Executive Coaching & Leadership
Lead the season without losing yourself
Nonprofit CEOs, Chief Development Officers, and senior leaders navigating a hard season, a significant transition, or the first months in a new seat. Leaders who are not failing, but who are carrying more than the role was designed for.
The work
Leading a mission-driven organization is demanding in ways most leadership programs do not account for. The weight of a transition, a succession gap, a board relationship that has quietly frayed, or the toll of a season that ran too long without support: these are not soft concerns.
They determine whether a leader stays effective, stays at all, and whether the organization retains what it spent years building. Our practice addresses precisely this terrain.
What we offer
One-on-one counsel and thought partnership
Sustained, confidential engagement with a principal who has held the roles our clients hold. We work on the self, the team, the board, and toward the creation of a plan.
Prioritization and next-best-action
Many leaders are not short on analysis. They are short on clarity about which move to make first. We help executives commit to the single most important action in front of them.
Leadership transitions and succession
The 90 days before and after a transition are among the highest-risk periods in an organization’s life. We work with leaders stepping in, stepping out, and the boards managing the space between.
Team and board coaching
A leader’s effectiveness is inseparable from the team and board around them. We work with them individually and together, on the dynamics that accelerate or limit what a leader can accomplish.
Navigating menopause and life-stage change
Leadership development that ignores the whole person is incomplete. We offer counsel that is grounded, specific, and free of the silence that has typically surrounded this territory.
Cohort masterminds
A small number of leaders together around a shared challenge or life stage, for structured peer learning over 90 days. The room of peers is often as useful as the content.
Branded programs
Next 90
A 90-day mastermind cohort for executives ready to think more clearly and lead more fully, with the option to continue into an ongoing program at day 90.
Graceful Momentum
An engagement framework for leaders in a demanding season who need to sustain performance without burning through what they have.
The Joy of Friendraising
For leaders and teams rebuilding their relationship with fundraising, especially those who stepped into development without a development background.
Strong Start
A 90-day onboarding program for a leader just entering a nonprofit executive role, offered standalone or in partnership with executive-search firms.
Why Harmony
Joanna Wasmuth has held the roles our clients hold. She served as a CEO in the United Nations system and as Managing Director at Carter Global, one of the world’s leading fundraising firms, directing engagements across more than 47 countries.
She coaches as a peer, not a vendor. That distinction matters. Her counsel is informed by having sat in the seat, carried the board relationships, and navigated the demands senior leadership imposes. Our clients are not case studies. They are colleagues in demanding work.
How we begin
Some leaders begin with a single coaching engagement around a specific decision. Others join a cohort mastermind and find the peer structure to be what sustains them. New leaders can begin with Strong Start from their first week.
For a board or leadership team at a pressure point, a half-day session to surface what is actually on the table is often the most useful first step.
Common questions
Is executive coaching worth it, or is it for leaders who are struggling?
Coaching is a performance tool, not a remedial one. The leaders who get the most from it are usually the ones already succeeding while carrying more than they can think clearly about. Treating coaching as a signal of trouble is exactly what stops the people who would benefit most from asking.
Does an executive coach work for the leader or for the organization paying?
The organization may pay, and the conversation still belongs to the leader. What is shared, with whom, and in what form has to be agreed in writing before the first session. Without that settled, a leader spends the hour managing the coach’s reporting line instead of using it.
How should a board support an overwhelmed executive director?
Support and supervision are different acts, and boards often reach for the second while intending the first. What helps: clarity on which priorities can wait, an honest look at whether the role is scoped for one person, and outside counsel the director chooses rather than one assigned to them.
When should succession planning start?
Before anyone is leaving. Succession planning done under time pressure is not a plan, it is a search. The durable version starts while the incumbent is still in post: naming what the role actually requires now, where the internal bench is thin, and what any successor’s first ninety days need to contain.
Let’s talk about where you are
Describe what you are working toward, and what is standing in the way. We listen, and we ask the question you have not yet been asked.
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