Leading With Self Awareness
Starting From The Inside Out
What if self-awareness was seen as the foundation of conscious leadership?
What if we embraced it as vital to a meaningful life?
And what if our leaders led from this place to create a more thriving, compassionate, and equitable world?
In this book you will meet twenty-five authors who chronicle their journey of self-awareness, relating the many lessons they’ve learned along the way and how their personal and professional lives transformed as a result.
Foreward by Garry Ridge, Chairman Emeritus, WD-40 Company
Garry Ridge is a purpose-driven founder, board member, advisor, and professor with an impressive 35-year track record of leading, growing, and transforming global businesses and brands. His purpose? To help leaders build cultures of belonging where love, forgiveness, and learning inspire a happier, more connected world.
“Changing work for the 3.5 billion people in the global workforce can seem daunting. But actually it’s pretty easy. It just requires each one of us to make some small changes. It starts from the inside out. It starts with our own self-awareness. It starts with making this personal.”
- Scott Shute, Co-founder @ Changing Work
“Whether you are a seasoned leader, emerging professional, coach, consultant, or a curious human seeking greater fulfillment, this book offers valuable insights and practical wisdom. So many of us are struggling today, seeking new ways to navigate the complexities of modern work and life. This book can help by sharing widely varied stories of others’ journeys of self-awareness, offering guidance, inspiration, and a sense of shared humanity. As you delve into this book, I encourage you to approach it with an open heart and mind.
The stories and insights contained within these pages are not just about leadership at work, but about leading ourselves throughout our lives with self-awareness and compassion. In doing so, we can create workplaces that enable people to feel purposeful, challenged, safe, fulfilled, and free. Together, we can change work from the inside out, building successful companies where everyone can thrive.”
Watch discussions with our Changing Work authors as they share their inspirations and writing process
Meet The Authors
Kwame Osagyefo (Gaylon Logan, Jr.) is the founder and CEO of Village-Connect, an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area organization. Village-Connect is a comprehensive integrated system of care that employs transformative coaching in helping individuals, families, and communities to heal, grow, and to achieve social, economic, emotional, and political sustainability. For more than twenty-five years Kwame has served the community as a thought-leader, an organizational development consultant, a workshop and seminar facilitator, Master CBTC coach, and as a motivational speaker who delivers profound perspectives on fatherhood and on motivating youth and families towards success.
Jennifer Leslie is a human resources executive, writer, and meditation teacher who revels in empowering others to thrive. She is an alumna of the InnerMBA program and a neurolinguistic programming coach practitioner. Jennifer resides in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her husband, who good-naturedly requests that she refrain from practicing her hocus-pocus on him.
Aimee Serene is the founder of Serene Integration and a certified coach with fifteen years of experience in business operations and retreat management. She specializes in plant medicine integration and utilizes her background in a wide range of healing modalities to support changemakers in their transformative journeys. Aimee’s unique approach bridges the corporate and cosmic realms, fostering holistic personal and professional growth. Co-founder and Chief Program Officer of Changing Work, Aimee resides in Northern California with her husband and two dogs, Ben and Rose.
Rachael O’Meara, MBA, MA, ACC is an executive coach who helps successful leaders learn proven tools and strategies to thrive as leaders. Her thirteen years at Google has helped her keep a finger on the pulse of what it takes to be a strong leader in her private practice and as co-founder of SIC Venture Studio. Her first book ‘Pause’ was a top business book focused on careers. She’s been featured in New York Times, WSJ.com, Harvard Business Review, and on the TEDx stage.
Lori Schwanbeck is a psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, program designer and facilitator in organizations worldwide. Her work weaves together the practicality of neuroscience-backed emotional intelligence skills, embodiment practices and positive psychology, all infused with the wisdom of nature. Lori founded Mindfulness Therapy Associates and is also core faculty at the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, the Modern Elder Academy, Esalen Institute, Humanize, and Awake in the Wild. Her joy is cultivating aliveness and whole-hearted connection.
