Helping executives, women, and culturally diverse leaders build careers that feel successful, fulfilling, and true to who they are!

Why do so many successful professionals still feel disconnected from their work? Across industries, talented leaders are reaching senior positions while carrying exhaustion, self-doubt, and a quiet feeling that something important has slipped away. Women and culturally diverse professionals often work twice as hard to be recognised, while many executives spend years chasing goals that no longer reflect the life they want to live. Promotions arrive, titles change, salaries grow, yet fulfilment remains distant for countless people sitting inside boardrooms and corporate offices every day.

The growing disconnect has sparked a deeper conversation about leadership, career growth, and personal well-being. It is also where Katie Doan has found her purpose.

As an Executive Coach, Katie works with executives, women, and culturally diverse leaders who want more than professional achievement alone. She helps them build careers that feel meaningful, sustainable, and aligned with their own definition of success. Her coaching practice, Next Step Coach, demonstrates a philosophy that feels refreshingly human in a world obsessed with long-term perfection. People do not need every answer before moving forward. They need a clear vision, the willingness to take the first step, and the confidence to keep taking the next one.

Katie’s work is rooted in the idea that people can reshape old patterns of thinking and behaviour through neuroplasticity. Many professionals carry outdated beliefs formed through workplace pressure, cultural expectations, or years of operating in survival mode leadership. Katie helps her clients recognise those patterns and replace them with healthier, more empowering ways of leading and living.

Her coaching framework stands on four pillars that connect ambition with personal fulfilment. She guides leaders in defining career goals that fit into a broader vision of a good life, helping them understand success through a more personal lens. She also supports clients in developing mastery and focus so their energy moves towards meaningful progress rather than constant busyness.

A major part of her work centres on helping women and culturally diverse leaders navigate complex workplaces with greater confidence and strategy. From securing promotions and pay rises to pursuing dream roles, Katie offers guidance grounded in real-world experience and understanding.

Alongside one-on-one coaching, she runs leadership workshops and development programmes designed to help organisations unlock the strength of diverse teams through a coaching-led leadership style.

At a time when many professionals are questioning what success truly means, Katie is helping people reconnect ambition with joy, purpose, and self-belief.

What sparked your passion for executive coaching, and how has it evolved since earning your PCC from the International Coaching Federation?

I have had the opportunity to work with an Executive Coach twice during my career as a healthcare leader, each time to support my transition into a new leadership role. Like many of the leaders I work with now, I wanted to excel, and I was secretly terrified of messing up. I experienced for myself the incredible power of having a skilled coach hold space for me to think aloud, find my way through these tough new challenges, and realise I had all the answers I needed. I just needed someone to ask me the right questions.

I applied what I learned with my own team, many women, and culturally diverse leaders, and saw how a coaching approach to leadership helped boost their confidence, productivity, and performance. I saw them support and care for each other and create positive energy in the office.

I wanted to dedicate the second half of my career to sharing the power of coaching with others, especially those who need it and traditionally have not had access. I’ve always made career decisions on the principle of “follow your bliss,” so I took a leap of faith and haven’t looked back.

The PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation is an important milestone on the path of coaching mastery. The rigour of the credential requires disciplined commitment to continuous improvement. I reserve Mondays for honing my craft, and it’s when I get to nerd out on coaching literature, leadership literature, and DEIB literature, while reflecting on my practice and setting an intention for how I want to show up for clients for the rest of the week.

I’m also a facilitator and assessor at Swinburne University, guiding leaders and coaches on the path to ACC and PCC credentialling as part of a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Coaching (Executive Coaching). This helps keep me at the forefront of contemporary evidence-based coaching practice.

With over 500 executives and diverse leaders coached since 2021, what’s the biggest shift you’ve seen in how leaders define career success today?

I think more leaders are redefining career success for themselves now than ever before. Many are questioning an inherited belief system of study hard, get a high-paying, high-status job, and do whatever it takes to climb the ladder as quickly as you can, then retire early. This belief system is outmoded for many people for myriad reasons.

The right career choice for you at 20 is not always the same as it is at 30, 40, or 60, and the path is not always linear. High pay and a fast rise do not guarantee career longevity or fulfilment, especially if you’ve neglected your health and relationships to get there. As we all live longer, today’s 45-year-olds will live well into their 80s on average, and more of us can expect to be centenarians; early retirement is not always feasible or desirable for healthy ageing.

A growing trend is that people are no longer prepared to sacrifice their health and well-being for work, no matter how great the title or remuneration. I see this not only in the younger workforce but also in experienced executives. Working excessive hours is not essential for higher performance, and it can contribute to burnout and generally feeling a bit miserable.

