Leadership Development Coach, Trainer, and Facilitator
Here for the humans at the heart of every organization.
Meet your leadership development coach
Count on me for purposeful, practical, people-first coaching and training
I'm Carole-Ann Penney, leadership development coach, trainer, facilitator, and founder of Penney Leadership.
Over the past 15+ years, I’ve developed thousands of leaders across industries and levels as an independent leadership coach and as a Senior Facilitator for Harvard Business Impact, training leaders at major companies around the globe.
That breadth of experience has shown me a few patterns:
→ Most leaders are promoted without real preparation for what the job actually requires, and then expected to figure it out on the fly.
→ The demands of their roles keep leaders moving too fast to reflect, stretched too thin to be able to ask if there’s a better way, and impacting others without understanding how to manage that impact.
→ And yet, leadership is the key variable that shapes how well people grow, how effectively teams perform, and how organizations are able to keep pace with the demands being placed on them.
Despite every leader and organization’s best intentions, these aren’t edge cases. They’re the norm. But these gaps are entirely addressable with the right support.
Leadership can be developed. It can be honed and practiced with intention. And when it is, the impact shows up everywhere: in how people lead, in the teams around them, and in what your organization is able to do.
After more than a decade of developing leaders across industries and organizations, these convictions are the core of my approach:
Leadership is everyone’s responsibility.
It’s not just the people with direct reports or corner offices. Everyone who influences others, advocates for what matters, and navigates their own path through their career is a leader. And leadership skills can be developed at every level, in every direction, and at every stage of a career.
Most leadership problems are actually clarity problems.
What often looks like a motivation issue, a performance issue, or a culture issue comes down to a lack of clarity. You can’t navigate towards something you can’t see, hold someone accountable to expectations that weren’t clearly set, or align a team around competing priorities. Pursuing clarity in the face of constant uncertainty is challenging, but essential for teams and organizations. It requires slowing down long enough to think and change, and that’s what coaching makes possible.
Effective leadership is a practice that combines skillful presence with a diverse toolbox that’s ready to meet the moment.
Before a leader can effectively develop others, they need to get clear on who they are, what they stand for, and how their energy and actions affect the people around them. Because a leader's presence is amplified, skillfully managing their impact is essential. From that foundation, leaders can build a wide and varied practical toolbox: a range of real skills they can draw on to meet different people, moments, and challenges as they actually arise. That way, leaders move beyond their default or what’s most comfortable for them and instead respond with what’s most effective for the person and situation at hand.
Real change takes time, practice, and integration.
Change doesn’t happen in a single session. It happens in the moment and over time, through the cycle of trying something, reflecting on what happened, getting feedback, and trying again. That’s how humans turn new insights into new habits, and those new habits become a solid leadership practice. And that’s why our coaching relationship is sustained, customized, and woven into both your top-line strategy and the day-to-day work of your leaders.
And finally: when leaders are developed well, everyone benefits.
Good leaders fuel more effective teams, more effective teams get better results, and better results fuel the organization’s impact. That’s the kind of investment that not only pays off, but compounds.
Carole-Ann Penney, CPC
Founder | Leadership Development Coach | Writer | Trainer & Facilitator
Certificate in Professional Coaching, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC)
Certificate in Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Tufts University
B.A. in Education Studies, Brown University
Senior HBR Facilitator for Harvard Business Publishing’s Corporate Leadership Development programs
Instructor at Electives
Contributor to Harvard Business Review
Worked with thousands of leaders globally and across industries.
About Carole-Ann Penney, Founder, Penney Leadership (she/her)
Carole-Ann Penney, CPC, is a leadership development coach, trainer, and facilitator with 15+ years of experience developing leaders across industries, organizational levels, and sectors. She founded Penney Leadership to develop the humans carrying organizations forward, growing leaders who know themselves deeply, lead with intention and skill, and create the conditions for their teams to thrive in a changing world.
A seasoned writer, speaker, and facilitator (in-person and virtually) on topics related to leadership and career development, she partners with mid-to-large organizations that genuinely believe their people are their greatest asset, and she specializes in coaching middle managers, whom she considers the beating heart of any organization.