For over thirty years Jeff Jacobs has held a broad range of Human Resources leadership roles, mostly with Adobe, Intuit, and Juniper Networks, all culminating in his passion for and success in executive coaching, consulting, and facilitation. Outside of work, Jeff is married to his college sweetheart, is a proud father to two amazing sons, a non-profit board member, a mental health advocate, a perpetual student of compassion and mindfulness, and a participant in retreat(s), music, and of course, prison ministry.
Anna Oakes is a change-maker who helps companies increase workforce productivity and potential so that they can scale with intention and increase company value. Raised by hippies to believe that she can change the world without a cape, Anna combines over seventeen years of experience in the people and culture space with her MBA and real-world experience with small to large companies. She lives outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, Scott, and their twins Asher and Juniper.
Christine Wenger brings more than two decades of experience in partnering with leaders to drive transformation using people-focused practices within Fortune 100 companies. Early on as a young working parent, she was locked into high-stress habits. She’s continuously learning and sharing on topics of how our brains play tricks on us, developing mental fitness habits, work-life balance myths, and conscious leadership. Christine lives in Dallas, Texas.
Nicole Elias Seawell is an action-based diplomatic bridge-building executive coach for leaders and their teams, an Enneagram expert, and a curious culture consultant. She has a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and BS from Cornell University and has worked with leaders and their teams to leverage their interactions, create inclusive cultures, and optimize outcomes. Representative clients include Liberty Media, Guild Education, McKinsey & Company, ThirdLove, Monigle, Partake Foods, and TripAdvisor. Nicole lives in Colorado with her husband, sons, and golden retrievers.
Wilder Horng Brawer works to bring more aliveness to people, teams, and organizations. Working at the intersection of experience design, master facilitation, rites of passages, and human consciousness, Wilder works with clients that range from educational institutions to biotech, fintech and ag tech startups, to global multinational companies. She is a co-founder and CEO of Intune Collective, a business strategy and human development consultancy based in San Francisco. As a trauma-informed somatic and energy mastery coach, Wilder’s life’s work is to help people and organizations evolve, flourish, and embody their core purpose.
Nell Derick Debevoise integrates her studies at Harvard, Columbia, London Business School, and Cambridge with experience on four continents in order to catalyze transformation. She inspires joyful evolution to power the work of our lives, in a healthy, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable way. As a speaker, coach, EQUUS faculty, and internationally best-selling author, Nell integrates neuroscience, behavioral psychology, leadership practice, research, and the ancient wisdom of horses to guide purposeful growth for executives and teams.
Missy Bright is a career human resources professional and lifelong learner. She has attained several human resource and related certifications including SPHR, CEBS, and her CPP. When she is not learning, she enjoys helping and caring for animals, hiking, and the Phoenix sunshine.
A dynamic leadership coach with thirty-five years of corporate and entrepreneurial learning and success, including twenty-five pioneering years at HP, Lisa Foulger is certified in Scaling Up, Positive Intelligence, and is an ICF Professional Certified Coach. Lisa ignites leaders to excel by scaling their leadership, their teams and their businesses. Passionate about cultivating healthy mindsets, generating transformative impact, and advancing global sustainability, she leaves a positive mark on people and the planet. A proud mother of three awe-inspiring daughters, she thrives in vibrant Costa Rica.
Tricia Livermore is the founder and coach of Soul Business Advisor, her mission: to reignite humanity by guiding individuals toward inner peace and harmony through heartfelt connection. With a profound passion for resolving inner conflicts, realigning values, and rejuvenating spirits, Tricia taps into her clients’ inner wisdom for profound self-discovery and personal growth. She offers individual coaching and Life Development Group coaching to ease the burden of our inner critic while strengthening emotional intelligence through a supportive community.
Quentin Finney is a human, father, best-selling author, international certified mindfulness teacher, member of the Forbes Coaches Council, and long-time meditation practitioner. After holding operational and executive leadership roles with organizations including Google, Red Hat, EMC, and six startups, he has spent the last decade consulting and coaching, helping others as they discover the inner wisdom they don't always recognize they have—and he firmly believes we're just not meant to do any of this alone.
