Executive Coaching

We all have points in our life where we recognize a need to learn and grow and do things differently in order to get through a challenge or to achieve a goal. At those inflection points, everyone can benefit from a great coach. Kristin’s experience with a variety of groups and situations as a leader, consultant and coach gives her empathy and insight into her clients and allows her to quickly adapt to their needs. As your coach, she will:

• Ask the questions that help you step back, get perspective, and frame issues more clearly.
• Reflect back to you, without judgment, beliefs and patterns of behavior that may not be serving your goals anymore.
• Create a safe space to challenge your own assumptions, experiment with different ways of leading, and practice using new tools.
• Help you translate your aspirations to specific actionable steps, and then hold you accountable to them.
• Connect you to tools and resources to support your growth.
• Believe in you and inspire you to believe in expanded possibilities for yourself.

Kristin specializes in helping women who are already leaders within complex organizations. Whether you are a woman transitioning to a new role, or dealing with increasing complexity in your current role, or never had the training to lead or manage a team of people, Kristin can help.

Kristin has worked with leaders from a variety of fields including:

• Higher Education Administration and Faculty
• Political Candidates
• High-Tech Companies
• Large Non-Profit and Advocacy Organizations
• Public institutions
• Foundations
• City Government
• K12 School Districts

Coaching options include:

• Six months of coaching plus 360-degree feedback (Recommended for new clients)
• Six months of coaching
• Three months of coaching
• Single sessions (Available only to previous clients)

Connect to learn more.

Executive Leadership Team Coaching

Effective teams don’t just magically form by putting a group of people in a room together. A cohesive, high-performing leadership team takes an investment of time and energy – a deeper investment that makes it possible to achieve amazing results and enjoy getting there together.

Kristin’s work with teams is based on Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and customized for each team and situation. She focuses on both accelerating the development of trust and mutual accountability among team members and helping the team create the shared clarity and annual processes that make it possible for the entire organization to take collaborative action.

Connect to learn more.

Presentation and Communication Coaching

Communicating with and inspiring groups of people is a critical part of a leader’s job yet many have never had the training or coaching to get their points across clearly and to tell the stories that will get their ideas remembered. Kristin’s experience as a TEDx speaker and her decades of group facilitation means she can help you learn to communicate authentically and professionally in settings from job interviews to Board rooms to pitching for support for your campaign or your cause. She has worked with political candidates, executives and front-line managers to ensure that how they communicate is as effective as how they lead.

Connect to learn more.

Stories and the conversations around them are the key to changing hearts and minds, to learning and growing, to connecting with each other in the most fundamental way. Kristin is a gifted story teller and facilitator who likes to write, speak, and engage others in conversation and learning around topics that fascinate her and create possibilities for social and organizational change.

Kristin’s TEDx talk, “How I Learned to Love Unconscious Bias,” explores through storytelling how unconscious bias about women has stalled women’s progress and how we can work as a team to stop the negative impacts of these biases.

Kristin is also the author of the best-selling book This is Not How I Thought It Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood to Get the Lives We Want Today. Her book weaves together her own story, anecdotes from mothers all over the country, and a deep knowledge of history and society to offer mothers – and fathers – a comforting, often funny read that helps them see themselves and the world around them in a whole new way. At the same time, she provides specific actions women can take to remodel motherhood to live the lives they always thought they would. Remodeling Motherhood can be purchased or downloaded online through major booksellers.

For more insights from Kristin in writing, visit her blog.

Kristin thinks of herself more as a storyteller and facilitator of conversation and experience than a traditional “keynote speaker.”  She is comfortable with groups of all sizes and types in person and virtually. She has expertise to share in a variety of related topics – effective leadership, building teams, women and leadership, change management, leading remotely, and unconscious bias. When you engage her, you can count on a customized experience for your group that draws them in, gets them talking, challenges their thinking, and equips them with concrete actions they can take after they walk out the door. If you are interested in talking about a webinar, podcast interview, panel discussion, or “speaking” engagement, please connect with her.

Kristin looks for projects where she can make a unique difference by leading social and political change.

She worked on her first political campaign in 1987 when she was a senior at Mankato East high school and her English teacher, John Dorn, decided to run for the Minnesota State House of Representatives. She was put in charge of lawn signs because she had an Apple II computer and knew how to use a database to keep track of which houses had agreed to take signs. She and her best friend drove all over town that fall putting up those signs.

The night of the election, John Dorn flipped that seat by 68 votes. And he went on to serve for 19 years, making a huge difference in Minnesota, especially around education.

Kristin believes change is always possible. Every small action matters. Every person has a role they can play.

Since then, she has been involved in numerous political campaigns organizing, fundraising and advising. She has coached political candidates. She has been the founding Board Chair of two successful non-profits, taking them from start-ups to sustainable community organizations. She chaired a national Board for a non-profit and led the creation of a statewide endorsement process for another. She has served on and consulted for several additional non-profit and school boards.

