In the complex and ever-evolving landscape of modern business, the ability to navigate change is not just an asset—it’s a necessity. Companies that fail to adapt risk falling behind, while those that embrace transformation gain a competitive edge. Consider businesses that have successfully navigated industry disruptions. Their success isn’t just about adjusting strategies; it’s about having leaders who understand that real change starts from within.

Linda (Lin) C. Coughlin, Founder and President of Great Circle Associates, has dedicated her career to helping executives master this kind of transformation. With decades of experience guiding C-suite leaders through complex challenges, she has built a reputation as a trusted advisor. Her approach isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about driving deep, lasting change. Through her philosophy of “Change at Core™,” Coughlin helps organizations shift mindsets, reshape cultures, and build the foundation for long-term success.

A Journey of Strategic Transformation

Coughlin’s journey to the pinnacle of corporate leadership began in an unexpected arena: the world of professional equestrian competition. As a former professional equestrian, she learned the value of discipline, focus, and resilience—qualities that would later define her approach to business challenges. A fall led to her employment in the private sector, where she leveraged her communication and organizational skills to navigate the corporate world successfully.

Her early career was marked by a series of high-profile roles at prestigious organizations, including Booz Allen and Hamilton, American Express Company, Citibank, and Scudder Investments. Each position presented unique challenges and opportunities, allowing her to hone her expertise in strategic leadership and change management. Her ability to adapt and excel in diverse environments ultimately set the stage for her influential role in driving many types of organizational change.

At Scudder Investments, she became the youngest partner and the second woman to become a Managing Director, ultimately leading the North American mutual funds businesses, the Retirement Plan business, and Fund Accounting at a time when Scudder was one of the top ten global asset management firms. Her tenure was defined by her leadership of major initiatives that involved disruptive departures from the status quo, including leading a major integration process following an acquisition, the successful start-up of a web-based business, a highly strategic rebranding initiative, and the turnaround of Scudder’s largest mutual fund business and its Retirement Plan business. During this time, she also chaired the boards of three of the firm’s mutual fund businesses.

Coughlin’s ability to navigate complex organizational challenges and drive transformative change became a hallmark of her leadership. She was also selected as one of “20 Board Members to Watch” by Directors and Boards magazine, a recognition that highlights her expertise and influence in corporate governance. This experience laid the groundwork for her transition to executive coaching and the offer of strategic advisory, planning and implementation related services.

Great Circle Associates

After years of leading transformational change within major corporations, Coughlin recognized a shift in her purpose. While her passion for enabling change remained strong, she felt a calling to share her “secret sauce” for creating movements for change. This led to the founding of Great Circle Associates, her consulting practice dedicated to teaching others how to enact transformative change.

Coughlin’s decision to establish her own consulting practice was driven by a desire to redirect her focus from directly leading change to empowering other leaders to drive transformative change within their own organizations. She aimed to share the lessons she had learned and equip leaders with the skills and mindset necessary to navigate complex transitions and achieve sustainable success.

“I wanted to build something that truly made an impact—an organization that focused on elevating leadership and fostering a culture of inclusion and innovation.”

Coughlin is deeply committed to her calling, focusing on helping clients actualize their purpose-driven potential. Her vision for Great Circle Associates centers on:

• Positioning clients to exceed their potential.
• Facilitating the envisionment of possibilities.
• Enabling leaders to overcome imposter syndrome.
• Empowering organizations to leverage their people to implement transformative change.

Coaching Philosophy

Coughlin’s work as an Executive Coach is deeply rooted in a set of core values that have guided her for 30 years. These values inform her approach to her Coaching and Advisory work, emphasizing collaboration, strategic thinking, execution, and culture development.

• The celebration of uniqueness: Embracing differences in backgrounds, strengths, and perspectives to harness the greatness that arises from individual contributions.
• Generosity of spirit and action: An attitude of compassion and a willingness to articulate and implement a vision for the good of all stakeholders.
• Professional and intellectual humility: Recognizing individual fallibility while striving for breakthrough results.
• Reciprocity: An eagerness to give and receive for mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Transparency: A commitment to openly sharing the processes by which conclusions are drawn, decisions are made, problems are solved, and opportunities are envisioned.
• Passion for the elimination of the status quo: Embracing change for the breakthrough and sustained well-being of all stakeholder groups.

An Outcome-Focused Approach

Great Circle Associates is recognized for its outcome-focused approach, a principle that Coughlin prioritizes in her work with clients. Her methodology is centered on delivering tangible results, ensuring that every engagement is clear about objectives and intended outcomes. A key aspect of this approach is providing at least one disruptive, actionable idea in every client interaction—one that aligns with the organization’s Mission, Vision, and Strategies. By consistently offering innovative insights, she ensures that leaders remain focused on short- to medium term professional and enterprise level growth and transformation.

Coughlin also works closely with leaders to address imposter syndrome, a common affliction affecting high-achieving professionals. For the 60% of male and female leaders who report having been derailed by imposter syndrome, she helps clients develop coping mechanisms to break free from self-doubt, empowering them to expand their leadership roles with confidence. This highly personalized guidance enables executives to recognize their strengths, reframe their mindset, and step into their full potential without being held back by limiting beliefs.

In addition to mindset shifts, Coughlin emphasizes the importance of developing essential leadership skills, such as active listening and influencing—both of which are critical in the context of change management. She creates purpose-driven development plans tailored to each client’s leadership strengths, values, traits, style and skills, ensuring that every action taken aligns with their broader purpose. By closely monitoring implementation and progress, she helps leaders stay accountable and achieve the desired outcomes, reinforcing her commitment to sustainable and measurable success.

