I know what it’s like to be stuck. That place where I realized the approach that had built my career was working against me. I’ve been there: as a leader, as a coach, as someone still learning the difference between having all the answers and creating conditions where people do their clearest thinking.
Everything I bring to this work comes from that learning.
For thirty years I led strategic initiatives at major universities and a global nonprofit. I rose to advising C-suite executives, building programs, developing teams, and directing partnerships. My mission (whatever my title) was this: developing the leaders who would carry the work forward after I moved on.
That’s where I discovered something uncomfortable. The skills that made me effective as a strategist — solving problems, driving results, being the person with the answers — became obstacles when my real job was helping other leaders find their own way forward. I had to learn what partnership actually means.
The education was experiential: my own stuck places, my go-to patterns that needed to shift. The Greenleaf Center gave me a philosophy of leading rooted in service. Two leadership development consultancies put those principles into practice. Georgetown’s executive coaching certification immersed me in the craft and character of coaching: sitting across from successful leaders who come in trying to fix problems and realize that their old ways of being a leader are holding them back from doing what now needs to be done.
I coach because I know the terrain. Not because I’ve mastered it; because I keep walking it.
Seasoned executives noticing diminishing returns from approaches that built their reputations. Emerging leaders promoted on technical savvy who now must demonstrate interpersonal brilliance.
Teams in the middle of disruption: building trust, expanding capability, and weaving each person’s distinct contribution into coordinated action for a shared purpose.
Leaders in transition: through merger, promotion, industry shift, or the quieter realization that the current path has run its course.
You may need help with a specific, known challenge. You may sense that your growing edge is more tangled than a single issue. Either way, I meet you where you are and we go together toward where you want to go.
My formation started in philosophy. Undergraduate at Wheaton College, graduate study at the University of Pittsburgh. That’s where I learned to sit with hard questions and resist easy answers. It’s still the discipline I bring to coaching.
International Coaching Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach and Mentor Coach. Offering the best in leadership assessments.
Training in adult development, team dynamics, the neuroscience of change, trauma-informed coaching, and adaptive leadership in complex systems. Twelve years of leadership development and coaching practice across healthcare, tech, retail, wealth management, education, nonprofits, government, family businesses, and military-to-civilian transitions.
I founded The Serving Way in 2018 as a 501(c)(3). Our purpose: to co-create conditions for flourishing at work, one growing leader, one thriving team at a time. I partner with leaders from every sector, corporate and nonprofit, private and public. What they share is a conviction that their enterprise should create real value in service of that same flourishing.
Married to Leslie for five decades. First-time grandparents, and yes, it’s as good as everyone says. We raise chickens, tend the garden, and renew with slow meals, international travel, outdoor adventure, and quiet times with books.
I cheer for Liverpool FC with my two sons over whiskey and cigars and share coffee, tea (and local ice cream!) with my daughter. My playlists run from ambient electronica to zydeco, which probably tells you everything you need to know about my eclectic approach.
Pittsburgh has been home since 1978, the last 40 years in the East Liberty neighborhood with all its energy, heritage, and diversity. Our passion for community carries into this work. We all need places where we get to do great work that’s worth doing.
“Chris gets me in a way that colleagues, mentors, or even those closest to me don’t. Our partnership pushes me forward while holding me steady, exactly what I needed to make real change that sticks.”
Thirty minutes. No agenda, no pitch. Just what you are carrying, and what it might look like to set some of it down.