Her extensive experience with the role of Boards in an organization, non-profit operations and fundraising, organizing for political and legislative change, and her gift for inspiring others to get involved in change in ways that match their interests and talents make her a valuable addition to any change effort.

If you have a project that might benefit from her expertise as a consultant in these areas, please connect. If you have a project in her areas of passion – electing women or political advocacy for issues that impact women and families – you may get lucky and get adopted as her next unpaid passion project!

“When someone suggested coaching, I thought “I don’t have time for this. I need to focus on my work and I don’t need coaching.” But I gained so much from working with Kristin that I feel like a different person.

It’s not so much that I learned “new” things. I gained self-awareness and learned about myself as a leader. I learned that the skills I already have are in fact backed by research. I learned more about my ability to positively influence people who are part of my team so they can work to a common goal. Now I have a toolbox I can go back to again and again.

Before, I loved my work, but with the way I was leading I felt the weight on my shoulders and didn’t have any joy. Joy is now part of me being a leader. Kristin is an excellent coach and I will be eternally grateful.”

~ Dr. Susamma (Susan) Barua, Dean, College of Engineering and Computer Science, California State University Fullerton

“Kristin helped our leadership team operationalize that delta between where we were and where we wanted to be so our vision wasn’t just something up on a shelf. With her support we broke down that kind of crushing question about how will we bridge that gap and identified clear, concrete actions that made it possible to achieve our goals.

As a coach, Kristin helped me tap into the competencies I didn’t even realize I had and articulate them to myself and others. She always had well researched resources for me to read or watch that matched what I needed at the moment. She’s smart, compassionate, and you can tell she played a competitive team sport because she can push you or your team hard and you’ll still love her for it. Learning with her is expanding and joyful.

It might be hard to understand the return on the investment that comes from working with a great coach. I received so much personal and professional value from our work, which transferred into a new revenue stream.  I learned about dealing with ambiguous situations, how to handle going through three bosses in one year, how to more effectively communicate and how to build a cohesive, high performing team. Without a doubt I recommend Kristin.”

~ Marianne Haggerty, Assistant Vice President for Advancement Services, California Institute of Technology

“I’ve had questions for myself, for years, that I’ve been trying to answer. I worked with Kristin and in three months we got done together what I had not been able to accomplish on my own. I absolutely give her 5 stars out of 5.

I’m good at setting goals but what Kristin helped me do was to get crystal clear about what I wanted to achieve, break down how to get there into bite-sized pieces, and then in every conversation she helped me advance my goals.

What’s most valuable in working with Kristin as a consultant is the clarity she brings to your own perspective and her shared commitment to your goals. Some consultants frustrate me because they seem to be trying to do what they are comfortable with instead of what we need. Kristin has a unique talent for gaining insights into her clients and the real issues quickly and then adapting to meet those needs.”

~ Theresa Davis, Assistant Vice President for Engagement and Annual Programs, California Institute of Technology

“When I spend time with Kristin, I always come away with a couple of practical, concrete steps. I also always come away with an altered framework for thinking more clearly about a problem or opportunity in a way that is forward leaning. Often I’m already passing the insights and steps along to others the same day!

Kristin hears you and has an ability to reframe things in a way that helps you think about it differently. She helps you problem solve but not in a “you should do this” way but in a “have you considered this?” way.  She asks questions that take you a few steps beyond where you were in your own thinking and helps you step back and create clarity for yourself.

I was surprised to find that change doesn’t have to be in giant leaps. Kristin adapted to where I was in the moment, and helped me identify small concrete steps I wanted to take. Those small actions created progress that I felt good about and inspired me to take even more action.

I think a lot of people think they might want coaching because they want to look for another job. But there’s tremendous value in reframing the way you work currently, how you add value, how you tap into your skills, and you can make progress on that right now with Kristin. You can’t underestimate how smart she is, how socially aware, how her intelligence allows her to quickly understand you, your environment, your work, your life, your skills and bring a variety of resources to you as options. I recommend her highly!”

~ Diane Binney, Assistant Vice President Campaigns, California Institute of Technology

“The return on investment from the tangible outcomes we got from engaging Kristin was so much greater than the cost. With Kristin’s support we transformed into an organization that could raise 300 million a year. We got 3 billion dollars worth of results.

Working with Kristin totally changed how I think about strategic planning. She helped us start with our organization’s mission and our ideas of what we wanted and then took us through crafting clear aspirations and breaking it all down into things that were ambitious but doable. We ended up with a plan and process we could actually use to implement and achieve our goals over time. She has a unique ability to find the thread in things, to take disparate things and tie them together so she could help us see the big picture and how the different things we wanted to accomplish could fit together.

I thought I knew how to be a team until I worked with Kristin and learned the hard ongoing work it takes to be a team and how to hang on to that when things get tough. In those moments where the team needed to be vulnerable with each other, we would not have been able to do that without Kristin. And while they were some of the hardest moments, they were also some of the most moving and rewarding moments personally and professionally. Those moments she made possible made us more effective as a team.

