What It’s Really Like to Work With an Executive Coach (A Tech Leader’s Honest Account)
Here’s what former client SJ Crawford shared on LinkedIn about working with me 1:1.
[Shared with explicit, enthusiastic permission]
Why she sought out executive coaching
“I was a leader at a tech company, and I got some difficult feedback from a woman who cared very much about my success. She said, ‘Hey—leadership doesn't understand you.’ And I was like, Ow. First of all. But also, thank you.
She said, ‘Your team loves you. Rave reviews. You're doing a really wonderful job. But leadership is a bit perplexed by you.’ I didn't love hearing that—but she said, ‘Let's work on it together.’
So I worked with her. But ultimately I ended up Googling. If you can believe we ever did such a thing as Googling. And I found a coach named Jamie Lee, who does executive coaching.”
What drew SJ to work with me after Googling
“Every week I'd meet with her—I gave her money to do so—and she'd coach me through my executive presence and how to ask for more money [in an offer negotiation].
The thing that drew me most to Jamie is her thesis on being a woman in tech: how can we advance ourselves so we can pull others up behind us?”
What it's really like to work with me 1:1
“So I meet with Jamie, and she asks me really hard questions.
‘Who are you? Why are you going to pay me for my advice and then not take it?’
She asked me those hard questions, and it truly changed the way I think about myself. It changed the way I see work.
It was grueling—but so supportive, at a time when I felt a bit lost as a new mother in the tech industry. I was like, I don't know how to do both. And she was like, ‘Let's figure it out together.’”
The unexpected transformation through coaching
“But more than anything, Jamie really cracked into my internalized misogyny.
I’d had a few rough situations in my career as a woman—passed over in favor of a man, or watching a man I’d trained make more money than me.
I’d had some unfortunate situations. Some really great ones too. But I’d internalized the bad ones. Before I’d even walk into a room, I’d already be policing myself to accommodate for perceived misogyny—like the misogyny hadn’t even happened yet.
Jamie said, ‘You don’t need to bring that into the room. You’re not even giving people a chance to treat you fairly.’ So she dismantled that.
She still respects and acknowledges the systems that hold people back—but she’s like, let's not bring this inside and make it our own vendetta.”
- SJ, Growth, Lifecycle & Demand Gen Leader
If SJ's story resonates with you and you're ready to expand in your career...
You're invited to book your free hour-long consultation with me for executive coaching.
In an hour over Zoom, we'll co-create a step-by-step custom coaching plan to help you elevate your leadership presence, while unwinding any internalized misogyny or any other unhelpful mental habit that's getting in the way of you showing up as the badass leader you want to be.
P.S. In case you're new around here, I'm an executive coach for smart women and marginalized leaders who hate office politics. I help them get promoted and better paid without throwing anyone under the bus. Sometimes that work involves unwinding internalized misogyny, as SJ shared.
P.P.S. In case you're wondering what it's like to be on a consultation with me, SJ sent her sister Beth to me for a free consultation last summer, and something rather unexpected happened. The three of us debriefed all that and more on this episode of Risky Conversations.