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You’ve already proven you can do the work.

But at Director and VP, doing great work is only part of the job.

Now you need other people to understand your thinking, trust your judgment and get behind the direction you’re recommending.

Maybe:

• Your boss keeps getting involved in decisions you thought you owned.

• Your recommendations are strong, but they don’t always land with senior leaders.

• Stakeholders agree in the meeting, then resistance shows up later.

• You’re delivering results, but you’re still not seen as strategic.

• You know you need more visibility, but self-promotion doesn’t feel natural.

• You spend too much time proving your thinking instead of moving the conversation forward.

These may feel like different leadership problems.

Often, they have something in common:

Your ability to influence what happens beyond your direct control.

Executive influence is a skill you can build.

It is not about becoming louder, more charismatic or more political.

It is your ability to communicate your thinking clearly, build trust with the people around you and get others behind important decisions.

I help Directors and VPs strengthen three areas:

Executive Communication

Make complex ideas clear, concise and decision-ready so senior leaders quickly understand what matters and what you recommend.

Managing Up

Build the trust, clarity and credibility that gives you more influence and room to lead with the people above you.

Stakeholder Influence

Understand what matters to other leaders and create alignment even when you do not have authority over them.

The goal isn’t simply to “be more influential.”

It is to become someone who is increasingly seen as a trusted, strategic leader, not simply the person everyone relies on to get the work done.

What changes when your influence grows?

You start to:

Walk into senior meetings with a clear point of view
instead of over-preparing and hoping your message lands.

Get more trust from your boss
instead of needing approval or intervention at every turn.

Build stakeholder support earlier
instead of discovering objections after the decision was supposedly made.

Spend more time shaping direction
instead of being pulled back into execution.

Make your impact easier to see
without constantly feeling like you need to prove yourself.

Handle disagreement with more confidence
without becoming defensive, overly agreeable or buried in explanation.

Where is your influence getting stuck?

Most Directors & VPs walk around thinking:

“Why does my boss keep overriding me?”

“Why can’t I get this stakeholder on board?”

“Why am I doing strong work but still not being seen as strategic?”

“Why do my recommendations make sense to me but fail to get traction?”

The Executive Influence Diagnostic helps you identify where your biggest gaps are across executive communication, managing up and stakeholder influence. 

Ling’s exceptional ability to navigate complex leadership challenges and foster cross-cultural understanding has been invaluable.

Her coaching style is both empathetic and results-driven.”

– Peyman (Chief Transformation and AI Officer)

Knowing what to do is one thing. Doing it in your actual organization is another.

The Executive Influence Intensive

A 12-week 1:1 coaching program for Directors and VPs who want to become more effective in the conversations, relationships and decisions that matter at the senior level.

We use the situations you are navigating right now to strengthen your ability to:

• communicate with clarity and authority

• manage up more effectively

• navigate difficult stakeholders

• get stronger buy-in for recommendations

• handle disagreement without over-explaining

• become more visible as a strategic leader

This is not generic leadership coaching.

You will build a repeatable set of influence skills while applying them to the real people and decisions affecting your work today.

The skills that make you a strong operator are not always the skills that make you an influential senior leader.

Earlier in my own career, I thought influential people were naturally articulate, political and good at “working the room.”

I assumed some people simply had it and others didn’t.

What I learned through my own leadership career and coaching hundreds of tech leaders is that influence is much more practical.

It comes from how you communicate your thinking.

How well you understand the people around you.

How you navigate disagreement.

How you build trust.

And how consistently others experience you as someone who can help move the organization forward.

These are skills you can learn.

And you do not need to become someone else to learn them.

You’ve already proven you can deliver.

Now make sure the way you communicate, influence and lead reflects the level you are capable of operating at.