Shelly Darnutzer
Career Strategist and Coach
Unlock Your Leadership Potential
Career Coaching for Leaders at all Levels
Work with me if you’re a leader ready to elevate your strategic impact, expand your influence across the organization, and lead with confidence through complexity and change.
Practical One-on-One Leadership Coaching Specializing in:
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Masterful Communication Skills
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Conflict Resolution
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Influencing 360
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Mindful Leadership
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Leadership Agility
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Negotiation Skills
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Expanding Leadership Capabilities
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Having a Positive Impact
How I Can Help
As a Strategic Engineering and Operations Executive with 20+ years leading technical teams and complex organizational initiatives, I understand the unique challenges that ambitious leaders in tech face—from managing rapid growth and cross-functional complexity to developing executive presence while maintaining technical credibility.
I’ve been where you are: navigating organizational transitions, scaling teams through crisis, influencing without authority, and balancing strategic thinking with operational execution. Whether you’re stepping into your first VP role, leading through organizational change, or developing the confidence to partner effectively with C-suite executives, I provide the strategic perspective and practical tools you need to succeed.
About Me
As a Strategic Engineering and Operations Executive and Certified Leadership Coach, I bring over 20 years of experience scaling organizations, leading complex technical initiatives, and developing high-performing leadership teams.
My unique background spans both strategic operations—where I’ve served as a trusted advisor to C-suite executives, managed multi-million dollar portfolios, and scaled global programs from hundreds to thousands of participants—and executive coaching, where I’ve guided leaders through organizational transformations, strategic pivots, and high-stakes decision-making.
I specialize in working with current and emerging leaders in technology organizations who are navigating:
- Strategic leadership transitions – Moving from tactical to strategic thinking
- Cross-functional leadership challenges – Leading without authority and influencing across departments
- Organizational scaling – Building sustainable processes and teams during rapid growth
- Executive presence and communication – Developing the confidence and skills to partner effectively with senior leadership
Testimonials
As a senior manager of a 30 person engineering team, Shelly helped me to design and facilitate off-site team building events, mentored 2 new managers (reporting directly to me) and led training programs (with ongoing working groups) in areas such as leadership, decision making and masterful conversations. Personally, Shelly coached me to continue developing my skills as a leader and in strategizing cross-functional change initiatives within our business.
Shelly brings real world experience to the table. Her background in tech gives her a unique perspective on women’s leadership in the workplace. This combined with her vast experience in the personal growth field allows her to pinpoint afflictions in short order, and her coaching style brings about immediate change and awareness to areas of potential growth, rather than circle around and around and not getting to the core of the issue.
As a coach, Shelly helped me interpret the Leadership Agility 360 feedback and look at different ways to approach leadership decisions than I have in the past. She has a unique talent to ask the right questions and suggest ways in how to approach those difficult leadership problems. The result of working with Shelly was a basic change in my leadership mindset which has led to clarity and improved working relationships with stakeholders and my direct reports.