Jennifer McClanahan

I see the beginnings of Leverage to Lead on the street in Fairfield, California where my parents raised me and my siblings. Our neighbors were from England, Pakistan, Japan, Mexico, Guam, and many other different regions of America.

We roamed each others’ houses and mingled with the neighborhood’s immense diversity of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. This was where I learned to swim, savor international foods, distinguish multiple languages, and navigate all these differences with confidence, appreciation, humility, and awe. From living in many cities across the U.S. as the daughter of an Air Force Master Sergeant, student, and professional, my norm and default became difference.

Using my experience in management, law administration, and HR, I began executive career coaching, working one-on-one with women to build careers without apprehension. In time, organizations began approaching me to help manage their “diversity crisis,” usually involving a Black woman. I quickly realized that the work of transforming women’s careers would also require transforming entire workplace cultures.

Today, Leverage to Lead is a team of exceptional individuals who bring Human-Centered Practices to leaders and whole teams, and help organizations clarify, operationalize, and live their values.

I believe that time is not the most valuable thing you have to offer. When we measure our worth in hours, there is little time for deep thinking, creative work, or care for ourselves. Living by the hour is transactional and exhausting. It traps us into performing tirelessly and costs us our agency to decide what we want.

What is the most important thing you have to offer? It’s your difference. The particular way you see the world because of your life experiences. The skills you’ve gained and honed because of your difference. These are the heart of your creativity and innovation, and the value you bring to work.

At Leverage to Lead, we make the invisible visible–the systems, biases, values, and behaviors that must come to light so that we can make lasting change. What I live for are the moments when clients do the same–when they finally see their own value. Partnering with someone who beholds themselves fully is a breathtaking privilege. I can’t wait to be on that journey with you, too.