Helping execs in new roles accelerate impact, build credibility fast and avoid costly transition mistakes | xIBM Consulting | xPwC | Certified Executive Coach

You’ve just landed your next big executive role - congratulations!

Now comes the part no one prepares you for: making it successful.

The hard truth is, 40% of executive transitions fail within 18 months.

And the cost is staggering:

2.5x to 30x the executive’s salary in lost productivity, turnover, and disruption.

Career damage for the executive that can take years to recover from.

Maybe it's your first time at the senior leadership table. 
Maybe you've done this before, but this time, the stakes feel higher. 
Different company, industry, department or role.

Either way, you know this first year will define your reputation and your results.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You've inherited a team that doesn't fully trust you yet. 
You're navigating company politics, shifting priorities, and sky-high expectations. 
Everyone's watching, but no one's guiding. 
You're smart, experienced, and capable. 
But the pressure to prove yourself is relentless.

This is exactly where I come in.

I help new executives thrive where 40% fail by guiding them through the high-stakes first year.

My coaching is confidential, personalized, and focused on helping you:

✔ Earn trust quickly and secure early credibility
✔ Navigate politics and hidden organizational dynamics
✔ Build and align your leadership team for quick wins
✔ Make high-impact decisions without costly missteps
✔ Lay the foundation for long-term success and legacy

 Why Trust Me?
• 25+ years in Fortune 500 consulting, partnering with senior executives 
• Led $30M+ transformation portfolios and 250+ person practices at IBM 
• Led risk strategy for $100M+ proposals and complex transformations 
• Built and delivered IBM's top global executive coaching programs 
• Certified executive coach with 300+ leaders coached

If you’re ready to accelerate your impact and avoid costly missteps,

let’s make your first year your strongest. 

📩 DM me “Executive Transition” and let’s talk.

Dora Vanourek

"I found a better opportunity."

Translation: I found a leader who values me.

I've coached hundreds through resignations.

The real reason they leave: 
it's rarely what they say at first.

Behind "better opportunity" or "career growth" is something deeper:

They don't feel valued.

Nobody says thank you.

Their ideas get ignored. 
Their skills go unused. 
They've stopped learning.

If you want to keep your best people:

- Truly listen
- Say thank you
- Seek their ideas
- Appreciate them
- Provide flexibility
- Make time for them
- Ask for their opinions
- Share timely feedback
- Ask how they really are
- Involve them in decisions
- Provide growth opportunities
- Communicate with transparency
- Trust them to make the right decisions

You don't need a budget for any of these.

Just intention, and genuinely caring for your people.

Be the leader you wish you had.

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Changing jobs doesn't mean you're unstable.

It means you're brave enough to admit you want more.

Too often, career moves are seen as betrayals.

But the real betrayal to yourself is staying
somewhere that no longer serves your growth.

5 signs it's time to make your move:

1. Your work has lost its meaning
→ You go through the motions, but the spark is gone

2. You've outgrown your role
→ What once challenged you now feels like autopilot

3. You know you're wasting your potential
→ That nagging voice keeps saying "you're capable of so much more."

4. Sunday night dread has become your reality
→ The anxiety starts earlier each weekend

5. You don't feel seen or valued
→ Another quarter, another "great job" that leads nowhere

Loyalty isn't about staying in one place.
It's about staying true to your potential.

Choose growth over comfort.

You'll never regret betting on yourself.

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If you're not growing in your job, you're shrinking.

But shrinking feels like stability.

Like patience.
Commitment.
Paying your dues.

So you start telling yourself:

'The market's tough right now.' 
'I'm lucky to have a job.' 
'Maybe next year will be different.'

And while you're being 'patient':

Someone with half your experience gets promoted.

Someone who started after you becomes your boss.

The job-hopper is making 40% more.

If your company isn't investing in your growth, 
you're not building a career -
you're maintaining theirs.

They get your best years. 
You get a review that says 'meets expectations.'

Growth isn't just about moving up.