Many great achievers throughout history, such as Albert Einstein, only worked three to four hours in the morning and then spent the remainder of the day enjoying active rest. Rest supports achievement.

To create space for active rest, many leaders now highly value having the option to work from home part of the week. They will use the time saved on commuting to exercise, prepare healthy meals, and be more present for their kids. When senior leaders normalise being healthy, multi-faceted human beings, their teams have permission to do the same.

Everyone can then focus their energy on delivering results. I am also seeing more people seeking work that is meaningful and has a greater purpose beyond themselves.

How do you weave neuroscience and positive psychology into your coaching to help clients break through mental barriers in high-stakes business environments?

Clients will often come to sessions to prepare for high-stakes moments when they feel like they are being evaluated in some way. A common one is speaking to a larger audience, such as town halls, conferences, or events. These are experienced leaders, so it’s not a skills issue. They know how to deliver a good presentation.

This is a mindset issue that can be addressed using evidence-based practices from positive psychology, the science of human flourishing, and neuroscience, the study of the brain. Our brains are wired for survival, and the prospect of speaking to an audience of thousands naturally has a way of stirring up our inner critic, telling us, “I’m not good enough” or “If I mess this up, I won’t survive it,” beliefs which hinder our performance.

We can rewire our brains with more helpful beliefs. I ask clients to think about what their inner best friend would say: “I have done the work, I am sharing what I know,” “I can’t control the audience behaviour, I can only control my effort and my response,” and “No matter what happens, I trust that I’ll figure it out and I’ll be okay.”

Can you share a quick story of a client who nailed a major career transition using your systems-thinking approach?

I have a client who is an Executive at one of the world’s largest companies. She’s been promoted twice in the last two years. She did so without being the most experienced candidate. How did she do it? She used systems thinking.

The person who actually lands the role understands the bigger picture and how the role and their contribution align with the strategic priorities of the organisation. In a hierarchical structure, it is as simple and as difficult as understanding what the organisation needs to achieve in the coming years and what your boss’s role is in this.

How does your role help your boss achieve their goals? How can your team work together with each other and the broader business to achieve team goals that align with your goals and your boss’s goals? Are you communicating progress with your boss in a style they prefer? What are senior decision-makers saying about you when you aren’t in the room?

In your workshops on leadership development, what one exercise always surprises executives and sparks real breakthroughs?

One exercise I like to do in workshops is Warren Buffett’s famous 5/25 list, which he is reported to use to help employees determine their priorities and actions. Firstly, list out 25 career and life goals you want to achieve, essentially a bucket list. People enjoy this part.

Then, circle the top five things and list them in order of priority. This doesn’t take people very long. Without exception, at the top of the list are their health, their family, and their friends. These are your core priorities and values. The next part is the part people don’t like. I ask them to strike a line through all the items not circled.

The ones to be particularly wary of are items 6 to 10, goals you would dearly love to achieve, and going after them seems productive. However, pursuing these goals has you neglecting what you’ve determined is most important, a distraction disguised as a worthy goal. For many, seeing it in black and white is quite an epiphany. This realisation is an invitation to realign your actions with your stated priorities and values, should you choose to accept it.

Why do you think diversity, equity, and inclusion matter so much in today’s corporate world, and how do you address them in your sessions?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important because it’s the right thing to do, and it makes business sense to do so. Workplaces are diverse on a range of levels, and in an inclusive environment, diversity is linked with better performance, profits, talent retention, employee engagement, and well-being.

In my coaching, workshops, and leadership development programs, an important starting point is establishing psychological safety. The level of trust in a relationship between two people, within teams, and between Executives and the broader workforce is capped at the level of the least safe individual.

Safety looks and feels different for everyone, and when we are talking about people from culturally diverse backgrounds, we also need to have a trauma-informed approach. This can start to sound really heavy and difficult.

To simplify what can seem overwhelming, I start by inviting leaders to turn inward and lean into their own vulnerability. The power of vulnerability at work was made famous by researcher Dr. Brené Brown. She defines vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

It’s also the definition of courage, and leaders who lean into this quality demonstrate to teams, especially their least safe employees, that they are human too. It’s incredibly powerful. It’s the foundation for healthy relationships and honest communication, where individuals and teams can thrive.

How do you create those “safe spaces” for honest dialogue that let leaders confront tough truths without fear?

There are a few ways I help cultivate a safe space for coaching. I offer leaders a trial session where I explain who I am, what I do and don’t do, and check if it aligns with what they need. Being transparent upfront, as well as showing a willingness to share my humanity, helps establish a firm foundation for trust and safety to grow.

