Why I Do This: Executive Coaching

Helping people harness their full potential using their zone of genius

Christina Pan
8 min readSep 15, 2022

For the prequel, see this article: My Personal Story of Burnout: How I got clarity on my purpose.

Many people have asked me why I’m doing executive coaching. I had worked in tech for over 20 years and loved it.

I could be doing anything, why this specific thing in particular?

There are a few reasons:

  1. I would have hired me as a coach back in the day, but I didn’t know who or what could help me.
  2. I strongly believe in diversity and the pivotal influence of seeing role models who look like you, and alternatively, seeing people in leadership roles who are different from you. And either way, it broadens your mind. I didn’t see any Asian or Asian-American coaches.
  3. It’s my way of using my zone of genius to help others live their best potential in their zone of genius.

I would have hired me back in the day

I wish I had had the current version of me to coach the past version of me.

But I barely knew any executive coaches, and hadn’t heard of any using the paradigm of energy management in the tech world and Silicon Valley (though I assume some might exist).

So I decided to be the coach I wish I had!

I didn’t really see anyone else like me doing it, and executive coaching is all about human puzzles that I love solving, I’m good at it, it’s easy for me, and this is the highest transformational positive impact I can bring to other people‘s lives.

The pivotal influence of diverse role models

As an Asian-American female, I didn’t see anyone who looks like me doing executive coaching, or coaching in general. I didn’t see Asian coaches, or even very many coaches who were people of color. The America I know and love was much more diverse and full of variety, yet the role models available to me were not.

We still have a long way to go to improve diversity and inclusion in tech, but one upside is that some tech companies have a strong percentage of Asian representation in product and engineering.

Yet no Asian coaches and certainly not enough Asians in leadership and executive roles.

The more diversity we have in representation and leadership, the more we ALL gain! Different perspectives make for a stronger slate of generative ideas, which makes our innovation stronger, and thus our apps and products are inherently designed with the most creative solutions and the already-diverse customer market in mind. You have more divergent choices, both as a product developer and as a consumer.

For example, in some situations I like being able to see a female doctor or an Asian-American doctor. Other times, I just want any experienced doctor. I’ll take anyone who will save my life. And there are other times when I actually don’t necessarily want an Asian or Asian-American doctor’s advice, like if they give advice that doesn’t resonate because it’s from a traditional cultural point of view that doesn’t fit me (albeit from good intent).

Another example: I adamantly prefer a female doctor for OB-GYN visits because they have the lived experience and I’m more comfortable with a female doctor examining my lady parts. Yet when I did egg freezing and had to endure many vaginal ultrasounds (imagine a stick up your vagina that they press into your ovaries to see how many viable eggs you have), the MOST compassionate and gentle doctor was a male doctor. Much to my surprise. Bedside manner that was truly inspiring! He made me want to be a better doctor and I’m not even a doctor! It was a much better experience than the 3–4 female doctors that I also had ultrasounds with. These were all experienced, highly-regarded doctors at the top of their game.

Of course, people are not one-dimensional. We need to judge the person holistically, and interpersonal connection happens on so many levels.

Yet I call out and wholeheartedly celebrate the Asian-American part of me as an executive coach because sometimes you don’t even think about yourself being in certain spaces or trying these new things if you haven’t been exposed to it much, or you don’t see people who look like you doing it.

For example, before Winter Olympics 2022 ski champion Eileen Gu came along, I would never have imagined myself or any Chinese person being able to do all those crazy tricks in freestyle skiing, much less win gold medals in this field at the Olympics. We just didn’t see this type of thing in our culture and it wouldn’t be heralded. However if I were a young Chinese girl nowadays, I would at least try it! Kudos to Eileen for pushing forward with her vision!

Or if you’re not Asian, you might not imagine or think of Asians in an executive coach or CEO or leader role because you haven’t seen it either.

Hence I want to provide that different perspective that’s unique to me, and complements what other coaches and leaders bring to the table.

This is a big reason why I do this.

