Move Ideas Forward

Caught between strategy and execution, authority and influence? You are the engine of your organization. We help leaders in the middle master influence, align stakeholders, and drive progress without the burnout.

Your Position is Your Greatest Leverage

Leaders in the middle carry enormous influence. They're the ones who translate vision into results, align teams during change, and shape culture every day often without the formal authority or full clarity they need. We help leaders turn this complexity into clarity, influence, and impact, both personally and professionally.

Our 4-Part Path to Sustainable Influence

We replace complexity and doubt with a proven, four-part system designed for your reality.

Clarity First: Cut through the noise to understand your core priorities, strengths, and unique opportunities.Influence in Action: Build the skills to lead without relying on formal authority, winning support from your team, peers, and senior leaders.Teams That Work: Align people, roles, and objectives to build a cohesive team that delivers results under pressure.Sustainable Growth: Create habits and systems that allow you to lead with confidence and impact, without burnout or second-guessing.

Who This Is For:

  • Leaders navigating growth, reorganizations, or evolving responsibilities

  • Professionals balancing competing demands in their work and life

  • High-impact leaders where influence and emotional intelligence matter more than formal authority

Choose Your Path

You're here to lead. Whether you're showing up as the voice in the room — or building teams that thrive — there's a path for that.

Strategic 1:1 Coaching

This path is for the individual leader ready to master their unique position. We’ll use our proven approach beginning with Clarity First and moving to Influence in Action to help you navigate competing priorities and build a personal brand of confident leadership.

Team Alignment Sessions

This path is for the leader ready to align their team for collective success. We’ll apply our Teams That Work and Sustainable Growth principles to help you clarify roles, improve collaboration, and build a high-performing unit that delivers results under any circumstances.

Scale Leadership Throughout Your Organization

A strategic partnership to build lasting leadership capability within your organization.

Our customized solutions scale the principles of influence and strategic clarity across your entire cohort of middle managers. By investing in this critical layer, you can build a more high-performing organization that is ready for change.

About Me

I'm Vanessa Paster, and I've spent my career in the middle of complex situations - as an equity partner at a digital agency managing rapid growth, leading turn-around projects for stuck organizations, and translating between competing stakeholder demands in everything from medical device companies to boutique hotels.My background in anthropology taught me to see patterns in human behavior, especially during times of change and uncertainty. Whether I was observing leadership dynamics during political upheaval in Nepal or navigating merger integrations at a major financial firm, I learned that the most interesting insights come from understanding what's really happening beneath the surface.For over a decade as a leadership coach and consultant, I've worked with accomplished professionals who find themselves caught between competing demands - strategy and execution, vision and reality, growth and sustainability. They know their work, but they need to get results through other people in situations that don't come with clear playbooks.I help leaders recognize what they already bring to these complex situations and use it more strategically. Because after two decades of being in the middle myself, I know that's where the real leverage lives.

Let's Connect

We believe in starting with a conversation. Share a few details about your goals, and we'll connect to discuss a tailored solution.

Thank you

We've received your message and appreciate you reaching out.I’ll personally review your message and get back to you within 2 business days.In the meantime, if you’d like to explore a bit more about our perspectives, check out the substack.Looking forward to connecting soon!