Leadership Coaching in Austin, TX
Whether you are stepping into leadership for the first time or have been leading for years, True North Coaching helps leaders build the clarity, confidence, and authenticity that makes leadership sustainable and genuinely fulfilling.
Most Leadership Development Stops at the Surface
Leadership tips and frameworks are valuable. But they consistently fall short when they don't address the underlying reasons a leader's efforts aren't hitting the mark. The fear of making a mistake that shows up as micromanagement. The need for approval and validation that makes it hard to have the tough conversations that actually matter. These aren't personality flaws. They're patterns, and at True North Coaching, patterns can change when leaders work at the right level of depth.
Leadership Coaching That Goes to the Root
Shelley Pernot's approach to leadership coaching is built on a simple but powerful premise. Sustainable behavior change does not come from tips and tricks. It comes from understanding the root causes of problematic leadership behavior.
Shelley calls this working beneath the lily pad. Your behaviors, or in other words, what you say and what you do, are visible above the surface. But beneath the surface sit the stories, beliefs, values, needs, and feelings that drive those behaviors. That is where the real work happens, and that is where True North Coaching goes.
To help you see clearly what is happening beneath the surface, Shelley uses the Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment, the most precise tool she has found for identifying reactivity and root causes in leadership behavior. You will receive detailed feedback on how you are currently showing up as a leader, including the blind spots and unconscious beliefs that may be getting in the way. From there, Shelley combines that insight with a full toolkit of leadership frameworks, giving you both the self-awareness and the practical skills to lead at a higher level.
What Clients Gain From Leadership Coaching
Clarity
There’s a lot of noise out there about what you should do and who you should be as a leader. And that’s all very well intended, but it can be overwhelming. What kind of leader do you really want to be? What are you afraid to try? How are you currently holding yourself back? What are your innate superpowers and how would you describe your leadership personal brand? We all have a narrative, the key is to learn yours, own it proudly and lead with it.
Confidence
When we aren’t grounded in our strengths as leaders, we tend to focus on our weaknesses, and we forget how powerful we are. We often give our power away – by not sharing our voice in a meeting, by not asking for what we want or need, maybe we default to pleasing behaviors. Or perhaps we’re lacking leadership competency. We’re thrown into the deep end in a leadership role and just expected to figure it out. Competency builds confidence. As part of our coaching we will utilize helpful tools and frameworks that will enable you to feel more confident in any leadership situation you find yourself in.
Compassion for Self
Life is a whole lot more joyful when you can offer yourself the incredible gift of compassion. Not to be confused with letting yourself or others off the hook, or rationalizing poor performance – compassion is your birthright, it’s linked to your worthiness as a human being and has nothing to do with how much money you make or where you sit on an organizational chart. The best leaders lead from a place of compassionate empathy, and the process of evolving your leadership into this place starts with offering yourself grace.
Who Leadership Coaching Is For
Shelley works with clients at every stage of their leadership journey, from those stepping into their first management role to experienced leaders who want to lead more authentically and effectively. If you are wrestling with questions like these, leadership coaching may be exactly what you need.
How do I manage underperformance without damaging relationships?
How do I manage and influence people who have more authority than I do?
How do I create a culture of accountability on my team?
How do I navigate conflict without avoiding the conversations that matter?
How do I influence people with very different personalities and priorities?
What kind of leader do I actually want to be?
How do I help my team navigate change without losing their trust?
How do I feel more purposeful and inspired in the work that I do?
What is a leadership brand and why does it matter?
How do I recharge when I am already burned out?
If any of these questions resonated, you're in the right place.
Leadership Coaching Packages
Leadership Coaching
For emerging, new, and experienced leaders with direct reports who want to sharpen their leadership toolkit and lead with greater authenticity and effectiveness.
This Package Includes:
This package includes a Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment with a detailed report and a comprehensive three-hour deep-dive debrief session, plus ten one-on-one coaching sessions that can be used over a nine-month period.
Total Package Price
$5,000
Executive Coaching
For C-suite leaders and leaders of managers who are ready to transform the way they lead and the impact they have on their organization.
This Package Includes:
This package includes a Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment with a detailed report and a comprehensive three-hour deep-dive debrief session. The duration and number of sessions are customized based on the complexity and length of the engagement.
Total Package Price
$7,000 to $10,000
Learn More About Shelley Pernot
Shelley Pernot has been coaching and developing leaders for more than a decade, working with clients across industries who are navigating everything from their first management role to the C-suite. She's been teaching leadership programs at the University of Texas Center for Professional Education since 2015, has served as faculty at NYU Professional Pathways, and brings her own years of corporate leadership experience into every coaching relationship.
Her approach is transformational rather than transactional. She pushes clients to go deep, challenges them to move beyond the surface-level issues, and champions their growth with the kind of directness and warmth that makes hard conversations feel worth having.
