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Sarah Schneider, PCC, MBA
Executive Coach | Leadership and Personal Development Expert
Sarah Schneider, PCC, MBA is an accomplished executive coach, leadership strategist, and founder with extensive experience in developing leaders across various industries.2 Here are key details about her professional background and expertise:
Professional Experience
Sarah Schneider is the founder of her own coaching company, where she focuses on helping change makers, founders, and executives craft compelling and rewarding versions of leadership.1 Her approach aims to reduce the personal toll of leadership while amplifying impact and fulfillment for her clients.1
Expertise and Methodology
Sarah has developed a framework called "The Re-Lead Framework" to assist high-performing, committed leaders in leading effectively.1 Her coaching philosophy emphasizes:
- Building high-trust cultures
- Championing leaders
- Helping leaders navigate existential crises and career transitions
- Balancing impact with personal well-being
Qualifications and Background
- Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential
- Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree
- Over 20 years of experience in training, coaching, and advising executives and founders1
- Background in tech leadership before transitioning to coaching2
Current Role
Sarah serves as a Core Guide - Facilitator/Executive Coach at Chief, a position that likely involves providing leadership guidance and coaching to executives within that organization.2
Approach to Leadership Development
Sarah's coaching style focuses on "humanizing leadership" and helping leaders achieve freedom, impact, and fulfillment in their roles.1 She emphasizes the importance of authenticity and leveraging one's unique perspective in leadership.1
Sarah Schneider's LinkedIn username is sarahschneidercoach, which aligns with her professional focus on executive coaching and leadership development.2
Highlights
“I’ve been told that I can be stubborn about the process, often at the expense of people.”
I have heard some version of this from the founders I have worked with.
It’s not surprising.
Founders are often really excellent at something before they start their company.
As engineers. As lawyers. As public relations experts.
They have honed a craft over many years. They deeply understand the process of applying those skills to be effective. Their success has been predicated on a ‘get sh*t done’ mentality.
And then they have a big idea.
An idea and vision to address an issue or opportunity they see.
So they start a company, bust their a** to get it off the ground, leverage any skills and wisdom they can apply from their past experiences, are scrappy learning whatever they need to, and stay very focused on the vision.
At some point they’ve either grown enough to hire a team or have gotten funding to hire people to aid in growth.
Now on a daily basis they have to “deal with other people.”
▶ People who may not be as obsessed with the problem/solution the company solves. ▶ People who approach things differently and need different conditions to do their best work. ▶ People who are going to slow things down because that’s the nature of collaborating with others.
Being a wicked smart, passionate founder with loads of individual contributor skills + the ability to inspire with vision has worked for them so far.
Now though, they carry the responsibility of leading other people along in the implementation of that vision.
And the process they so clearly see and know and stand by, the ones that have gotten them this far, bump up against the very people who are there to help them fulfill on the vision.
That is the dichotomy.
To take your company/solution/dream to the next level, you have to let go of some of the things that got you here.
Ugh.
I know.
Here’s the thing …
It’s not a shedding. It’s an evolution.
The same focus, vision, commitment, risk-taking, ability to be with pressure, and more that made you a founder, can also make you a highly impactful people leader.
Now though, a big part of your job becomes expanding your capacity to be with other people’s “stuff”.
Their viewpoints. Their feelings. Their ways of doing things. Their challenges. Their feedback of you. Their skill sets. Their communication styles.
Navigating your way through all of that is one of the ways you go from founder to executive leader.
If you find yourself in this place, here are a few questions to consider:
💫 What impact is most meaningful for me to have on the people I lead? 💫 What skills of mine already support that and which ones do I need to develop? 💫 What functions of my leadership best align with our goals right now?
👋 I'm Sarah, an executive coach helping people changing the game, go from Founder to Executive Leader, so that their impact + fulfillment grows along with them.
#founder #disrupt #leadership
When you think about developing your leadership, what phrases do you use?
Here are a few I often hear from leaders:
Up-level my leadership Up my leadership game Elevate my leadership
And the one I hear the most:
Be a better leader
There is nothing wrong with these. Most of us know what these phrases are referring to when we come across it …
…Leadership Development.
However, for the high-performing, at times overly self-critical folks - thinking of it as being “better” can have its downsides.
“Better” can be a less nefarious version of the chase to feel good enough. “Better” can have people looking at their leadership from a deficit. “Better” can create an idea that you are supposed to change who you are.
Many of us have spent years developing our leadership from those places. It works.
But often it works by motivating you (or if this is not you, then someone you lead) with a stick. Being motivated by a stick is not sustainable. Over-time it becomes deflating.
So what are we to do as people who are committed to growth?
We change how we relate to leadership development.
What if you looked at it as adding RANGE to your leadership?
For example:
I have always brought lots of my mind to my leadership. Intelligence, strategy, tactical, analytical, planning, etc. that part has been a natural part of how I lead. There was and always will be a place for that part of who I am as a leader.
And … early on in my leadership days, I would receive feedback that I treated people like they were stupid.
To be the leader I was committed to being, my job was to add some heart to my leadership - empathy, compassion, connection, trust, etc.
What I needed was more RANGE and the ability to apply that range accordingly.
Leadership Range allows us to:
➡ Add to our tool belt (vs. think there is something we need to fix) ➡ Develop our skills from a place of curiosity ➡ Hear feedback and look for the intersection of where that feedback and who we authentically are intersect ➡ Be a leader that can adapt to what is needed based on the situations, people, places, skills, that are needed at any given time
Another example:
A leader comes to me and says “I suck at being with people that are unhappy and I want to fix that.”
After exploring that with them, they come up with: “I want to grow my ability to be with the discomfort of people being unhappy with me. This will allow me to add range to my leadership, especially when it comes to making decisions, giving feedback, and trusting others.”
Adding range to your leadership allows you to appreciate who you are now while also discovering the version of leadership that will provide the impact + freedom + fulfillment you want.
It creates a both/and. It creates more fun. It creates a more diverse definition of leadership.
What range are you working on in your leadership?
#leadership #growth #coaching #disrupt #impact #fulfillment
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