Alec Kassin is a former semi-professional cyclist and chronic back pain sufferer turned certified pain elimination coach for athletes. He is the Co-Founder of Pain Free Comeback, the first mind-body treatment program for athletes with chronic pain. Alec’s mission is to change the way the world sees and treats chronic pain—from pain management to pain-free. He is a Founding Partner of Changing Work, former LinkedIn Manager, and graduate of UC Berkeley. Alec resides in Marin County, California.
Earl Talbot, founder of Creative Muscle, empowers corporate citizens and solopreneurs to live on purpose. With over twenty-five years in sales and management consulting in the tech sector, he excels at transforming companies and individuals. A certified trainer of neurolinguistic programming, Earl blends ancient wisdom with modern techniques to recode mindsets. Since 2002 he has facilitated wellbeing retreats and mentored teams, unlocked genius, inspired action, and built resilience.
Teri Swope is the CEO and Founder of SwopeLight Consulting, a leadership training and consulting firm. With three decades of leadership experience, she has witnessed and informed organizational transformation through conscious leadership. Teri believes deeply in the power of storytelling to awaken people to their highest potential. She holds a BBA in international management, multiple leadership certifications, and is a certified HeartMath trainer.
Wendy McHenry is currently the Global Head of Solutions Engineering at CData Software in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Across an almost thirty-year career in consulting, analytics, and technology, she has led technical teams across several countries spanning different global regions. Wendy has always taken an active approach to mentoring and developing tech talent at all stages of their career growth. She is a fierce inclusionist, advocating for diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds, and currently serves as Chairperson of the PreSales Collective Women in Solutions Excellence Council. Additionally, Wendy currently serves on the board of two nonprofit organizations in her community.
Matt McLaughlin has over twenty-five years of experience building high-performance teams and leaders. With specialties in fostering emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and communication skills, Matt helps CEOs, founders, managers, and leaders increase their impact on people, planet, and profit. Matt has experience in a wide range of industries including non-profits, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, education, manufacturing, government, and finance. From new managers to tenured CEOs, Matt partners with leaders of all levels to achieve their full potential.
Katherine Twells has enjoyed thirty-five years in the corporate arena at The Coca-Cola Company. Currently serving as Vice President, West Region she advocates intrapreneurship—the art of creation inside organizational structure. She is the architect of The Compassion Lab, which serves to promote emotional agility and wisdom in the workplace and which hosts The Compassion Lab Podcast, exploring the power of conscious leadership and the interconnectivity of all things.
Désirée Pascual and Jill Santercier, co-founders of Simply Human, are innovative, human-centered HR strategists who enable businesses of all sizes and industries to achieve peak performance and dynamic engagement. They believe that cutting-edge differentiation is uncovered along roads less traveled. Drawing on insights from behavioral sciences, data analytics, and decades of in-the-trenches HR leadership, their visionary client-specific solutions have helped organizations transform into vibrant workplaces that unleash their full potential through—and with—people.
Emma Laurence, CLC, is the founder of Life is Coaching You, author of the Beyond Burnout Playbook, and lead singer for JazzLove. Her NYC background as an award-winning actress, director, singer, and teacher brings dynamic creativity to coaching life-work transitions, mentoring millennial leaders from Fortune 100 companies, innovative small businesses, the arts and academia. Her blog, Living As Music, explores the power of sound to awaken self-awareness and expand consciousness, thereby raising leadership to a work of art.
Tim Van Ness, PLC is the founder and president of Van Ness & Co. With thirty years leveraging the creative/performing arts for leadership and organizational development, Tim helps organizations live values, develop leaders, and nurture culture. An executive/leadership coach, program designer, expert facilitator and public speaker, his passion is helping people connect with their own voice and inner wisdom. A veteran of Playback Theatre, he’s also a singer/songwriter. Tim lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife and cat.
Courtney Feider, CMT PCC, brings over twenty-five years of corporate experience in leadership and behavioral development, organizational strategy, change management, and business communications. She focuses her work on enterprise and medium to large businesses. Courtney lives in the Pacific Northwest and works with clients from the US, Canada, and the UK.
