Ways to partner

I collaborate closely with Chiefs of Staff, COOs, Heads of People & Culture, and other leaders who are building teams, navigating change, or stepping into expanded roles. My approach blends observation, advising, team facilitation, and 1:1 coaching, meeting you inside your existing structure rather than adding to it. The result is a more aligned, focused team that can handle complexity without losing momentum. For larger engagements, I bring in trusted colleagues to expand the team's capacity and depth.

See me in action

My clients tell me they value working with someone who gets it. I've been where you are—juggling customer demands while trying to lead a team well. It's tough to do both effectively.

I'm here to help you bring out the best in your team. See how I do it…

Core Services:

  • This is a good fit if you're a VP or senior leader taking on a larger role, navigating complex cross-functional change, or looking to build your leadership capacity while managing a demanding team.

    1:1 coaching provides a supportive space to reflect on learnings and challenges, cultivate vision, and advance leadership goals. Together we will work on effective communication, prioritization, team building, and conflict management. We will ensure you're advancing toward both your short and long term goals and help create sustainable practices to avoid burnout. 

    The result: A more grounded, confident leader with increased credibility and influence, in touch with their purpose and satisfied in its pursuit.

  • The fast paced world of work doesn’t give leaders taking on a new role a long runway to achieve results. Through a smaller package of customized coaching sessions, emerging and seasoned leaders in new roles will receive my support to build a plan, develop trusting relationships with key stakeholders, identify system level issues, integrate your learnings and accelerate your ability to make an impact.

    The result: You’ll receive the support and structure you need to show up as the leader you know you are.

  • Leadership teams don't just guide an organization — they define its culture, drive its performance, and shape its future. A retreat is worth considering if your team is newly formed and you want to get them aligned from the start, your team is navigating a significant change initiative, or you have conflict that's getting in the way of progress.

    As an expert in team dynamics, I assess the unique challenges and opportunities within each leadership team I work with, providing tailored retreat design and facilitation support to elevate your team's effectiveness and exceed your strategic goals. More details on my approach can be found here.

    The result: a high-functioning and effective leadership team with clear priorities and the tools to increase the team’s performance, value, and organizational impact. The team fulfills its mission and team members feel fulfilled in the process.

  • I work with your leadership team to hone your vision and storytelling to inspire your organization through change. We’ll define the shifts that are needed at the individual and the system level, and prioritize them for maximum impact.

    The result: A more sustainable change, led and championed for and by internal changemakers like you.

    Our work will include the following elements:

    • Team and leadership coaching, as applicable

    • Development of From/To Behavior Shifts and change narrative

    • Identify and cultivate change champions

    • Draft metrics for measuring progress

    • Workshops to help embed new behaviors within the organization

  • These interactive sessions equip leaders with practical skills they can apply immediately. Available as standalone workshops or as part of a broader leadership development program, each can be customized for your team.

    Current workshop offerings include:

    • Leadership Presence: The Human Advantage in an AI World

    • Feedback and Courageous Conversations

    • Conscious Leadership

    • Enneagram for Teams

    • From Imposter to Innovator: Channeling Your Inner Critic into Your Greatest Ally

    • Hold the Room: Facilitation Skills for Leaders

    The result:  More confident, grounded leaders with the tools to communicate effectively, manage change, and bring out the best in their teams.

SCHEDULE A CONSULT

“Laura worked with our organization over the course of several years as we navigated significant change. Her work spanned leadership team support, 1:1 coaching, and smaller team engagements. Having her as a consistent, trusted presence through that period made us more focused, more aligned, and more resilient as a team.”

— Jack Gallagher, Former VP, Genentech Access Solutions

CHALLENGE:

Grace (name changed for privacy), a visionary leader with technical prowess and a deep commitment to her team, set high standards for herself and her recently formed senior leadership team.

The team faced the daunting task of shaping a newly created role while navigating pressure and skepticism. Team sessions had become unproductive, with little forward momentum.

Case Study No. 1
From Struggle to Success

Empowering Grace’s Leadership Journey

INTERVENTION:

  • Team & 1:1 Coaching

  • Defined strategic experiments to structure meetings effectively.

  • Facilitated a workshop on coaching and feedback.

  • Empowered Grace to delegate effectively and navigate performance and structural issues.

  • Provided a safe space for processing feedback.

RESULT:

  • Improved team collaboration and trust amidst ongoing uncertainty.

  • Grace’s leadership flourished, leading to her promotion to a senior leadership role.

CONCLUSION:

Coaching yielded increased team effectiveness, leadership empowerment, and career advancement.

“I am fortunate to have worked closely with Laura through multiple major organizational changes. Without her thoughtful planning, structured problem solving, expert coaching, and courageous candor, we would not have delivered organizational priorities that are so clear, bold and timely.”

— Jonathan Witt, Senior Vice President, Genentech Business Operations

Case Study No. 2
Navigating Transition

Relaunching a Disjointed Team

CHALLENGE:

The sudden departure of a key executive left the organization in a state of flux. In her absence, her manager took on an interim leadership role. The team struggled with a lack of cohesion, siloed operations, and unhealthy conflicts.

