YOUR GUIDE
I became a coach because I know what it costs to learn leadership the long way.
Twenty years in organizational life taught me what good leadership requires. Getting there took longer than it should have. Now I help other leaders close that gap faster.
THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK
I spent years knowing more than I was doing.
For most of my career, I understood leadership better than I practiced it.
I spent twenty years in technology, starting as a developer, moving through management, and eventually leading global Learning and Development analytics at Deloitte. I managed teams. I navigated organizational complexity. I made decisions that affected people’s work and their livelihoods. I invested seriously in getting leadership right. I read widely, paid attention, and could tell you what good looked like in almost any situation.
When the pressure came, what I knew and what I did were often two different things. Not because I wasn’t trying. The frameworks I was reaching for weren’t built around my strengths, my values, the particular way I’m wired to lead. They worked when things were easy. They slipped when they weren’t.
What finally changed wasn’t finding a better framework. It was understanding how I was actually built and building the skills on that foundation. Skills that held under pressure because they were connected to who I am, not borrowed from someone else’s model.
I became a coach because I wanted to help other leaders get there faster. With less trial and error. With less cost to the people on the other end of the learning curve.
The leaders who invest in getting this right rather than waiting for experience to do it for them get there sooner. They lead better. The people they lead feel the difference.
HOW I THINK ABOUT THIS WORK
I don’t hand you a framework. I help you build one that’s yours.
Every leader I work with comes in with knowledge they’re not fully using yet. The concepts are there. The intention is there. The gap sits between knowing and doing, and it almost always comes down to fit rather than effort.
Before we work on any specific skill, we work on understanding you. How you think. What you genuinely value. Where your natural strengths are and where they create blind spots. That understanding becomes the foundation for everything we build together.
You decide what to work on. You decide what matters most. I bring close attention, honest feedback, and working knowledge of how skills actually get built and how behavior actually changes. I don’t use that knowledge to steer where we go. I use it to make sure where you choose to go is reachable.
BACKGROUND
The experience behind the work.
Erickson Certified Coach
Formal training in an evidence-based coaching methodology from an ICF-certified coaching program.
Cognitive Science and Psychology
Academic background in how people think, learn, and change, applied directly to how skills get built in real conditions.
Twenty Years in Organizations
Software development, reporting management, senior leadership, and initiative management across technology and professional services, including global L&D analytics leadership at Deloitte.
Real Leadership Experience
Alex has managed teams, navigated organizational politics, made difficult decisions under pressure, and learned firsthand what works and what doesn’t in the real conditions of organizational life.
Ready to get started?
A free 30-minute discovery call is the first step. We figure out together where you are, what you want to be different, and whether this is the right fit. No pitch at the end.
Prefer email? Reach Alex directly at alex@raisinggain.com