Meet Katharine
Hello, I’m so glad you’re here.
I know a thing or two about the stress you’ve been carrying around and the options you’ve been weighing.
I understand how your career ambitions, professional relationships, family obligations, and personal goals have become hard to juggle.
And I know how scary it feels to contemplate disrupting the status quo - especially because you’ve worked so hard to get here.
I know because I’ve experienced it too.
I Was a chronically ambitious professional
I spent the first six years of my career landing competitive jobs and working for groundbreaking female executives in New York City.
I spent the next seven years working with leadership teams and facilitating large-scale change initiatives for corporations in New York, London, Madrid, Basel, Portland, and San Francisco.
By the time I turned 34, I had two Ivy League degrees, a six-figure salary, a global network, a partner I was supporting through residency, and two kids under three.
On the surface, I had it all, but if one dared look closely, the whole picture wasn’t really working for me.
I tolerated a toxic “comfort zone”
What I had built for myself was a 24-hour life devoid of time zones and boundaries, a career designed to benefit everyone else, and a brain I could never turn off.
I was constantly negotiating with myself and perpetually exhausted, but I didn’t know how to work any other way, so I just worked harder.
It was another two and a half years before I realized I needed to take meaningful action.
I transformed my relationship with work
Between 2015 and 2019, I hand-picked several advisors, coaches, and therapists to help me transform my relationship with work.
With their support, I learned to intercept my most dysfunctional beliefs and redefine what ‘good’ and ‘successful’ meant to me.
I learned to take greater responsibility for my time, energy, and genius and start building the foundations of what I now call Career Performance coaching - a unique approach integrates developmental, organizational, and performance psychology, strategic decision-making, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication, and mindfulness.
Let’s elevate your career performance
If you, too, have a track record of career success, but the way you have been working just isn’t working anymore, let’s connect.
I have helped countless professionals turn their chronic ambitions into sustainable career performance, and I can help you too.
Being a human at work in the 21st century is hard enough, and the sooner you transform your relationship with work, the sooner you will elevate the performance of everyone around you.
Katharine Smith, MA, CPCC, ACC, CH
Organizational Psychologist | Career Performance Coach