INTERVENTION:

  • Team Coaching

  • Facilitated collaborative sessions to define and communicate shared priorities across the organization.

  • Fostered psychological safety and improved communication within the team by establishing norms, instituting regular in-depth check-ins, and creating a dedicated space for offline collaboration.

  • Maintained close communication with the interim team leader, providing insights into team dynamics and helping focus his limited time effectively.

RESULT:

The team now engages in honest and vulnerable conversations, exemplified by a pivotal headcount discussion. The transformation has been profound. A new executive joined a significantly more cohesive and effective team, ready to tackle challenges collaboratively. One team member remarked, "It's like night and day compared to before."

CONCLUSION:

Leadership transitions present a critically important time for teams to receive coaching support and emerge stronger than how they began.

“When I joined Jazz, I knew changes to my team were on the horizon. Rather than wait, I engaged Laura to bring the team together — creating space for real dialogue before the change. This built the buy-in we’d need to move quickly once the change was underway. Laura continues to support me and our leadership team, helping us build the trust and shared language we need to lead together effectively.”

— Chumi Khurana, SVP Oncology Franchise Head, Jazz Pharmaceuticals

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What leaders are saying…

  • "When conflict emerged on my field-based team, I turned to Laura for both 1:1 coaching and facilitation support. She identified the structural and interpersonal issues contributing to our team dynamics, which gave me real confidence in how to address it from a leadership perspective. Our team had worked with coaches before, but Laura's style and approach were different. She helped us move through what could have been a prolonged conflict with honesty and care. I would recommend her without reservation to any leadership team navigating conflict."

    — Teona Pipiya Johnson, SVP Commercial at Hansa (formerly VP of Marketing at Calliditas)

  • “Laura’s work with our two Executive Teams and Medical Leadership Team helped shape the direction of our company. Her deep listening, keen observations and guidance made us a better organization, and me a better leader.”

    — Alexander Hardy, Former CEO, Genentech

  • "When we brought Laura in, we knew we needed help for our Access LT — but we didn't know exactly what that looked like. She rolled up her sleeves and thought collaboratively with us, meeting individually with each LT member to understand and diagnose our challenges. She helped us activate the team to distribute leadership more broadly, taking the burden off our VP. She continues to support us at key points to ensure we operate as the high-performing team we need to be."

    — Susan Fitzgerald, HR Business Partner, Gilead Access Team

  • “When I joined Jazz, I knew changes to my team were on the horizon. Rather than wait, I engaged Laura to bring the team together — creating space for real dialogue before the change. This built the buy-in we'd need to move quickly once the change was underway. Laura continues to support me and our leadership team, helping us build the trust and shared language we need to lead together effectively.”

    – Chumi Khurana, SVP Oncology Franchise Head, Jazz Pharmaceuticals

  • “Laura delivered a truly exceptional Imposter Syndrome session for our Women @ Gilead Employee Resource Group. She equipped us with practical, actionable tools, and created an open, authentic environment that fostered real psychological safety. She did an outstanding job tailoring sessions for both in-person and Zoom audiences, which allowed us to engage a global community and significantly expand our reach. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. It’s clear the impact extended well beyond the session itself, leading others to bring Laura back to design a session on group facilitation for a different audience.”

    — Julie Fogerty, PhD Principal Scientist, Gilead

  • “I will forever be grateful for the special gift of having Laura as my coach during one of the hardest phases in my career. The conversations I had with her anchored me to a deeper core of positivity that kept me going. Laura's empathy, openness, optimism, and relentless support during a turbulent time built my resilience as a leader.”

    — Ridhima Tagoria, Genentech Healthcare Market Director

  • "When I took on a new leadership role of a global marketing team, the first person I thought of to help design and facilitate our first in-person meeting was Laura. In two days, she helped us accomplish more than we could have on our own — spurring creativity, connection, and trust that carried well beyond the meeting itself. It was so impactful, Laura joined us again a year later to continue the momentum. My team now thinks of her as a wonderful extension of the team at these pivotal moments, and I am grateful for her partnership."

    – Gol Newall, VP Global Marketing, BioMarin

  • “Laura and her team designed and delivered the leadership curriculum for our 10-month Emerging Leaders Program. The content was overwhelmingly well-received by the 33 public, non-profit and private sector participants. In the two years that our organization has worked with Laura, she has consistently developed meaningful, impactful content thoughtfully designed to meet our organization's unique needs. Her impact on our leaders will far outlast their time in our program.”

    – Margi Power, Co-President, Leadership Council San Mateo County

  • “Over four months of coaching with Laura, I noticed that the critical voice in my head had quieted and my capacity and confidence had increased. Laura helped me think strategically about how to support my team during a leadership transition and demonstrate my readiness for a promotion. A few weeks after we wrapped our coaching, I earned a promotion to VP that I feel prepared and excited to take on thanks in large part to the coaching support Laura provided.”

    — Melissa Teng, Product Marketing, Natera