Meet Jean Kling

What inspires your work as a coach?

I believe organizations do their best work when people bring courage, curiosity, and care to the challenges they face together. My role is to help leaders create those conditions.

I pay attention to the patterns that shape how people think, relate, make decisions, and work together. Often those patterns are so familiar they've become invisible. By helping leaders and teams see them more clearly, new choices, and new possibilities, become available.

Tell us a little more about you...

I'm an executive coach, consultant, and facilitator who helps leaders and executive teams create the conditions for people and organizations to thrive together. I partner with leaders navigating complexity, conflict, organizational change, and high-stakes decisions, helping them see what matters most, address difficult challenges directly, and build stronger ways of working together.

I'm a Newfield Network-certified and International Coach Federation-credentialed leadership coach with over 3,000 hours of coaching experience and a Master's in Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute at Pepperdine University. My experience spans a wide range of sectors and leadership contexts, from Fortune 100 companies and privately held businesses to healthcare systems, colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Clients value my ability to combine systems thinking with practical insight, bringing clarity to complex challenges and translating insight into meaningful action.

Earlier in my career, I spent more than a decade working in conflict transformation and dialogue. My experience includes international peacebuilding efforts in Northern Ireland, humanitarian initiatives in West Africa, and conflict resolution work in Los Angeles courts, schools, and communities. I've also served as a board member for Mediators Beyond Borders International, an advisor to Occidental College's Intergroup Dialogue Program, and a facilitator with the UN-certified Soliya Connect Program and the Institute of Nonviolence in Los Angeles. These experiences continue to shape my belief that lasting change begins with how people relate to one another and the conversations they are willing to have together.

What's your professional background?

• Education: Master's in Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University

• Certifications:

  • Professional Certified Coach (PCC), ICF

  • Newfield Certified Team Coach

  • Certified in Leadership Circle 360 and Collective Leadership Assessments

  • Lumina Spark Practitioner

  • Certified in iEQ9 Enneagram

What are you currently learning?

I'm inspired by thinkers like Barry Oshry, Ken Cloke, Barry Johnson, Jennifer Garvey Berger, and Dave Snowden. Their work continues to influence how I think about leadership, collaboration, complexity, and organizational systems. Right now I'm re-reading The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, enjoying Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, and always keeping a good mystery novel within reach.

What are you most proud of?

One of the accomplishments I'm most proud of is helping an executive team move from a culture of mistrust and avoidance to one where leaders worked together more openly, tackled difficult issues directly, and fostered a more collaborative culture across the organization. The result was stronger organizational performance, higher morale, and greater personal satisfaction. That's the work I'm most proud of, helping organizations achieve meaningful outcomes while creating a better experience for the people who make it happen.

What's life like outside of work?

Family matters to me. My husband, daughter, and I spend as much time as possible outdoors, camping, hiking, paddle boarding, and exploring Colorado's mountains with our dogs. I'm also surprisingly proud of our flock of backyard chickens. They've taught me more about curiosity, experimentation, and persistence than I expected.

What's your favorite quote?

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." — Marcel Proust