You Know How to Lead. You're Just Not Sure You're Doing It Right.
Leadership Coaching in Austin, TX
You care about how you lead, and you hold yourself to a high standard. But the pressure to keep performing, improving, and holding it all together can feel overwhelming. Over time, that pressure doesn’t just impact how you feel. It impacts how you lead. This is where coaching becomes less about learning new skills, and more about shifting how you show up. What would change if you were leading from your True North? As an executive coach based in Austin, I help leaders work beneath the surface so the change actually sticks.
Most Leadership Development Stops at the Surface
Leadership tips and frameworks are valuable. But they consistently fall short when they don't address the underlying reasons your efforts aren't hitting the mark. The fear of making a mistake that shows up as micromanagement. The need for approval and validation that makes it hard to have the tough conversations that actually matter. These aren't personality flaws. They're patterns, and at True North Coaching, patterns can change when you work at the right level of depth.
Leadership Coaching That Goes to the Root
As an executive coach, my approach is built on a simple but powerful premise: sustainable behavior change does not come from tips and tricks. It comes from understanding and adjusting the underlying mindsets that are driving your behaviors.
I call this working beneath the lily pad. Your behaviors, what you say and what you do, are visible above the surface. But beneath the surface sit the stories, beliefs, values, needs, and feelings that drive those behaviors. That's where the real work happens, and that's where your work with True North Coaching will go.
To help you see clearly what's happening beneath the surface, I use the Leadership Circle Profile 360, the most precise tool I’ve found for identifying identifying limiting beliefs and unhelpful patterns. You'll receive detailed feedback on how you're currently showing up as a leader, including the blind spots and unconscious beliefs that may be getting in the way.
The leadership coaching goes deep, and my clients typically report three key benefits
Clarity
There’s a lot of noise out there about what you should do and who you should be as a leader. And that’s all very well intended, but it can be overwhelming. What kind of leader do you really want to be? What are you afraid to try? How are you currently holding yourself back? What are your innate superpowers and how would you describe your leadership personal brand? We all have a narrative, the key is to learn yours, own it proudly and lead with it.
Confidence
When we aren’t grounded in our strengths as leaders, we tend to focus on our weaknesses, and we forget how powerful we are. We often give our power away – by not sharing our voice in a meeting, by not asking for what we want or need, maybe we default to pleasing behaviors. Or perhaps we’re lacking leadership competency. We’re thrown into the deep end in a leadership role and just expected to figure it out. Competency builds confidence. As part of our coaching we will utilize helpful tools and frameworks that will enable you to feel more confident in any leadership situation you find yourself in.
Compassion for Self
Life is a whole lot more joyful when you can offer yourself the incredible gift of compassion. Not to be confused with letting yourself or others off the hook, or rationalizing poor performance – compassion is your birthright, it’s linked to your worthiness as a human being and has nothing to do with how much money you make or where you sit on an organizational chart. The best leaders lead from a place of compassionate empathy, and the process of evolving your leadership into this place starts with offering yourself grace.
Who Leadership Coaching Is For
As an executive coach, Shelley works with clients at every stage of their leadership journey, from those stepping into their first management role to seasoned executives who want to lead more authentically. If you are wrestling with questions like these, leadership coaching may be exactly what you need.
How do I manage underperformance without damaging relationships?
How do I create a culture of accountability on my team?
How do I influence people with very different personalities and priorities?
How do I help my team navigate change without losing their trust?
What is a leadership brand and why does it matter?
If any of these questions resonated, you're in the right place.
How do I manage and influence people who have more authority than I do?
How do I navigate conflict without avoiding the conversations that matter?
What kind of leader do I actually want to be?
How do I feel more purposeful and inspired in the work that I do?
How do I recharge when I am already burned out?
Packages
Leadership Coaching
For emerging, new, and experienced leaders with direct reports who want to sharpen their leadership toolkit and lead with greater authenticity and effectiveness.
This Package Includes:
This package includes a Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment with a detailed report and a three-hour deep-dive debrief, plus ten one-on-one coaching sessions usable over a nine-month period.
Total Package Price
$5,000
Executive Coaching
For C-suite leaders and leaders of managers who are ready to transform the way they lead and the impact they have on their organization.
This Package Includes:
This package includes a Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment with a detailed report and a three-hour deep-dive debrief. Session count and duration are customized based on the complexity and length of the engagement.
Total Package Price
$7,000 to $10,000
What my clients say
Check out this video to see what my leadership coaching clients say about the transformational power of coaching and how it has improved their leadership authenticity, increased their confidence and provided helpful frameworks and tools.
Is Leadership Coaching Right for you?
Take this short 2-minute self-assessment to find out whether coaching could help you grow, lead, and thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
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An executive coach works with senior leaders to improve how they lead, make decisions, and show up under pressure. The work goes beyond tactical advice. A good executive coach helps you see the patterns and beliefs driving your behavior, the ones you often cannot spot on your own. At True North Coaching, that means working beneath the surface to understand the stories, values, and needs shaping how you lead. From there, you build the clarity and confidence to lead in a way that is authentic to who you are. For C-suite leaders and leaders of managers, this often shows up as better team performance, stronger relationships, and more impact across the organization.
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Leadership coaching is a one-on-one development process focused on helping you grow as a leader by building self-awareness, addressing the beliefs and behaviors that are holding you back, and developing the skills and frameworks that will help you lead more effectively. Sessions with Shelley are conducted virtually, follow a structured but flexible format, and are tailored entirely to your situation and goals.
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Mentoring typically involves a more experienced person sharing advice, guidance, and career wisdom based on their own path. Coaching is a different kind of relationship. Rather than telling you what to do, a coach helps you develop your own clarity and capability through questioning, reflection, respectful challenge and targeted development. Shelley brings all this into her work, combining the coaching process with the practical leadership frameworks she has developed and taught over more than a decade.
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The Leadership Circle Profile is one of the most sophisticated 360 assessment tools available for leaders. Unlike standard 360s that only measure leadership competencies, the Leadership Circle Profile also measures reactivity, which is what makes it so effective at identifying root causes of leadership problems rather than just symptoms. After extensive research into available assessment tools, Shelley chose it because nothing else comes close to the depth of insight it produces for the leaders she works with.
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The standard Leadership Coaching package includes ten sessions that can be used over a nine-month period, which gives you enough time to develop new skills, practice them in real situations, and build the kind of lasting change that does not fade when the sessions end. Executive coaching engagements are customized based on complexity and goals. Shelley will talk through the right timeline for your situation during your initial consultation.
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No. Therapy focuses on healing past experiences and addressing clinical mental health conditions. Leadership coaching is present and future focused, working on the specific skills, mindset shifts, and behavioral changes that will help you lead more effectively. The two can complement each other well, but they serve different purposes. Shelley is not a therapist, and coaching is not a substitute for mental health treatment.
Ready to Become the Leader You Know You Can Be?
You already have what it takes. Coaching with Shelley helps you see it clearly, trust it fully, and lead from it consistently. If you're ready to stop second-guessing yourself and start leading in a way that is genuinely authentic to who you are, the first step is a conversation. Contact us today to get started.