For the folks out there who don’t see any executive coaches they vibe with or feel can deeply relate to them — if they connect with my vibe and I can be someone with whom they can be their best and most open self with, I’m excited to be that executive coach and guide for them!

I’m here to bring the energy and hold that space where people feel seen and like they’re leveling up and expanding in new ways they didn’t before.

Helping people bring out their own best potential

Lastly, when I introspected on how I could best leverage my zone of genius to help the world, it became obvious to me that the combination of my top strengths is perfect for executive coaching.

My zone of genius is maximizing other people’s zone of genius! This comes from the Maximizer strength in Clifton Strengths and bolstered by my other top strengths.

My dominant theme from Clifton StrengthsFinder is “Influencing”:

Influencing: People with dominant Influencing themes take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard.

My personal top 5 strengths from Clifton StrengthsFinder:

1. Maximizer: You focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. You seek to transform something strong into something superb.

2. Positivity: You have contagious enthusiasm. You are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.

3. Arranger: You can organize, but you also have a flexibility that complements this ability. You like to determine how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

4. Activator: You can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. You want to do things now, rather than simply talk about them.

5. Strategic: You create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, you can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

This is how I strategically use my zone of genius in executive coaching:

  • Influencing: Encouraging people to speak their truth and set boundaries for yourself and others. This is one of my key guiding principles for mindset for energy management, to cultivate your best mental energy and most authentic, inspiring leadership.
  • Maximizer: My zone of genius is helping other people maximize their zone of genius. When we work in the flow of our zone of genius, we harness our full potential — and yes, every person has their own unique gifts to share with the world. I find that many, many folks don’t fully tap into their zone of genius!
  • Positivity: Coaching people to reframe productively and boost themselves and their teams, friends, and family in a way that moves everyone forward with positive energy, especially in challenging times.
  • Arranger: Arranging and optimizing our coaching together for highest impact. Brainstorming with clients on more optimal paths that are higher-leverage use of their zone of genius and mental energy.
  • Activator: Motivating people to take action! Making it fun and providing accountability for people to shift the mindset and change behavior.
  • Strategic: Connecting the dots and identifying blind spots with clients. Helping people get clarity on how to strategically use their zone of genius in career choices and leadership challenges, and reframe mind blocks or limiting beliefs to new, much more expansive possibilities.

On top of that, due to these particular strengths, I most enjoy and thrive in dynamic team environments. That’s why I loved product management in tech and startups for so many years. The unique combination of my strengths naturally led me to use energy management and develop my principles and framework to cultivate high-performing team cultures where the team achieves big goals together, and have fun while doing it!

As I wrote in my prequel story, I’m a big believer in the power of energy management because I have lived it myself and I’ve seen the tremendous benefits.

Hence I want to be the coach I wish I had, and I’m using my personal genius to help others flourish in theirs. Our companies, work cultures, and products would all benefit if we were exposed to more different types of leaders in tech, and I hope to encourage others to be their authentic selves by visibly showing up in my own authentic leadership style.

Furthermore, I simply love it. I’m a big believer in following what you find fun and what energizes you in life. This is aligned with my purpose in life, it’s easy for me, and I love coaching people and teams to use their zone of genius to reach their potential.

I’ve seen how using my personal strengths to boost myself and others has improved our well-being and our performance, and I get great joy out of spreading this positive impact.

I went from health lows to living my best life on a daily basis, through life’s ups and downs. This can definitely happen for other people too—if they put their minds to it! And I’m excited to play a role in making this happen!

Stuck on your next career strategy or leadership challenges? Have you deep dived into your zone of genius? I’m an executive coach and I help innovative leaders, executives, and founders use their zone of genius to thrive in their full potential. This is how we get the clarity and confidence you seek!

I started my career on Wall Street, MBA from MIT Sloan, former product leader with 20+ years experience in Silicon Valley tech/startups & high-growth companies, very avid pickleball player.

To explore working together: Direct message me on LinkedIn or Instagram.

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For testimonials and all my relevant links: https://linktr.ee/christinawpan

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Christina Pan

Passionate about building products and teams that bring positivity to people’s everyday lives