Executive Coaching · Leadership Advisory · Speaking · Facilitation · Training
Leadership is hard.
Transformation makes it harder.
Executive coaching, leadership advisory, speaking, and training for leaders and leadership teams navigating transformation in every form — grounded in 25+ years living it and leading it, not just theorizing about it.
Bringing out the best in leaders — and the teams around them.
The work takes different forms — coaching, advisory, speaking, training — but it always starts the same way: understanding a leader, their goals, and what's actually possible for them and their organization right now.
From there, it's about helping them navigate change, think differently about problems they've been stuck on, and build on strengths that are already there — theirs, their team's, their organization's — rather than starting from scratch. Sometimes that's a strategic conversation about where things are headed. Sometimes it's tactical — the specific thing to say in tomorrow's meeting. Always, it's practical, specific, and grounded in what actually works for that person, in that moment.
Contact Me
michelle@kentleadershipadvisory.com
How I Help
Facilitation and Training
Workshops for leadership teams working through a change effort, a culture shift, or a moment where the team needs to rethink how it works together — built around practical examples, real situations, and scenarios that make people think and apply what they're learning, not just listen. People learn through experience, so sessions are designed to work that way. Facilitation moves ideas forward — surfacing input and ideas, but also driving toward decisions, plans, and a real path forward. Discussion gets to the heart of conflict, needs, and opportunities, creating the clarity needed for prioritization, alignment, and action.
Executive Coaching
One-on-one work with a leader navigating a moment that calls for thinking differently — a promotion, a reorg, a role that's changed underneath them, or a strength they haven't fully leaned into yet. This includes leaders stepping into transformation leadership roles that require new ways of working and thinking.
Leadership Advisory
For leaders and leadership teams planning a transformation, working toward strategic vision and alignment, considering a major change, or facing organizational performance or culture challenges — and trying to work through how to move forward. This spans standing counsel through the transformation itself and project-based strategic work on the structural or operating-model questions underneath it — practical, specific guidance shaped around what's actually happening, not a generic playbook.
Speaking
Keynotes and executive sessions on what it means to be a transformation or change leader, what successful workforce transformation actually looks like, the courage it takes to lead through change, and what the AI era means for transformation and the workforce of the future.
Great leadership starts with the courage to ask the hard question, hear a different perspective, and act on what the moment requires.
About
I ask a lot of questions. That's kind of the point.
Ask me something and I'll probably answer it with two more questions. More than 25 leading transformation inside large organizations, both Fortune 500 and private companies, taught me that the leaders who get it right almost never start with an answer. They start by understanding: What's actually going on here? What does this person need? What's already working that we can build on? What are we trying to achieve and why?
That's where coaching starts too. I'm not handing you a framework off a shelf and telling you to apply it. I'm asking what's really happening, listening for what you're not saying, and helping you figure out what actually works — for you, your team, your organization — in this moment, not some generic version of it. Sometimes that's a strategic conversation about where things are headed. Sometimes it's the specific thing to say in tomorrow's meeting. I'll tell you the truth either way, even when it's not the easy answer. I have examples of what works for others, but the most important outcome is finding what works for each organization, each leader and each moment.
Outside of client work, my husband Ryan and I are usually enjoying what Colorado has to offer. Our two mini Australian Shepherds, Geronimo and Huckleberry, keep us active and endlessly entertained. We're also serious about travel — we've been to more than 60 countries— and I've spent years getting into wine, particularly small producers and learning about lesser-known regions. Burgundy is a favorite. We're also committed to our community, particularly organizations serving veterans, youth and education, mentorship, and animals; I currently serve on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado.
Professionally: 25+ years leading transformation — organizational design, growth initiatives, technology implementations, cost reduction, workforce transformation — across Fortune 500 and privately held companies. I've learned to read the business and cultural nuances of companies. That's meant leading a multi-year restructuring program that delivered more than $400M in value, guiding organizations through the operational whiplash of rapid growth and M&A integration, and helping leadership teams redesign how work gets done when the old structure no longer fits — including the workforce questions AI is now forcing everyone to ask. During 17 years at KPMG, many of those as a partner, I led teams, a practice and coached many people into new roles. I discovered that helping people grow, build on their strengths and develop into strong authentic leaders is where I want to spend more of my time. I've also worked and studied internationally, including time in Russia, the Middle East, and South Asia — experience that's shaped how I think about leadership and the differences needed based on who and where you are leading. I hold an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA in international relations at Grinnell College.
— Michelle Kent