Carole-Ann has coached leaders at organizations including Google, Hilton, Penske, and MetLife, and has designed and delivered leadership development programs for Fortune 500 companies, Ivy League research centers, biotech firms, financial institutions and more. As a Senior Facilitator for Harvard Business Impact’s Corporate Leadership Development programs and an Instructor at Electives, a leading enterprise learning platform, she trains leaders at major organizations around the globe. An avid writer, she also regularly contributes articles to Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and more.
Based in Providence, Rhode Island, she holds a B.A. in Education from Brown University and certifications in Nonprofit Management & Leadership from Tufts University and Professional Coaching from iPEC. She also mentors emerging leaders through Brown University's Women's Launch Pad, Social Enterprise Greenhouse, and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.
When she’s not coaching, she’s developing the most important emerging leaders in her life—her two young daughters.
-
Visiting local bookstores and curating selections for my Little Free Library.
-
It’s a toss up between Smitten Kitchen’s Triple Coconut Cream and Half-Baked Harvest’s Molten Chocolate Crackle Pie.
-
The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara,
Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
Playing Big by Tara Mohr
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
-
Connectedness | Learner | Maximizer | Individualization | Relator
Fun Facts
Values-driven coaching for impactful leadership
My work is fueled by…
-
Connection
Real connection is at the heart of Penney Leadership, always bringing together people, resources, and ideas.
-
Growth
Leadership is a practice, not a destination, and growth at all stages along that journey is exciting and essential.
-
Curiosity
I have a voracious appetite for learning new ideas and perspectives via articles, podcasts, and books, and love to share insights with my clients and community.
-
Opportunity
I believe in the practice of seeing possibilities everywhere, taking initiative, and trusting yourself to create your own opportunities rather than waiting for someone else.
-
Purpose
We’re all here to make meaning in our lives, both personally and professionally. Through self-leadership, you can act on your own purpose, while people leadership means creating opportunities for others to explore and express theirs.
-
Wholeheartedness
I show up as my whole, authentic self, and believe deeply in making space for others to do the same. Work involves both the head and the heart, and this type of care, commitment, and personal investment is a strength.
And because effective leaders are self-aware, cognizant of their own influence and impact, and always growing…
I’m committed to learning from diverse perspectives and honoring individual experiences.
Each person comes to coaching with unique strengths, values, challenges, and intersectional identities. There are no one-size fits all answers. Coaching is not teaching, advice-giving, or mentoring—instead, I specialize in creating a space and structure that allows you to make your own discoveries that are individualized and meaningful to you.
We all have different experiences based on our intersectional identities. I bring my own identities and lived experiences to my work: I am a millennial, white, heterosexual, cis-gender woman. I’m able-bodied, average body sized, and an English-speaking US Citizen. I am first generation college educated. I’m also neurodivergent, a mom, and a small business owner. All of these identities inform who I am; some are upheld as the “norm” of the dominant culture, while some position me closer to the margins. I am committed to reflecting on where I hold proximity to power through my identities, and how that shapes how I show up as a coach and facilitator.
Penney Leadership welcomes clients who embody all dimensions of difference: race, gender identity and expression, sexuality, religion, age, class, nationality, disability, parental status, veteran status, citizenship status, education, size, and more.
As your coach, I recognize that your lived experiences are different from my own and from the other leaders I work with. Our identities and the unique relationships we have with them give us each a unique set of insights, expertise, and knowledge. They also mean that we perceive and are perceived by the world differently.
I am committed to curiosity—continually seeking to understand the evolving perspectives and language related to power, privilege, and how our identities impact our experiences at work, as well as learning about what it means to move through the world with identities I do not myself embody. That includes reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, professional development workshops, and connecting with colleagues and thought leaders that expand and challenge my approach.
I am always open to feedback on how I can make my offerings more inclusive and welcoming to all. I’m committed to staying humble, correcting my mistakes, and holding myself accountable as I continue learning. I continually strive to build my toolkit of resources that will serve the wide variety of leaders I work with. If you have any thoughts or resources you want to share on this topic, please contact me here.
Support for leaders and solutions for organizations
Let’s get to work
-
Leadership Development Coaching
Invest in your leaders to increase your impact through individual and group coaching.
-
Workshops and Facilitation
Treat your team to meaningful leadership development that ignites lasting growth.