Alana Tart Coaching

Certified coach (ICF-ACC, CPCC, NARM), mindfulness teacher (BAMBA, Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) with a background in psychology working with clients at inflection points (including when quietly asking: “is this still what I want?”).

This work is practical, strategic, and deeply human, helping you reconnect with clarity, capacity, and a sense of meaning that fits from the inside out.

Coaching & Mindfulness (Individual or Group, inc MBSR)

The Legal Director

The Legal Director  (TLD) is a fully regulated law firm that provides businesses with experienced, high-calibre lawyers on a fractional or flexible basis. 

As part of TLD I work with SMEs as a fractional/part time General Counsel advising on all areas of business law including:
- Commercial Law and Contracts (including customer, supplier and distributor agreements)
- Technology agreements (waterfall/agile/SaaS)
- NDAs & Confidentiality Agreements
- Crisis Management
-Cyber security (readiness and breaches)
- Data protection
- Competition and Anti-trust issues
- Dispute resolution
- Risk Management

Client Legal Director

Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc

Dominant Information Solutions Canada Inc (DISC) is a niche provider of security consulting service. We service industry and government clients by providing services that include: developing cyber security programs, designing and engineering cyber security and IT solutions, breach response services, and providing risk assessment and management services. DISC works with clients to examine new and innovative technologies from the Canada and overseas to ensure customers get an optimal return on investment from their capability. 

Since 2019, DISC has been a leading global innovator in niche satellite engineering and security, receiving multiple research grants for methods to improve the health and operational success of satellites.

DISC also specializes in providing Subject Matter Expert advice to court cases, and has provided court opinions in high profile cases in Canada such as the class action suites against Lifelabs, Capital One, and Facebook.

General Counsel and Board Director

The Mentor Well

The Mentor Well aims to provide teens and young adults with essential life skills, emotional support, and personal growth opportunities through one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, and various online courses. We focus on fostering long-term development and mental wellness in an increasingly complex world, equipping young individuals to navigate their futures confidently.

COO, General Counsel, Mentor

Philip Morris International

Senior Counsel

Ascential Plc

Ascential is a specialist, global, publicly listed information company that helps the world’s most ambitious businesses (e.g. P&G, Unilever, Nestle, gsk, Bayer, Philips, hp) win in the digital economy by providing business-critical intelligence, world-class events and advice to enable smart decision-making for businesses. It operates from 39 offices around the world serving customers in over 150 countries. Its brands include Edge, Flywheel, WGSN, Medialink, Cannes Lions and Money 2020.

Legal Director (Group) at Ascential

Ooyala (acquired Videoplaza)

A global online video platform, offering best-of-breed online video analytics and monetization solutions that boost revenues from video. Part of Telstra Corporation Limited from 2014 until 2018.

Senior Corporate Counsel (responsible for EMEA)

Videoplaza (acquired by Ooyala)

Videoplaza's mission was to empower broadcasters and video publishers to build profitable and sustainable businesses in the internet-delivered TV world. More than 50% of the broadcasters in Europe run their advertising businesses on Videoplaza's flagship offering Karbon (Videoplaza’s customers include M6 (France) and IP Deutschland (Germany), TV4 (Sweden), Mediaset (Spain), STV (U.K.), MediaCorp (Asia), Sony Entertainment India and Singapore's Mediacorp). The technology, built for video, is device agnostic and empowers publishers to trade across sales channels, maximising the value of their audiences. Videoplaza's services were offered globally and the company had local teams across Europe and Asia.

Head of Legal and Company Secretary

Latham & Watkins

An integrated, multinational full-service law that provides strategic and innovative legal solutions to clients' complex business and legal challenges.

Associate

Virgin Media

The first "quadruple-play" media company in the United Kingdom, offering television, internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. It had ~5M customers in 2012 and revenue of £4.1B. Now part of Liberty Global.

Secondee from Latham & Watkins- Associate Counsel (Regulatory and Digital Entertainment)

Executive Coach | Mindfulness teacher | General Counsel (ex BigLaw, ex Fortune 100) | Outdoor enthusiast

Values driven leaders and high achievers turn to me for the hidden dynamics that make or break careers. Most come to me for one of three reasons:

✨ They’re facing huge change and uncertainty and want someone in their corner who understands.

✨ They don’t know what they want and are looking for clarity about their next steps.

✨ They’re ready to create more meaningful impact.

Beneath each of these challenges are the same hidden dynamics, the patterns that leave people feeling like they’ve lost the map, unable to see what’s really driving their choices or holding them back.

Maybe you’ve been putting off reaching out to a coach. I did the same. Self-sufficiency works… until it doesn’t. (If I’m honest, it cost me professionally. Years.)

