Clarity is built, not received
Waiting to feel certain is a strategy for staying still. We narrow the question, test it against reality, and decide.
About
I coach leaders because I have spent my career being one.
I have spent more than twenty years leading organizations, developing people, making difficult decisions, and learning that the work is rarely as simple as it looks on paper.
My career has taken me across nearly every side of organizational leadership—operations, finance, human resources, strategy, people development, and service delivery—including more than two decades in the Head Start and early childhood community.
Today I serve as CEO of a Head Start and Early Head Start grantee operating across two rural counties, with approximately 10 sites, nearly 180 employees, and a $13 million annual budget. I understand firsthand what comes with the role: people, budgets, boards, culture, performance, competing priorities, and decisions that don't always have an obvious answer.
That experience shapes the way I coach. I understand leadership from inside the work, not from the sidelines.
Not sure yet? Read Is Coaching Right for You? and What Is Coaching?.
Strategy and people
Strategy and people belong in the same conversation.
My MBA gave me a foundation in strategy, finance, and how organizations actually move. My graduate work in Human Services Counseling and Life Coaching deepened my understanding of people, behavior, positive psychology, and change.
Most coaches have one of those. I use both in the same hour.
That combination matters because leadership problems rarely stay neatly in one category. A strategy problem can be a people problem. A performance issue can be a communication issue. And sometimes the decision itself isn't nearly as difficult as everything surrounding it.
What I hold to
Hard things are learnable
Difficult conversations, unfamiliar rooms, unpopular decisions — competence in these is trained, not inherited.
Candor is respect
I will name what I see. Coaching that flatters you is expensive company, not development.
The experience behind the work
- 20+ YEARS
- Executive and organizational leadership
- CEO
- Federally funded nonprofit across two rural Arizona counties
- HEAD START
- More than two decades in the Head Start and early childhood community
- EDUCATION
- MBA + M.A. Human Services Counseling
- COACHING
- Executive and personal coaching
- RECOGNITION
- Two-time Titan 100 honoree, recognizing the Phoenix region's top 100 CEOs and C-level executives
The person behind the work
Titles matter because they come with responsibility. But they aren't the whole person.
I'm a wife, mother, woman of faith, lifelong learner, and someone who knows that growth rarely happens in a straight line. My faith shapes how I lead, how I see people, and who I am. I work with people and organizations across beliefs and backgrounds with the same respect, curiosity, and care, and for clients who want faith to be part of the coaching conversation, it is always welcome.
I care deeply about doing meaningful work without losing sight of the people and values that make the work matter.
Whether I'm sitting with a CEO, a Head Start leader, an emerging manager, a ministry team, or someone trying to figure out what comes next personally, my approach doesn't change much: listen well, ask better questions, tell the truth with care, and help people move forward.
Start here
A 15-minute conversation, no charge
Bring the decision, the team problem, or the next move you have been carrying around. We will talk plainly about where you are, what is actually in the way, and whether coaching with me is the right instrument for it. If it is not, I will tell you that.
Charity@charityrussell.net