Leadership and Performance Coaching
Elevate your performance and unlock your true potential by bringing out your best self
1. Raise Consciousness
2. Choose Intelligently
3. Transform Creatively
Have you ever felt you could achieve more?
I create the limits to my true potential and lack the self-awareness to break out and thrive
I lack clear focus, direction, and motivation in my job or career, and I feel stuck
I am feeling anxious and stressed, given the uncertainty of the market, my career path, and job
I lack autonomy and feel a lack of control and ownership of my career and opportunities
I am not deriving fulfillment, achievement, and rewards I yearn for
My performance has plateaued and it’s limiting future opportunities
And that leads to living the status quo and feeling that you are constantly playing defense. I have been there, and I don’t want that for you. I have guided 100’s people to take ownership of their careers and architect a direction that brings out their best selves. As a previous CIO, CPO, data scientist, and product manager, I share my perspective so you don’t have to figure it out all on your own.
Life is too short not to pursue your true potential right now
Coaching Outcomes
ACCELERATE GROWTH
Deepen your consciousness which leads to choosing an identity, purpose, and path that accelerates career growth and your desired outcomes.
Increase Performance
Increase your career performance by restructuring your inner game, overcoming self-limiting beliefs, and working from a creative orientation.
BOOST WELL-BEING
Boost your physical, emotional, and spiritual health by doing work you love and is aligned with your identity and purpose
Key Career Outcomes
Go from wandering to a clear and compelling career direction
You may travel and arrive at an unwanted destination without a guiding light and compass. Coaching resources and live sessions will guide you on crafting values, a compelling vision for what you want and why, and a purpose statement so that you have a clear and motivating direction.
Master your inner game to win the outer game
Identity defines who you are and generates patterns of results consistent with how your identity is structured. Coaching frameworks and sessions will guide you through self-discovery to help you work on your “inner game” and restructure your identity that delivers the career results you want (“outer game”):
- Reframing the self-limiting beliefs that are impacting your performance
- Inventing a new identity and purpose statement
- Designing behaviors and rituals that congruent with your new identity
Improve decision-making to realize career rewards
Every day you make 100s of decisions consciously and unconsciously that move you one step further down a path. Coaching resources and live sessions will help you deepen your consciousness about yourself and external reality so that you make decisions strategically that align with what is important and deliver the rewards you seek. You will go from playing defense to offense through intelligent decisions using your knowledge of yourself and the competitive market.
Accelerate progress toward important career goals
Career transformation only happens through deliberate actions over time. At the end of each coaching session, you will identify the actions(s) you will work on before our next session. Although you are responsible for delivering on your commitments, I will be an accountability partner to help you accelerate your progress toward important career goals.
Be known as a recognized expert in your field
- A strong and memorable personal brand is critical to differentiating yourself to get promotions, increase the volume of opportunities that organically come your way, and monetizing your expertise. Coaching resources and sessions will guide you on using frameworks, tools, and techniques to strengthen a brand authentically.
- Your network is critical to tapping into new opportunities and expertise to develop your skills. Expand your network to include highly talented professionals, executives, thought leaders, and authors in major tech hubs, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, and New York City as a member of my LinkedIn network. I will provide warm introductions to people where appropriate.
Sustain your career performance over long-periods of time
Relevancy and financial rewards depend on your ability to learn, adapt and outperform your peers in competitive markets. Coaching sessions will help you evaluate and adjust actions to sustain performance and well-being.
YOUR EXPERT COACH
James Gray
Our work life consumes a significant part of our time. The paths we choose and travel impact our wealth, health, and happiness.
Managing a successful career can be challenging, given the demands of our personal life and external forces.
Over my 30+ year career, I have recreated myself multiple times to travel the path that brings out my best self. I have experienced success but also failures and losing my job due to situations beyond my control. How we respond and believe in our vision can be the game changer.
As a parent, leader, and professional, I relate to how important it is to shape a career that brings financial success, alignment with your family life, and boosts well-being.
I am here to help you do the same. I love working with people and have deep expertise in the technology sector.