What Clients Are Saying
I highly recommend Shelley and True North Coaching. The care, time and attention Shelley devoted to me and the process during my Career Coaching sessions was invaluable. She leads with compassion and I gained so many insights about myself and my career past, present and future. If you are feeling stuck or not sure how you want to move forward, do yourself a favor and work with Shelley!
Shelley is really excellent. She will help you diagnose your strengths and weaknesses, learn how to navigate tricky interpersonal dynamics with grace, and plan (and execute!) concrete steps to improve your life and career. Some things in life are difficult or impossible to do by yourself — reframing your perspective when it's gone stale, articulating your values in foggy circumstances, challenging your deep-seated (but erroneous) assumptions. Shelley provides the tools to build a new framework and guides with compassion and clear-eyed honesty.
It was a privilege to work with Shelley! The process was structured and yet flexible enough to meet needs as they arose. Shelley helped me to grow, learn more about myself, and to really achieve what I set out to accomplish. We worked on planning, navigating a promotion successfully, and so much more! I experienced many successes as a result of working with Shelley — she is absolutely a coach worth your time! She has great resources, knowledge, and really helps with setting the foundation to this coaching work. She won't let you down!
Having the opportunity to have Shelley as my Leadership Coach could not have come at a better time in my career. I was recently promoted to CFO and was new to the Senior Management Team. Shelley helped me navigate joining the team and helped me to determine who I wanted to be as a leader. The Leadership Circle Profile helped our team to discover our blind spots and to understand each other better. Working with Shelley not only has affected my professional life in a positive way, but also my personal life. If you're looking to find more about yourself and how you can be the best version of yourself, I highly recommend working with Shelley.
I have been working with Shelley for the past 2 years on my leadership development journey. What I thought would be a straight line, I soon learned with Shelley's guidance, was a winding path with several ups and downs along the way. Shelley supported me as I took a deep dive into my professional and personal history and learned how it affects my approach and my perceptions. She helped me slow down, recognize certain behaviors, and understand that I can pivot in the moment or try again next time. Ultimately, my work with Shelley turned out to be so much more than what I expected. Her approach to coaching was exactly what I needed.
I've learned more about leadership in the past six months working with Shelley than I have in my 10+ year career. She is an incredible coach with many tools in her toolbox. The guidance and mentorship I've received from Shelley has been life-changing. She will challenge your limiting beliefs and inspire new ways of thinking. For that I am truly grateful. The lessons I've learned with Shelley have re-shaped not only my career but my personal outlook as well.
If you're used to being coached in sports, Shelley is a true coach. The best kind of coach. The coach that knows your potential and gives you the support and guidance to realize that potential. You will achieve after partnering with Shelley.
Is Leadership Coaching Right for you?
Take this short 2-minute self-assessment to find out whether coaching could help you grow, lead, and thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Leadership coaching is a one-on-one development process focused on helping you grow as a leader by building self-awareness, addressing the beliefs and behaviors that are holding you back, and developing the skills and frameworks that will help you lead more effectively. Sessions with Shelley are conducted virtually, follow a structured but flexible format, and are tailored entirely to your situation and goals.
Mentoring typically involves a more experienced person sharing advice, guidance, and career wisdom based on their own path. Coaching is a different kind of relationship. Rather than telling you what to do, a coach helps you develop your own clarity and capability through questioning, reflection, respectful challenge and targeted development. Shelley brings all this into her work, combining the coaching process with the practical leadership frameworks she has developed and taught over more than a decade.
The Leadership Circle Profile is one of the most sophisticated 360 assessment tools available for leaders. Unlike standard 360s that only measure leadership competencies, the Leadership Circle Profile also measures reactivity, which is what makes it so effective at identifying root causes of leadership problems rather than just symptoms. After extensive research into available assessment tools, Shelley chose it because nothing else comes close to the depth of insight it produces for the leaders she works with.
The standard Leadership Coaching package includes ten sessions that can be used over a nine-month period, which gives you enough time to develop new skills, practice them in real situations, and build the kind of lasting change that does not fade when the sessions end. Executive coaching engagements are customized based on complexity and goals. Shelley will talk through the right timeline for your situation during your initial consultation.
No. Therapy focuses on healing past experiences and addressing clinical mental health conditions. Leadership coaching is present and future focused, working on the specific skills, mindset shifts, and behavioral changes that will help you lead more effectively. The two can complement each other well, but they serve different purposes. Shelley is not a therapist, and coaching is not a substitute for mental health treatment.
Ready to Become the Leader You Know You Can Be?
You already have what it takes. Coaching with Shelley helps you see it clearly, trust it fully, and lead from it consistently. If you're ready to stop second-guessing yourself and start leading in a way that is genuinely authentic to who you are, the first step is a conversation. Contact us today to get started.