The Executive Influence Intensive
Be seen as a trusted, strategic leader, not just a strong operator.
A 12-week 1:1 coaching program for Directors and VPs in tech who want to communicate with more authority, manage up more effectively and get senior stakeholders behind their ideas.
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Communicate recommendations clearly in senior rooms
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Build more trust and influence with your boss and stakeholders
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Get stronger alignment around important decisions
You’re already good at the work.
The challenge is getting other people behind it.
You may be dealing with things like:
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Your boss keeps getting involved in decisions you thought you owned.
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Your recommendations are strong, but they don’t always land with senior leaders.
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Stakeholders agree in the meeting, then push back later.
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You’re delivering, but you’re still not being seen as strategic.
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You find yourself over-explaining when challenged.
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You know you need more influence beyond your own team, but formal authority only gets you so far.
These can look like separate problems.
Often, they come down to the same leadership skill: INFLUENCE.
This program is built for you if …
You’re a Director or VP whose ideas are stronger than the influence they currently create.
You’re navigating difficult or resistant stakeholders.
You need more trust or autonomy with your boss.
You want to be seen as more strategic, credible and effective at the senior level.
Client Results
Working with Ling was truly transformative for me. She reshaped the way I approach leadership and played a pivotal role in my personal career growth and development. Anyone who has the opportunity to work with Ling will quickly realize how rare it is to find a coach like her.
I was navigating a complex working relationship with a cross-functional partner. Thanks to Ling, our working relationship improced noticeably, leading to a more positive and productive atmosphere for my team and me. I wholeheartedly recommend Ling as a truly exceptional leadership coach.
Ling’s exceptional ability to navigate complex leadership challenges and foster cross-cultural understanding has been invaluable. She is both empathetic and results-driven, helping me address specific challenges while maintaining a broader strategic perspective. I highly recommend Ling!
What We Will Work On
This program is built around four core capabilities.
We will also address delegation, leadership confidence and decision-making when they are part of the influence problem you are trying to solve.
1 – Executive Communication
Learn to state a clear point of view, frame trade-offs and make recommendations without burying the message in context.
You will work on live senior meetings, presentations and high-stakes conversations.
3 – Stakeholder Influence
Get people with different priorities behind important decisions, even when you do not have formal authority.
You will work on stakeholder mapping, resistance, alignment and difficult conversations.
2 – Managing Up
Build more trust, clarity and autonomy with your manager or senior leadership.
You will work on expectations, disagreement, visibility and decision-making.
4 – Strategic Leadership
Step out of constant execution and strengthen how you set direction, make trade-offs and contribute at the level senior leadership expects.
What Your 12 Weeks Could Look Like
Weeks 1–2 : Define Your Next-Level Leadership
Clarify the leader you want to become, where your influence is getting stuck and the real situations you want to change.
Weeks 3–4 : Understand Yourself and the People Around You
Explore your leadership patterns and use tools such as the Enneagram to better understand your boss, stakeholders and how different people respond to you.
Weeks 5–6 : Map Your Influence Landscape
Identify the relationships, priorities, decision-makers and sources of resistance around the work you need to move forward.
Weeks 7–8 : Adapt How You Communicate and Influence
Work on the conversations that matter now, from managing up and senior presentations to stakeholder pushback and disagreement.
Weeks 9–10 : Apply It to Live Leadership Situations
Bring the real meetings, decisions and relationships you are navigating. We prepare, experiment, debrief and adjust.
Weeks 11–12 : Make It Part of How You Lead
Identify what has changed, what works best for you and how you will continue applying the approach after coaching ends.
This is not a rigid six-session curriculum. Your coaching adapts to the situations unfolding at work while the SHIFT Influence Method keeps us anchored to the leadership capabilities you are building.
You’re Not Alone Between Sessions
Leadership challenges rarely arrive neatly on coaching days.
A stakeholder escalates. A senior meeting changes direction. You need to prepare for a difficult conversation. You leave a meeting wondering whether you should have pushed back more clearly.
That is why this engagement includes bounded asynchronous support between sessions.
You can send an email when a live situation needs reflection or preparation. I will respond within two business days.
At The End of 12 weeks,
You Should Be Better At:
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make a clear recommendation without over-explaining
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hold your position when a senior leader challenges you
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understand what your boss actually needs from you
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anticipate stakeholder resistance before the meeting
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build alignment without escalating unnecessarily
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make your strategic contribution more visible
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handle difficult conversations with more confidence
Tools You’ll Leave With
Stakeholder Map
A clear view of the people who can enable or derail your mandate: what matters to them, what they need to see, and how you will engage them.
Senior-Meeting Preparation Practice
A simple method for preparing your point of view, recommendation, key trade-off, and clear ask before high-stakes conversations.
Managing-Up Strategy
A practical approach to creating clarity, surfacing risks, and building trust with your manager or senior sponsor.
Leadership-Leverage Map
A view of where you are holding too much, where decisions are bottlenecked, and what you need to delegate differently.
Difficult-Conversation Preparation Tools
Preparation and debrief tools for feedback, disagreement, stakeholder tension, and high-stakes decisions.
Leadership Identity Brief and 30–60 Day Plan
A concise articulation of how you lead at this level, plus a plan to sustain the changes after the engagement ends.
Investment
The Executive Influence Intensive
12 weeks | $2,900
- 6 private 60-minute coaching sessions
- Executive Influence Diagnostic + debrief
- personalized stakeholder and communication tools
- bounded email support between sessions
- 30–60 day continuation plan
Using a professional-development budget?
I can provide a concise program overview and business case you can send to your manager or HR team.
Common Questions
How do I know whether this is the right fit?
If you have a current challenge involving executive presence, stakeholder influence, managing up, delegation, or leadership confidence and you are ready to act on it, the best way to know is to Apply for the program where we can schedule a call if it is right for you.
What happens after I apply?
After submitting the application, I will personally assess if you are the right fit. If you are, I will provide you with a booking link to schedule a call with me.
In the call, we will clarify the leadership challenge, the outcome you want, what is at stake, and whether my approach is the right fit.
If it is, I will recommend the appropriate engagement and you can decide whether to enroll. If it is not, I will tell you honestly.
Can my employer pay for coaching?
Yes. Many clients use professional-development, L&D, or executive-coaching budgets.
If employer funding is available, I can provide a concise program overview, expected outcomes, and documentation to support an approval conversation.
What if I am newly promoted?
This Intensive is a strong fit for new Directors and VPs who are now navigating the lived reality of senior visibility, managing up, stakeholder complexity, delegation, and a larger mandate.
If you need deeper, longer-term support for a complex first-six-month transition, we can discuss a more comprehensive Executive Transition Partnership.
Is this therapy or consulting?
No. This is executive coaching: a confidential, structured partnership focused on how you lead, decide, communicate, influence, and create results in your professional context.
It does not replace therapy, legal counsel, HR guidance, clinical support, or employment-placement services.
Why work with me
I am Ling Abson: an executive coach, former Director of Engineering, and former executive coach at Shopify.
I understand the technical-leadership world because I have worked in it.
I also understand that your challenge is rarely solved by a generic leadership model or a polished script. Real leadership happens inside specific power dynamics, stakeholder relationships, organizational history, ambiguity, and pressure.
My coaching is direct, practical, and grounded in your real context.
I will help you slow down enough to see the system you are operating in, make better choices about how you show up, and prepare for the conversations and decisions that shape your credibility and influence.
Former Director of Engineering at Fullscript | Former Executive Coach at Shopify | Coached and advised 600+ tech leaders | ICF Professional Certified Coach