I let leaders know that the conversation is strictly confidential. Even when workplaces are sponsoring the coaching, we have clear agreements upfront that nothing said in the coaching conversation will ever be shared by me outside of that session.

I’m also open about it being a judgement-free space. They can turn up exactly as they are, including any of the messy parts of themselves they don’t want anyone else to know about. It’s all welcome. It’s not my role to change their mind, rescue them, or tell them what I think they should do. I make it clear that they are the boss. They are in charge of the agenda, and they are the experts on themselves.

I am responsible for keeping track of the conversation to achieve their desired goal, asking questions to help them think about things from different perspectives, and reflecting back to them what I hear them say. I trust in the process, I trust myself, and I trust that the client is infinitely resourceful and has all the answers. Through this experience, leaders see how wonderful they truly are.

What’s a common myth about career coaching that you bust right away with your clients?

There is a myth that career coaching is when coaches will find you a job or tell you what to do in your career. In reality, career coaching is a strategic conversation that can help people shift from career stuck to career in motion in alignment with their values.

I have helped clients leave toxic workplaces and bosses to start their own thriving businesses and consultancies, get promoted, change organisations, change industries, and change careers altogether by helping them gain clarity around what they want so they can take action with confidence that they are moving in the right direction.

How do you balance a client’s personal goals with their organization’s demands to ensure real, sustainable success?

When working with coaching clients whose workplaces are sponsoring the coaching, I set up meetings with the client and sponsor, typically the client’s boss or People and Culture representative, separately and together to understand the coaching goals for the client. If there is a discrepancy, I facilitate a conversation that invites the client to share their goals, with the sponsor often adding organisational context to inform their contribution, bringing in systems thinking.

Coaching only works if the goals are important to the client, and by inviting the sponsor’s contribution, the client can often see how aligning their leadership development with the organisational strategic priorities serves their career. It’s a win-win. Furthermore, a coaching session is typically one hour a fortnight.

The real work happens in between sessions. The client’s boss is an invaluable support to enlist in things like experimenting with new ways of being and providing feedback on desired behaviour change.

As someone committed to lifelong learning, what’s the latest coaching trend or research that’s reforming how you guide executives?

The word on everybody’s lips is AI, and this year I have seen major shifts in the employment market attributed to AI. The trend I want to draw attention to is the update from the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world to the BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) world. Systems are collapsing at an alarming rate, and leaders I work with are feeling high levels of stress and anxiety.

I am finding that leaders are seeking sustainable ways to manage amidst the chaos. I bring in mindfulness practices and visualisation exercises, which help leaders pause, get centred, and create some space to connect with themselves and figure out what meaning they’re making from their circumstances.

What strengths and values can they draw from to meet the challenges they face? To remember that they are enough just as they are, and that they do have the ability to figure it out. From that space, they discern what they can control. If there is good to be done there, great. They will also identify a longer list of events and people they cannot control.

Here, I support leaders in accepting what already is, because to fight it is to fight reality, which wastes valuable energy, and from a place of calm, choosing their next step. Then, from that next space, make a choice about the following step.

What advice would you give a rising leader feeling stuck, based on patterns you’ve seen across your 500+ clients?

Feeling stuck can feel frustrating, powerless, and hopeless. Life isn’t always fair, and things don’t always go our way, and I believe that people have more power than they feel they do in those moments. I encourage anyone feeling stuck to recall a time in the past when they may have felt stuck and then made their way out of it.

What strengths did they draw on? How might those strengths be applied here? What is one step forward you could make today to move in that direction? Now you’re in motion. It only takes one step, and from that step, take your next step.

For rising leaders, especially those seeking to move from middle management to senior leadership, it’s often knowing that what got you here won’t get you there. What’s needed is shifting away from being a reliable “doer” into becoming a strategic thinker. Rising leaders need a strong support network of mentors and sponsors to rise in large organisations.

If clients share that they haven’t discussed their ambitions with anyone else, that’s often a good place to start to get unstuck, to pluck up the courage to reach out to their boss, trusted colleagues, and people they know who work in their target organisations to discuss their aspirations and learn more about what’s required to get there.

Projecting forward, how do you see executive coaching evolving to help leaders thrive in the next wave of business challenges?

The next wave of business challenges has leaders facing a number of existential crises, from climate change to geopolitical instability to an AI revolution. It’s a case of evolve or die. Leaders have the opportunity to help raise the collective consciousness and create a world where everyone can go to work, contribute their unique gifts and talents, and together figure out a way of thriving that benefits the greater good.

Our future leaders need spaces amidst the chaos that allow them to evolve into the next level of human beings they need to be to meet these existential challenges. Executive coaches are trained to create these spaces with leaders to help them awaken the best versions of themselves.