Directions West, LLC
Coaching leaders and advising organizations on the human side of leadership: one conversation, one team, one company at a time.
What I do
I help leaders, and the organizations they run, master the part no MBA teaches: how to lead people well.
For an individual leader, that's the human work, the part no strategy deck covers: how you show up, how you communicate, and how you impact the people around you. I coach executives to close that gap, because it's where real influence lives.
The same truth scales to the whole organization. Most companies pour their energy into a polished external message and treat internal communication as an afterthought, yet the tone you set inside your walls shapes culture just as much as anything you say to the outside world. I advise organizations on getting that right, because how leadership communicates becomes how people experience the company.
Organizations thrive or fail on the quality of their human connections. These are the two levers that build the culture you're after.
1:1 executive coaching that closes the gap between the leader you are and the leader your people need. The work that makes everything else you do land better.
Coaching · AdvisingPartnering with organizations on the structure, cadence, and voice of how leadership communicates to its people, strengthening engagement and culture by design, not by chance.
Strategy · StructureWhen leaders communicate well, people feel seen, informed, and valued. And that's where performance lives.
→ Culture is the outcome“Culture isn't created in strategy documents. It is shaped by intentional leadership.”Alisha Westfield Celestine
About
Executive Coach & Communications Strategist, helping leaders and organizations lead from the inside out.
Throughout my career I've held roles as chief of staff, communications executive, and strategy consultant. I've sat beside C-suite leaders inside large, highly matrixed organizations, serving as their thought partner when business was flourishing and outcomes were ideal, and when the pressure was high and the ground was shifting.
There was one thing the best of these leaders had in common: they were intentional about how they led people. Together we made their presence, communication, and people impact a priority. I coached them on how to show up for their teams, how the way they communicate shapes the culture around them, and how to build the habits and structures that made leading people as deliberate as any business strategy.
Most leaders get to where they are because of what they know or what they've achieved. Very few are ever taught how to lead people well. That's what I built Directions West around: coaching leaders to master the human side of leadership, and advising organizations on impactful internal communications strategy. I've built integrated communications functions from the ground up, led culture transformation across workforces of 75,000+, and counseled senior executives through growth, crisis, and change. Across all of it, I've seen the same thing with consistency: communication is the culture.
Let's find your direction.
The Human Side of Leadership
A Newsletter
Let's Connect
A first conversation is just that: a conversation. No deck, no agenda. We'll talk about where you are, where you want to go, and whether I'm the right person to help you get there.
Start the conversation → or write to hello@directionswest.com