpacking with her family. The peaceful moments are important, fuel for her work with the people and organizations working hard to stop the climate crisis and conserve natural places.