It's about expanding your skills.
Taking on challenges that scare you.
Working with people who believe in you.

Ask yourself:

- When did you last learn something that changed how you work?

- Who's invested in your development this quarter?

- What skills are you building for your next role?

If it's tough to answer these, you're not stable.

You're stuck.

And stuck is just shrinking in slow motion.

The riskiest career move isn't leaving too soon.

It's staying too long.

How will you feel next year if nothing changes?

Your growth doesn't need permission.

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The most painful part of growth:

The people closest to you will try to stop it.

And the faster you grow, the more uncomfortable others become.

It's not personal - it's human nature:

- People prefer the version of you they're used to
- Some feel threatened by your progress
- Others try to keep you "safe" in your comfort zone

Here are 5 powerful ways to protect your growth:

1. Audit Your Circle 👥 
↳ Who celebrates your wins vs. who diminishes them?
↳ Distance isn't betrayal, it's boundaries

2. Stop Explaining Yourself 🤐 
↳ You don't owe anyone a justification for growth
↳ Let your results do the talking

3. Track Your Progress 📈
↳ Screenshot encouraging feedback and messages
↳ Celebrate small victories, they compound into big changes

4. Find Your Growth Squad 🔗
↳ Seek people 2-3 steps ahead of you 
↳ Invest in mentors who've walked your path

5. Trust Yourself 💪
↳ Your intuition knows before your mind does
↳ Bet on yourself when no one else will

The people who truly belong in your life will celebrate your growth. 

Don't shrink yourself to make others comfortable.

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Your title doesn't make you a leader.

How you treat your team when no one's watching does.

After 25+ years helping leaders retain talent, 
I've seen the same pattern:

Great employees will tolerate bad systems and broken processes.

But there's one thing they won't forgive:

A manager who stopped caring.

5 ways leaders lose their best people:

❌ Taking people for granted
↳ Not feeling valued is a top reason people disengage and leave

❌ Rewarding high-performers with more work
↳ Watch them burn out and leave for other companies

❌ Tolerating low performance from others
↳ High performers feel like their efforts don't matter

❌ Not matching salaries for loyal employees with those of new hires
↳ This disrespects your loyal employees and damages trust

❌ Ignoring employee feedback
↳ Dismissing insights signals that their voices don't matter

How to keep your best people:

✅ Recognize impact and contributions
↳ Build a habit of consistent, genuine appreciation

✅ Provide growth opportunities
↳ Before hiring externally, see if you can promote from within

✅ Help them connect the dots
↳ Discuss how they can grow and advance to the next level

✅ Ask for their input when making decisions
↳ Listening to their opinions and feedback lets them know they matter

✅ Ensure fair compensation
↳ Regularly review and adjust compensation and benefits

Be the leader you wish you had.

Because loyal employees don't leave companies.

They leave managers who stopped caring.

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Fear-driven leadership works fast.

But the damage works faster.

Too many leaders obsess over hitting this quarter's numbers.

Meanwhile, their best people are quietly updating their resumes.

When people are afraid, they choose:

- safety over success
- silence over solutions
- survival over growth

What to avoid as a leader:

❌ Threatening job security
↳ "Many people would love to have your role."

❌ Using subtle threats
↳ "We need to talk about your career here."

❌ Manufacturing fake urgency
↳ "This needs to be done by EOD" (when it doesn't)

❌ Keeping people guessing
↳ Unclear expectations, moving goalposts

❌ Weaponizing performance reviews
↳ Don't treat reviews as threats

What to do as a leader:

✅ Recognize and appreciate often
↳ Ensure your employees feel valued

✅ Invest in their growth
↳ Create clear paths for career advancement

✅ Share the bigger picture
↳ Help them see how their work creates meaningful impact

✅ Give your team ownership
↳ Trust them to make decisions and take risks

✅ Stand behind your team
↳ Protect them from politics and have their backs

Fear might get you compliance today.

But trust gets you people who care.