Experienced technology executive as a Chief Product Officer, Chief Information Officer and Data Leader.
Extensive experience coaching 100+ people with high customer satisfaction
Delivered career strategy workshops, 1:1 mentoring, and speaking at events that reached 3K+ people at Microsoft
MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and Master of Information and Data Science from the School of Information, University of California at Berkeley
Instructor for the Berkeley Haas School of Business course “Data Strategy: Leveraging Data as a Competitive Advantage”
Technical Career Coach for MS Business Analytics program at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Brown University / ACT Leadership and Performance Coaching certification (in-progress)
100+
people coached
Numerous
5-Star reviews
All-Star
LinkedIn Profile
TESTIMONIALS
Proven Outcomes
Taking that first step to slow down and being introspective about who I am and where I wanted to go was one of the harder things. After years in the corporate world, I had become accustomed to being told what to focus on through objectives and then evaluated and rated on the same. It is incredibly hard to grow and develop if you are only working in 12-month cycles centered on what is best for the company you work for. James helped me to take stock of who I am and what I value at work starting from the inside out. For me, this was a huge breakthrough in determining where I wanted to go in my career.
I met James at a pivotal time in my life. My startup fell apart and I suddenly found myself needing a new source of income.
James helped me learn to see my career as a product while giving me the feedback and encouragement I needed to transition and land my dream job.
His career and achievements are what I aspired for and he was able to share his perspective and approach.
I highly recommend working with James.
I was stagnating in my job, and I lacked clarity and direction for my career. Throughout the entire process, I had a chance to think about my goals and build a deeper awareness of who I was and what I wanted. I also learned new ideas to manage my career strategically.
James was very patient to understand what I was looking for and make the sessions most valuable and efficient. I would not have shaped my mindset to make the changes I needed to take my career to the next level.
I highly recommend the coaching sessions with James!”
How Coaching Works
1. Raise Consciousness
Raise your consciousness to develop greater self-awareness, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and understanding of the external environment. You will clarify where you are right now, how that influences your current outcomes, and insights into potential changes and opportunities.
2. Choose Intelligently
With deeper consciousness established, you will expand options and intelligently choose a path that leads toward a transformation. You will clarify where you want to be, and underlying reasons why, and pursue the path that delivers your desired outcomes.
3. Transform Creatively
You will overcome your self-limiting beliefs, and develop a creative orientation that restructures your identity to boost your performance. You will design and execute behaviors and rituals of this restructured identity to differentiate your value proposition, strengthen your unique brand, and realize your rewards.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Live Coaching
We will connect on a live online coaching session weekly or bi-weekly. The focus will be on a topic you prioritize, and we co-create an experience to bring you deeper awareness, perspective, and options toward your stated goals. Each session will close with accountability for actions the coachee agrees to work on before the next session.
Asynchronous Coaching
In between live sessions, we will collaborate through email, messaging, text, or video messages.
You will have a direct mobile phone number. I often share resources that are relevant to your coaching focus.
Newsletter & Podcast
You will have access to a curated document of strategies, tactics, and resources I update weekly for common coaching topics. The intent is to enable you to digest these resources to shape self-discovery on your schedule and maximize our time together.
LinkedIn Network
You will have access to a large network of professionals at leading companies and major tech hubs, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, and Austin. I will make warm introductions to people that relate to your goals and coaching topics.
HOW TO WORK TOGETHER
Coaching Products
Offered as a monthly subscription, this differs from conventional coaching to free you from hourly rates and long-term commitments. The goal is to reach your desired state at a pace that works for you. One-on-one personalized coaching is for people who value working directly together and are fully committed to doing the work that delivers on their outcomes. I also offer on-demand coaching in hourly blocks.
FOR ORGANIZATIONS
Universities and Corporations
These coaching experiences are tailored to the organization’s unique needs to strengthen individual and workgroup performance and prepare students to succeed in the job market.
Universities
One-on-one and group coaching for students in higher education institutions. I am currently a coach for the MS Business Analytics program at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Corporations
Organizations seeking coaching for their employees virtually or in person. Please share your interest for a coaching program tailored to your culture and business priorities