Sometimes you can get good advice from someone, but not get the ‘now we agree here are the three actions you will take.’ With Kristin, I always walk away from our conversation with something tangible to do.”

~ Valerie Otten, Assistant Vice President Development, California Institute of Technology

“I was struggling with overload and competing demands on my time. Kristin really helped me move from a reactive to a more proactive approach by challenging me to pause, take a step back, assess, reframe, and then prioritize. In the moment, it could feel like setting aside time with a coach was just one more thing on a very long list. However, carving out that time more than balanced out with the productivity I experienced as a result of our work together – as well as giving me back valuable time in my schedule going forward.

I appreciated Kristin’s genuine care for me as a person. When something crazy would arise in my work world, she would be the first one to set aside whatever we had planned tackle and ask, do we need to pivot? How do we help you right now? Her support was exactly what I needed when I needed it as opposed to a “program” that we had to follow.

I learned many valuable things in my time with Kristin that I have been able to carry forward. Most importantly that process of pausing, stepping back, laying it all out, and asking the questions in order to reprioritize and refocus. I can still hear her voice asking “why?”

I absolutely 100% recommend Kristin.”

~ Emily Fischer, Director Alumni Relations, California Institute of Technology

“Kristin’s ability to assess a team or organization’s capacity, pinpoint and refine goals, and develop and manage an implementation plan have tremendous value in any sector, but particularly in the non-profit and public arenas where senior management teams are often hindered by resource constraints. Kristin has employed her strategy development, planning and project management skills to consistently deliver greater effectiveness, efficiency and improved results.”

~ Binti Harvey, Vice President for External Relations and Institutional Advancement, Scripps College

“I bring Kristin in because she is a calm, neutral voice who comes with a flexible toolkit and a creative outsider’s approach to a problem-solving. She has experience working with diverse teams in a variety of situations. A lot of other consultants come in with a specific ‘thing’ and that’s the only thing they do. Each organization has its own culture and Kristin is able to fit into that and customize her process and introduce new tools as needed.”

~ Cristin Dorgelo, Vice President of Operations, X PRIZE Foundation

“Kristin Maschka’s strong work ethic and ability to manage and facilitate a variety of projects is extraordinary. Her knowledge of organization development, change management, project management and communications strategy are skills essential to any major educational reform. Her skills in facilitation, strategic planning, translating strategy into action plans, and knowledge of performance management were essential to us as we engaged in a fast-paced, complex reform initiative in Pasadena Unified School District.”

~ Edwin Diaz, former Superintendent, Pasadena Unified School District, 2011 CA Association of School Administrators Superintendent of the Year

“There are people who can see into ‘the heart of the matter’ and then shine a light forward. Kristin Maschka is one of those people, able to put ideas and solutions into place that can ensure better insight, communication and movement toward organizational change. Operations and programs gain purpose and people gain tools to view their work differently. On a desert island or up a creek – whatever the situation – I’d put Kristin on my team to help envision the solutions.”

~ Debra J. Levy, Past Board President, Mothers & More

“Kristin is a visionary in the true sense of the word. She is the founding chair of the Pasadena Education Network (PEN) because she saw a need and she did what she does best…she got to work motivating others, organizing, and leading a group of people through the strategic process of creating their own 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. Where most nonprofits struggle with creating a mission, values, and vision that align with their programs and services, Kristin used her outstanding organizational skills, good sense of humor, and an uncanny ability to understand her audience to create the framework for a successful organization. She has an intimate understanding of the value of boards and staff working collaboratively, yet she is able to clearly differentiate between their roles and help them reach consensus. Now, years later, Kristin’s vision has been realized. PEN has hundreds of members and serves thousands of people each year.”

~ Nancy Dufford, Executive Director, Pasadena Education Network

“Kristin has a unique ability to galvanize and organize organizations and groups to build a shared purpose and to translate this into action. She understands what effective collaboration should look like in theory as well as the tools necessary to see this play out in reality. She supports groups to more deeply articulate their needs and moves them outside the box to develop thoughtful, innovative solutions that are actionable.”

~ Erik Rice, Senior Associate, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education

“The knowledge management project I asked Kristin to lead required inspirational leadership, tenacious project management skills and a consistent stance of neutrality which enabled her to keenly listen and extract shared meaning from multiple sources of data, including dozens of discussions among staff and district professionals. Her work resulted in a district reform model for the Foundation that was comprehensive, accurate and inclusive of multiple stakeholders’ points of view.

Kristin is a thoughtful, rational and logical problem solver. She can easily tackle complex issues and processes by breaking down situations into discrete, systematic steps. Kristin is an exceptional strategic leader who understands how to translate ideas into action, understands systems, and empowers individuals and teams to act collaboratively.”

~Sonya Lopes, former Director of District Alliance Programs, Stupski Foundation