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I'm turning 50 this week 🎂
Grew up in communist Czechoslovakia
where entrepreneurship was illegal.

Success meant getting a job at a prestigious company.

And staying there until retirement.

So that's what I did.

At 48, I looked at my life and realized:

I'd followed every rule.
Done everything "right."
And I still felt trapped.

So I built my escape route.

One LinkedIn post at a time.

A year later, at 49, I left.

Now I have freedom and flexibility I didn't know was possible.

But when I started writing,
my biggest challenge was coming up with ideas.

Staring at a blank screen every day:

- What do I even talk about?
- Will anyone care?
- How do I stay consistent without burning out?

This is why Stanley (Your Content Coach) matters so much to me.

It's the tool I wish I'd had earlier.

It helps me: 

- Give me honest feedback when I need it
- Flag when my audience is tired of a topic
- Turn one coaching session into 4 different posts

My posts created with Stanley outperform my others by 35-40%.

No matter how stuck you feel.

No matter your age.

No matter what you were taught about "safety" and "success."

You can move forward.

It’s never too late.

If you're building your escape route,
try Stanley for free today: https://lnkd.in/g9nvAJzJ

#stanleypartner

Most resignations start the same way.

With a manager who never notices.

People check out long before they officially leave.

Their disengagement builds slowly - one overlooked issue at a time.

High performers notice everything.

They see who contributes and who coasts.

When you tolerate mediocrity, you're telling your best people their standards don't matter.

They deserve better.

And so do you as a leader.

Great leaders do these 5 things differently:

1. Set the bar clearly
→ Define what success looks like - no guessing
→ Write the rules so no one's confused

2. Address issues early
→ Small problems turn big when ignored
→ Have tough conversations before things escalate

3. Be present, not just available
→ Prioritize 1:1s so people know they matter
→ Truly listen, and catch problems early

4. Do what you say, every time
→ Keep every promise. No exceptions
→ Show visible progress to build trust

5. Celebrate what matters
→ Recognize the behaviours you want more of
→ Skip "good job" - say exactly what worked

What you tolerate becomes your culture.

Make sure it's one your top performers want to stay in.

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People won't remember your job title.

They'll remember how you made them feel.

Because true happiness at work isn't about being employed.

It's about feeling valued.

The best leaders live by this.

They don't just manage tasks.
They empower people to grow.
They appreciate them genuinely.

Be that leader:

- Listen without judgement
- Provide stretch assignments
- Genuinely ask, "How are you?"
- Be kind, even on the tough days
- Open doors to new opportunities
- Acknowledge their unique strengths
- Empower others to explore and learn
- Share feedback that helps others thrive
- Invite input in decisions that impact others
- Show appreciation - it means more than you know
- Believe in someone before they believe in themselves

Leadership isn't just about budgets or targets.

It's about kindness, respect, and leaving people better than when you met them.

Have you had a great leader?
Tag them to thank them ⬇️ 

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Leadership isn’t earned with a title.

It’s built when people feel safe.

Safe to speak up.
Safe to fail.
Safe to rest.

Build a culture where taking time off doesn’t come with guilt.

What to do as a leader:

✅ Be a role model for taking time off:
↳ Take time off - and talk about it. Normalize rest

✅ Recognize efforts: 
↳ Acknowledge achievements that promote well-being rather than appreciating health sacrifices

✅ Encourage flexibility: 
↳ Trust your team to deliver in ways that work for them

✅ Prevent post-vacation overload: 
↳ Plan ahead to make returning from time off manageable

✅ Conduct meaningful check-ins: 
↳ Make 1:1s safe spaces to talk about well-being and workload

What to avoid as a leader:

❌ Praising work while sick:
↳ "Thank you for working even though you don't feel well" 
↳ This sends the wrong message about your company's values

❌ Neglecting feedback: 
↳ Ignoring employee feedback about workload and stress

❌ Discouraging time off:
↳ Making employees feel guilty for taking breaks

❌ Setting unrealistic goals: 
↳ Targets that require overwork are unsustainable

❌ Promoting an "Always On" culture: 
↳ Expecting 24/7 availability, even on weekends or vacations

Be the leader you wish you had.

