Cailin O'Riordan, PhD
EXECUTIVE & TEAM COACHING
A conversation focused entirely on you.
LEADERS AND TEAMS I'VE WORKED WITH
WHAT BRINGS LEADERS HERE
The moments when leadership requires more than experience alone.
Navigating complexity
Growth, M&A, restructuring, transformation. The organization is changing around you, and the leadership demands are shifting faster than the playbook. You want a thinking partner who understands what it takes to lead through that.
Understanding your impact
You want a clearer read on how you land with the people around you. The way you come across under pressure, the effect you have in a room, the space between how you mean to lead and how others experience it. Seeing that clearly is what lets you close the gap on purpose.
Stepping into more
A promotion, a wider remit, a bigger seat. The title arrives on day one, but growing into it takes the months that follow, and the expectations were already higher the moment you stepped up. This is where you decide how you want to lead at this level, and set that tone before the role sets it for you.
Aligning your team
You have smart, capable people, and you can feel there's more available to them as a team. The trust that lets the hard conversations happen. The candor that makes decisions stick. Team coaching works on what lives between people, so the group can do its best work together.
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
Different rooms, the same focused work.
1:1 Executive Coaching
Deep developmental work for senior leaders navigating complexity, transition, and growth. I work at the level of what's driving your decisions, your relationships, and your impact, so you can lead with more clarity and intention.
CEOs, C-Suite, VPs, Founders
Team Coaching
Leadership teams are where strategy meets reality. I work with intact teams on how they build trust, hold candid conversations, and make decisions together, so a group of capable people becomes a genuinely effective team.
Leadership Teams
Partnership Coaching
Two people whose working relationship carries real weight, co-founders, a chair and a CEO, two leaders who must move as one. We work individually and together, to build alignment that holds under pressure.
Co-founders, Partners, Leadership Pairs
Also offered: a reflective supervision space for coaches, individual and group, to step back and deepen their practice. Available as I complete the Coaching Supervision Academy Diploma.
SEEING THE FULLER PICTURE
Understanding how you lead and how your team works.
Qualitative 360s
Customized, interview-based assessment. Questions designed with you, and a quote-based report that captures how you actually lead and the context you lead in.
Hogan Assessments
The full Hogan suite, personality, derailers, and values, distilled into a customized report: three insights about who you are and how to become a more intentional version of yourself.
Team Health Assessments
Qualitative assessment of team dynamics, alignment, and how people work together. Helps a team see what's really happening and where to do things differently.
Leader Observations
Close observation of how a leader shows up, from team meetings to Town Halls. The storytelling, nonverbals, word choice, and identity that shape how they land.
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
In their own words.
"I love how you move the rocks in my head around and let the daylight in."
PRESIDENT & COO
"What I've learned this past year working with you has been valuable, for me and for the company. It's had a material impact on how we operate."
CEO
"I trust you implicitly. You've been a great partner this whole time."
VP
"A great listener with a sharp analytical eye, able to get a team to the root causes of friction and then to the next level of performance."
SENIOR DIRECTOR
"Thank you for all the wisdom and straight talk. I am so grateful for you."
CEO
VP
"Cailin is incredibly sharp and perceptive, and she pinpoints human dynamics very quickly. Her warmth makes her easy to trust even in tense moments."
PHILOSOPHY
Who you are is how you lead.
The most important leadership development happens when people can see their own patterns clearly, not just what they do, but why. When leaders understand what's driving their decisions, their relationships, and their impact, they make better choices and lead with more ease. My work is about creating the conditions for that kind of clarity, with curiosity, with rigor, and with genuine partnership.
Cailin O'Riordan, PhD
Executive & Team Coach
I coach CEOs, founders, and senior leaders. I pay close attention, to what someone is navigating and to who they are underneath it. Some of the work is compassion, some accountability, and sometimes it's just giving someone the space to explore their own thinking.
​
I hold a doctorate in Interpersonal Communication from the University of Texas at Austin, where my research included needs assessments for local organizations. Since then I've coached inside and alongside companies like McKesson, Gilead, and Pinterest, founded Collective Wisdom Coaches to build community with like-minded professionals, and this fall I'm starting the Coaching Supervision Academy to learn how to support coaches doing great work with their clients.
​
This work is both art and science, and it asks you to stay present precisely because it's never perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect coach, but there is genuine partnership, the kind that takes a conversation somewhere you wouldn't go on your own. Getting to do that is why I love this work.
PhD UT Austin · Hudson Institute of Coaching · ACC (ICF) · CSA in Progress
WHO I WORK WITH
Leaders and teams across industries.
Healthcare
McKesson · Kaiser Permanente · The Permanente Medical Group · The Cooper Companies · United Healthcare · Queensland Health · Anthelio Healthcare · Australian Lung Foundation
Technology
Autodesk · Salesforce · VMware · Splunk · MongoDB · Western Digital · Equinix · Logitech · Zendesk · DoorDash · Moloco · Hinge Health · Turntide Technologies · CSSI · FactualIQ
Biotech & Pharma
Genentech · Audentes Therapeutics · Third Harmonic Bio · Better Therapeutics · Day One Bio · Astellas Pharma · Karyopharm Therapeutics · Sonoma Biotherapeutics
Financial & Professional Services
​
AVALT · Kapor Capital · Suncorp · Essex Property Trust · Capgemini · Wheeler Accountants · Beveridge & Diamond
Consumer, Education & Nonprofit
Nike · Flight Centre · Queensland University of Technology · American Institute of Architects · Opportunity Education
Let's Talk
If something here resonates, I'd welcome a conversation.