The Conversation That Changed Everything

It Started With One Executive's Regret

In 2012, I was sitting across from a senior technology executive who was approaching retirement.

Brilliant technical mind. Successful career. All the markers of "making it."

But when I asked him what he would do differently, he said something I have never forgotten:

"I'd stop performing leadership and start actually leading. I spent 30 years in a mask, afraid to trust what I saw in people and situations because I thought I was supposed to follow the playbook. Now I am retiring, and I realize the instincts I suppressed were right. I just didn't have the courage to trust them."

That conversation changed the trajectory of my career.

Because I recognized myself in his regret.

I HAD SPENT DECADES IN LEADERSHIP & C-SUITE ROLES:

• Global Chief Learning Officer at AIG
• Vice President at AXA Equitable
• Senior Vice President at Citigroup

And I had navigated every political dynamic you can imagine:

• Board members who questioned my strategy publicly
• Executive peers who saw me as competition
• Cross-functional resistance rooted in dynamics I did not create
• Difficult conversations I was not sure how to navigate
• Political missteps that could have derailed my career

But here is what I realized in that conversation with the retiring executive:

I had also spent many years learning to read the signals others missed.

• The unspoken tension in board meetings.
• The shifting alliances in executive teams.
• The hidden agendas beneath stakeholder requests.
• The political landmines before they detonated.

And I had developed strategies that actually worked, not the generic advice in leadership books, but the nuanced approaches required when stakes are highest and relationships most complex.

Why "UNCOMON" With One M?

THE STORY:

When I was founding my business in 2014, my dog Winnie had other plans.

She jumped on my laptop at exactly the wrong moment during business registration ... and her paw deleted the second "M" in "Uncommon" while simultaneously hitting enter.

UNCOMON Resilience submitted.

My first instinct? Fix it immediately. Call customer service. Make it look professional. Spell it correctly.

But then I stopped.

Because I realized something that would become the foundation of everything I teach:

What you think makes you "wrong" is often what makes you most effective.

HERE IS WHAT I MEAN: 

For years, I watched talented executives suppress their natural ability to read people and situations.

They caught political undercurrents before anyone else, then second-guess themselves because it did not match the "professional playbook."

They had sense tension in stakeholder relationships, then override their instincts because they thought they were "overthinking."

They had read non-verbal cues that revealed hidden agendas, then "dismiss" their observations because no one else was mentioning them.

They would correct themselves when they should have trusted themselves.

THAT MISSING "M" BECAME MY REMINDER

Your ability to:

• Sense tension in a room that others miss
• Read the subtext beneath someone's words
• Catch the political undercurrent before it becomes a crisis
• Connect dots between stakeholder behaviors that seem unrelated

That is not overthinking.

That is relationship intelligence.

And it is exactly what I help executives trust, develop, and leverage strategically.

MY CORPORATE JOURNEY:

For decades, I held C-suite and senior leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies:

GLOBAL CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER | AIG

• Led global learning and development strategy for 60,000+ employees
• Navigated board-level politics and executive team dynamics
• Built coalitions across matrixed, global organization
• Managed $100M+ budget and cross-functional stakeholder resistance

VICE PRESIDENT | AXA EQUITABLE

• Senior leadership role in highly political financial services environment
• Influenced without authority across competing business units
• Repaired damaged stakeholder relationships I inherited
• Navigated rapid organizational change and cultural transformation

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT | CITIGROUP

• Executive leadership in global financial services
• Built strategic partnerships across continents and cultures
• Managed upward, downward, and cross-functionally simultaneously
• Survived (and learned from) political missteps that could have derailed career 

WHAT THIS EXPERIENCE GAVE ME:

Not just theories about leadership ... lived experience navigating every political dynamic you are facing:

     ✓  Difficult board members
     ✓  Toxic executive peers
     ✓  Cross-functional resistance
     ✓  Global stakeholder dynamics
     ✓  Organizational politics at the highest levels
     ✓  Career-defining relationship decisions

Every challenge you bring to our work together?

I have either navigated it myself or coached hundreds of executives through it.

MY ACADEMIC FOCUS:

Dual Ph.D.:

• Ph.D. in Training & Performance Improvement
• Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology

Master's Degree:

• M.S. in Applied Psychology

Why this matters:

I do not just have lived experience ... I have research-backed frameworks for relationship intelligence development.

I understand both:

• The psychology of why executives struggle with relationships
• The organizational dynamics that make stakeholder navigation complex

This combination of academic rigor and C-suite experience is rare. And it is what makes the work we do together both strategic and sustainable.

Other Ways I Serve Leaders & Organizations

KEYNOTE SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS

Occasionally, I deliver keynotes and workshops for organizations on:

• High-Stakes Relationship Mastery for Leaders
• The AI-Proof Skills That Matter Most
• Political Navigation for Executives
• Building Relationship Intelligence at Scale

Current availability: Limited dates (primarily client-requested engagements)

ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING

For select organizations, I provide:

• Executive team effectiveness consulting
• Succession planning and leadership pipeline development
• Culture transformation strategy
• Organizational relationship intelligence development

Focus: Teams and organizations, not individuals