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Image credit: Adam Grant

Most leaders obsess over the wrong things.

They chase better processes.

Refine strategies.

Restructure teams.

And when results don't improve:

They apply pressure.
Tighten timelines.
Use fear as a tactic.

Meanwhile, the people who care the most, stop caring.

The best leaders do the opposite:

✅ Know their names and their stories
↳ "How's your daughter's soccer season?"

✅ Treat everyone with equal respect
↳ The intern's time matters as much as the VP's. Act like it

✅ Follow through on their feedback
↳ Actually listen and act. Or explain why not. Silence kills trust faster than "no"

✅ Share your own mistakes first
↳ "Here's where I messed up" opens doors to honesty

✅ Replace "Who did this?" with "What can we learn?"
↳ One question assigns blame. The other builds resilience

✅ Address toxic behaviour quickly
↳ Every day you wait, good people update their resumes

You don't need another framework.

You need to look up from your spreadsheet and see the humans in front of you.

Before the best ones stop caring completely.

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The healthiest teams argue the most.

Because they trust each other enough to disagree.

Most leaders get this backwards.

They think psychological safety means:

→ No disagreements
→ Everyone is comfortable all the time
→ Keeping things polite

But that's not safety.
That's silence.

Real psychological safety looks different:

- Disagreeing doesn't end careers
- Failed experiments = learning
- "What went wrong?" not "Whose fault is it?"
- Leaders admit mistakes first
- Bad news doesn't get hidden
- People bring their real selves

How to start building it:

1. Model it first
→ Next meeting: admit something you got wrong or don't know

2. Reward the messy truth
→ When someone brings bad news early, thank them

3. Change one question
→ Replace "Who screwed this up?" with "What can we learn from this?"

Conflict isn't the enemy of safety.

Silence is.

What does psychological safety look like on your team?

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McKinsey: 89% of leaders miss critical warning signs

76% learn too late; 34% never learn at all.

Incredible carousel from my friend Malay Matalia 🔥
Check him out for more insights like this.

Harvard found:
- Great leaders catch these signs early
- The average ones learn from exits
- The poor ones never learn at all

11 wake-up calls leaders need to hear today:

1. When bad news stops flowing:
→ You haven't built trust
→ You've built fear

2. When the calendar is full but the impact is minimal:
→ You're managing time
→ Not driving results

3. When you blame the team but claim wins as yours:
→ You're not leading
→ You're just taking credit

4. When you're the smartest in meetings:
→ You're hiring for comfort
→ Not for growth

5. When decisions only flow down:
→ You've created soldiers
→ Not future leaders

6. When resumes are getting updated:
→ Your open-door policy
→ Was just empty words

7. When challenges stop coming:
→ Your team has already given up
→ You don't listen anyway

8. When celebrations are louder without you:
→ You're limiting your team
→ Not the catalyst

9. When you speak more than listen:
→ You're leading by power
→ Not valuing your team's insights

10. When no one outgrows their role:
→ You're creating ceilings
→ Not empowering your team

11. When being right matters most:
→ You've stopped leading
→ You've stopped growing

Remember:
Listen to what your team is saying.
And what they aren't saying.
Their silence speaks volumes.

What other wake-up calls would you add?

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11 Wake-Up Calls All Leaders Need to Hear

If you're not willing to fight for your team,
you don't belong in management.

I'll never forget watching my manager 
in a senior leadership meeting:

"You're asking my team to do 3 top priorities. 
Pick one.
Or give me more people."

The room went silent.

Then they picked one.

That's when I learned:

Real leaders don't just manage work - they protect people.