Maybe you’re not even sure coaching would help. Or hardest of all, like many of my clients, you’re not sure what you want anymore, and you’re starting to wonder if you ever really did.

As a certified coach (ICF-ACC, CPCC, NARM), mindfulness teacher, and with my background in psychology and law (I am still also a General Counsel), I help clients rewire their brain and nervous system, align with their values and who they are becoming, and build the self-awareness to not only recognize but confidently overcome or use the hidden dynamics to intentionally shape their lives and careers.

I offer private coaching, practical tools and group classes.

Book a call: tidycal.com/alanatart

You’re about to read this mug wrong. Twice.

We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we expect them to be 

The text on the mug never changes, but the meaning shifts the instant you notice your mistake

What you believe you’re seeing determines your reaction

Just like in organizations: reality isn’t objective truth
It’s shared belief`

Those who understand that don’t fight for “truth.”
They work skilfully with interpretation.

Because if perception shapes reality, power lies with the person who shapes perception.

--
Follow me Alana Tart for actionable wisdom on everyday power dynamics

Alana Tart

Coach, Teacher, Trusted Advisor | Also a General Counsel (ex Fortune 100, ex BigLaw) and Board Director | Soft heart, steel spine.

This is Sheela

She owns a small shop where I always overpay. Purposely

Her shop is full of sweets, a kids magnet

They come with their coins and excitement

But some aren’t so good with money

They don’t count it well or struggle to read shelf pricing

And Sheela makes the rest of us wait

Sometimes, when a few coins are missing, she covers the gap herself

And that makes my day

So I overpay a little
 
To add to the coins she can use and to thank her for reminding me how much difference a small act of kindness can make

That the best exercise of power isn’t in taking, but enabling

--
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“You Must Be More Assertive.”

Most who get this feedback do the wrong thing

They speak more in meetings
Push harder on decisions
Drop the soft tone that made them “approachable”

Nat did exactly that

Twelve months later, the feedback was: “You’ve become too intense,  try softening your approach.”

Nat was confused: What did they really want?

Working together, she quickly understood that people’s status is based on two dimensions:
💠  Assertiveness: competence, confidence, authority
💠Warmth: trust, approachability, empathy

And how those signals are read and rewarded often depends on gender

Regardless, if needing to shift to have more impact, the issue isn’t assertiveness OR warmth, it’s finding your balance

Here is What Actually Works

1. Lead with Warmth, Deliver Assertively 
↳ Warmth opens minds; assertiveness earns respect

2. Calibrate to Context
↳When the room needs clarity, lead decisively
↳When it needs trust, lead empathetically
↳The best leaders flex both, intentionally
 
3. Don’t Subtract : Add
↳ Don’t dial down; add what’s missing
↳ Too forceful? Keep your authority and add empathy
↳ Too soft? Keep your warmth and turn up assertiveness

Balance isn’t blending into the middle; it’s expanding your range

You don’t need to fake confidence to be credible.
You don’t need to act tougher to be taken seriously.
You don’t need to change who you are to be powerful.

You don't have to become someone else to be someone significant.

Image Credit: Judy Horacek

--
Follow me Alana Tart for more on everyday power dynamics

This is not my commute. It returning from my daughter’s skating practice. My boss says that being the taxi driver for my teens is my most important work. It’s where the best chats happen.

But he is rare.

So many must ask permission to do this drive

It hurts my heart

Kids need those chats. Parents need those chats

Let’s just call it what it is: a power dynamic

Needing permission to manage your life is about who owns your time, whose priorities define value, and who gets to decide what commitment looks like

I have done these drives since my kids were born

Sometimes because of great bosses, always because I knew enough to navigate

The first step is to non-judgmentally acknowledge what is going on. You deserve it, your kids deserve it.

Adam Grant is being deliberately provocative

Because we all want to believe in meritocracies, and every woman I know has had her expertise interrupted by someone else’s confidence

But change is only possible if we unpick the why behind his post.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝘆:

Humans are “cognitive misers.” We read status and power signals, not résumés.

So social life rewards perception over precision.

The effects are self-fulfilling:

Those with status are heard and allowed to interrupt.

Those without it are talked over or ignored.

Others watch who gets airtime, credit, and deference, and from that, decide who’s “leadership material.”

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼:

Notice and learn how power and status are granted.
 
If we have power, we listen, because listening redistributes status

If we’re interrupted, we recruit allies: “I’m not sure [name] was finished,” or “As [name] just said…”

We use sentences like, “Let me finish this thought, then I’d love your input.”

We signal authority through tone and pacing (not speed or volume)

We can’t rewire ourselves to create meritocracies.

But we can build awareness, share power, and make space for all voices. And Adam Grant's post can stop being provocative. 