10 ways great leaders protect their teams:

1. Block Burnout Triggers
↳ Kill the root causes before exhaustion turns into resignation letters

2. Stop the Fake Urgencies
↳ Everything can't be urgent. Push back on manufactured crises

3. Eliminate Useless Work
↳ Cut low-value tasks such as creating reports that nobody reads

4. Push Back on Deadlines
↳ Negotiate realistic timelines. Say no to deadlines that require overtime

5. Require Priority Trade-offs
↳ Ask stakeholders to remove something else before adding new work

6. Cut Through Bureaucracy
↳ Push back on unnecessary approvals and processes that slow down your team

7. Protect Deep Work
↳ Create distraction-free times and keep "quick requests" from destroying focus time

8. Defend Their Reputation
↳ CC their wins to skip-levels. Stand up for them when they're not in the room

9. Shield from Office Politics
↳ Handle the organizational drama so your team can focus on real work

10. Limit Meeting Madness
↳ Prevent endless meetings that destroy productivity and focus

Your team doesn't need another manager.

They need a leader who truly has their back.

Be that leader.

PS: What's one thing you wish more leaders did for their teams?

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75% of people fear public speaking more than death.

Yet it's the no. 1 skill that accelerates careers.

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, held me back for years.

I avoided roles where I'd need to speak a lot. 

Declined podcast invitations.

Fear was costing me too much.

Then I found Ultraspeaking

Here are the 8 techniques that transformed how I speak:

📌 Save these for later.

1. The Accordion Method 
→ Compress your talk to 60s, then 30s, then 15s 
→ Expand back, keeping only what matters 
→ Forces you to find your actual point

2. The Bow & Arrow 
→ Your Arrow = the ONE thing to remember 
→ Your Bow = supporting evidence

3. The Power Pause 
→ Stop for 3-5 seconds after key points 
→ Gives your audience time to absorb 
→ Silence is powerful, not awkward

4. The 2-3 Word Bookmark 
→ Create 2-3 word triggers, don't memorize scripts 
→ "Customer save" → your problem-solving story

5. Never Break Character 
→ Don't apologize for nervousness or mistakes
→ Your anxiety is invisible until you reveal it 

6. The Pushback Pivot 
→ Pause and acknowledge: "That's an important point" 
→ Reframe: "Here's how I see it..." 
→ Use challenges to strengthen your message

7. Use Clarity Prompts when Stuck
→ "The most important thing is..."
→ "If you remember one thing..."

8. The Opening Rule 
→ Rehearse your opening 3x more than the rest 
→ Early confidence will carry you through

These 8 techniques are just the beginning.

Ultraspeaking is different: 
live practice, speaking games, and real-time feedback from world-class coaches.

If communication is holding you back, 
join this FREE executive workshop (only 9 spots):
https://lnkd.in/gVibVu3G

#Ultraspeaking

Being smart isn't always an advantage.

It'll keep you stuck if you fall into these traps.

You work twice as hard.

You know you're capable of more.

But others still seem to get ahead.

It's not a lack of talent.

It's these traps holding you back:

1. The Overthinking Trap 🌀
↳ You spend months researching instead of taking action
↳ Avoid analysis paralysis with the 24-hour decision rule

2. The Comfort Zone Trap 🏝️
↳ Being the top performer in a small pond limits your growth
↳ Commit to one project that scares you every quarter

3. The Knowledge Hoarding Trap 📚
↳ Your bookshelf grows while your results stay the same
↳ Match every hour of learning with action

4. The Solo Player Trap 🧑‍🚀
↳ You avoid asking for help, seeing it as a weakness
↳ Find mentors who've already achieved what you want

5. The Intelligent Excuses Trap 🦊
↳ You use smart logic to justify staying average
↳ The real danger isn't failing - it's staying the same

6. The Multi-Potential Trap 🎭
↳ You have many talents but never commit to any
↳ Choose 1 focus for 90 days and say no to everything else

7. The Perfectionism Trap 🎯
↳ Your high standards become an excuse to never start
↳ Lower the bar and avoid endless revisions

Don't let these patterns keep you stuck.

You already have what it takes.

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