--
Follow me Alana Tart for more on actionable wisdom on everyday power dynamics

Most people on business flights choose a solo seat

I do the opposite

Some of my most interesting conversations have started at 30,000 feet: with senior leaders, founders, people in career transitions 

A few have turned into ongoing relationships or unexpected opportunities 

(Yesterday I was with a VP of marketing for a Canadian high end distillery)

People talk a lot about influence, access, and opportunity

In practice, they often start in very ordinary moments, like commenting on the cheese served on your Swiss air flight

(Which led to a conversation about pairing cheese with Canadian whisky, which led to sharing that I once worked in the industry, which led to exchanging business cards…)

I don’t treat these chats as a break from the work I am doing on the plane, I treat them as part of it

Sometimes the most valuable “meeting” of your week doesn’t come with a calendar invite

I had a direct report suggest that she could not work on a project to preserve her emotional bandwidth. A coaching client’s CEO now talks about nervous system regulation and psychological safety yet teams walk on eggshells.

Across workplaces I am hearing language lifted straight from a self-care carousel. And it helps no one.

Pop psychology is being used to control the frame while appearing calm, reasonable, even enlightened

But this is how complexity gets flattened

At one part of the hierarchy control is packaged as composure 

Whilst at another everything uncomfortable becomes “unsafe.” 

The language of self-awareness turns into a way to shut down any awareness

Real psychology is an evidence-based discipline rooted in research, testing, and ethical practice. 

It’s messy, often uncomfortable, and rarely gives you easy, if any, answers. 

It involves sitting with contradictions, looking at root causes, and recognising when we might be part of the problem. 

When every tough conversation becomes a “red flag” and every piece of constructive feedback is labelled “toxic,” we lose the ability to self-reflect, take accountability, and grow. We become more fragile.

And when aggression has been replaced by indifference dressed as regulated calm, we aren’t emotionally intelligent leaders, we’re emotionally absent.

If everything is trauma, nothing is. 

And if regulation means disconnection, we’re not balanced, we’re shut down.

In our minds, stories about power abuses involve two principal characters: a victim and a perpetrator. But there are others on the scene; we all have our roles

Sometimes I stayed out of it because I believed I could do nothing, that I was also vulnerable

Other times I wasn’t sure if I should step in

 Sometimes I just didn’t know how

But this ignored key things:
→ Inaction protects the status quo
→ You are training yourself to be powerless
→ Bystanders are not unharmed: your body also keeps the score

The answer is not to rush in, all guns blazing; that’s also naïve. Instead:

1/ Understand the system before you challenge it
 ↳ Power literacy is the first step to the ethical use of power

2/ Build allies and coalitions
↳ You gain power to change things through connection

3/Learn how to act effectively, not just righteously
↳ Moral courage without political skill often fails

You don’t have to be fearless, just unwilling to stay numb

Influence starts the moment you decide your presence matters.

--
I am Alana Tart and I have sat through too many leadership programs that skipped the hard truths about how people really rise or lead.

In 2 weeks, I leave home to go home
 
And for the first time, I am bringing multiple “mes”
 
I grew up in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Ontario
 
In Canada, I’ve always been “social Alana”
 
No suit jacket, no heels, no title
 
When you meet me, you’re really asking: do I like her? Can I trust her? Do I feel comfortable?

It’s about mutual recognition and ease; warmth, approachability, empathy

Soon I’ll be at the Civil Litigation Conference in Montreal, where I’ll also be “lawyer Alana”
 
Then the questions shift: is she competent? Can I rely on her? Who knows her? What’s her standing here?

It’s about relevance in the system, how confidently I can claim space, make decisions, set tone, and still stay warm

Same person, different context
 
Authenticity isn’t about being the same everywhere

 It’s about knowing your role and playing it with integrity
 
P.S. If you are going to the conference, I would love to hear from you. I will be there with Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc

One of the biggest myths that holds people back:

You can and should apply your craft to any company 

Lawyers are particularly good at this self-convincing BS

Especially because we are awesome at compartmentalizing

Here’s the truth: when you don’t believe in the company, your career will struggle

Instead of having energy for:
💠 better thinking
💠authentic communication
💠relationship-building
💠strategic action
💠participation 

You are burning mental and emotional calories on:
💠reconciling contradictions
💠managing internal discomfort
💠navigating moral tension
💠suppressing disagreement

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿

If you want to excel, at a minimum work where you don’t have to fight yourself to do your job

This is why I am so grateful to be part of Dominant Information Solutions Canada (DISC) Inc, a gold sponsor for next week’s Space Canada | Espace Canada ‘s SpaceBound conference

(who wouldn’t find satellite cybersecurity fun?)

I love the way dogs always believe the world is full of good surprises.

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