Navigating Transitions and Driving Organizational Change

Coughlin specializes in coaching leaders through pivotal career and organizational transitions, viewing these moments as opportunities for growth. Her approach blends creativity with practical strategies, ensuring that leaders navigate change with confidence. She begins with an immersive discovery phase to assess their strengths, values, leadership styles, and potential roadblocks, including imposter syndrome. By mapping a Leadership Timeline, she helps clients recognize defining moments and identify positive and negative triggers, especially in stressful situations.

To turn insights into action, Coughlin develops a purpose-driven Work-Life Map that aligns career aspirations with broader life goals. She emphasizes transparency by encouraging leaders to share their plans with stakeholders, fostering trust and strengthening organizational culture. Through this structured yet adaptable approach, she empowers executives to lead with clarity and drive meaningful, lasting impact.

Empowering Leaders for Success

Coughlin recognizes that C-suite leaders today face significant challenges, particularly in politically motivated toxic work cultures. She addresses these challenges by emphasizing the importance of values, cultural norms, and accountability. Additionally, she highlights the critical role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership, utilizing 360 assessments to help leaders develop self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management skills.

Beyond workplace culture, Coughlin has extensive experience in helping leaders overcome imposter syndrome, a common affliction affecting high-achievers. She coaches executives on practical coping mechanisms, including:

• Recognizing imposterism.
• Remembering one’s journey and acknowledging strengths.
• Understanding that they are not alone.
• Talking about it and conquering fears.
• Accepting those fears may persist while changing mindsets.
• Setting realistic goals, visualizing successful outcomes, and reimagining failure as a learning opportunity.

Mastering Change Management

Recognizing that upwards of 70% of initiatives that involve significant departures from the status quo fail, Coughlin provides a structured approach to mastering change management. She creates a sense of urgency and positive anticipation while convening cross-functional teams of passionate leaders to drive transformation. A clear vision is essential, but effective communication ensures that all stakeholders understand and embrace the change. Empowering action by removing obstacles and providing necessary resources is key to building and maintaining momentum.

To sustain progress, Coughlin highlights the importance of celebrating  short-term wins, which serve as proof points for the broader transformation. These successes help build confidence and reinforce commitment. However, lasting change requires consolidating improvements, continuously refining strategies, and institutionalizing new systems and processes to embed change into an organization’s culture.

Coughlin also offers key insights for leaders driving change. She stresses the importance of active listening, building courage to make bold decisions, and articulating compelling reasons for transformation. Ensuring accountability throughout the organization and role-modeling professional humility help establish trust and commitment. Through this approach, Coughlin equips leaders with the tools to drive sustainable and impactful change.

Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Coughlin emphasizes that emotional intelligence is a cornerstone of effective leadership, enabling leaders to navigate complex challenges with clarity and confidence. Through 360 assessments, she helps individuals develop key emotional intelligence components, including self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management.  Leaders gain a deeper understanding of their strengths and improvement opportunities, ultimately improving their ability to connect with and inspire their teams.

Beyond emotional intelligence, Coughlin’s coaching focuses on cultivating essential leadership skills that drive organizational success. She encourages leaders to think strategically and embrace a visionary mindset, ensuring they can anticipate future challenges and opportunities. Constructive feedback plays a pivotal role in leadership, both in providing and receiving it, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Additionally, she highlights the importance of taking measured risks, leading with empathy and transparency, and recognizing that effective change leadership involves creating a movement rather than enforcing compliance.

At the heart of her leadership philosophy is the courage to inspire others to avoid the vagaries of the status quo. Coughlin believes that great leaders are those who challenge conventional thinking and motivate teams to strive for continuous improvement and positive change. By instilling these principles, she equips leaders with the confidence and skills needed to drive difference-making and sustainable change.

Mentorship and Executive Coaching

Coughlin tailors her coaching to the different stages of a leader’s journey, recognizing that emerging and seasoned executives face distinct challenges. For emerging leaders, she focuses on building foundational skills e.g, confidence, communications excellence, strategic thinking, problem solving, etc. while helping them define near-to-medium-term career aspirations. With experienced executives, her coaching delves into complex strategic challenges, leadership transitions, and managing organizational change. By adapting her guidance to each stage, she ensures that leaders receive the necessary insights and support to grow and excel.

A strong advocate for mentorship, Coughlin draws from her own experiences to highlight its role in career development. She differentiates mentorship from coaching, explaining that mentorship provides targeted guidance on business, communication, and personal challenges, while coaching takes a broader, structured approach to leadership growth and development. In today’s volatile and complex business environment, she believes executive coaching is invaluable, helping leaders refine their approach, enhance decision-making, and navigate the evolving demands of a volatile, uncertain, complex (VUCA) world.

“As a leader continues to expand their portfolio of responsibility in a VUCA world, they must emphasize self-awareness, leverage their strengths, and refine strategic thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills across several internal and external stakeholder groups.”

The Evolving Landscape of Executive Coaching

Coughlin foresees several trends shaping the future of Executive Coaching, particularly as external environments become increasingly volatile. The demand for experienced Coaches is expected to rise, with a shift toward long-term, multi-year coaching engagements. Additionally, the Executive Coaching market is becoming more saturated. Well-networked coaches with substantial operating and profit center experience are in increasing demand. Her vision is to leave a legacy of empowering leaders and organizations to achieve breakthrough outcomes through transformative change.

At the heart of Coughlin’s work is the leadership of disruptive change—an area where many strategic initiatives fail due to deeply ingrained organizational mindsets, entrenched cultures and legacy systems and processes that leaders are disinclined to re-engineer. She champions her “Change at Core™” approach, which challenges the status quo by addressing cultural and structural resistance within organizations. Successful leadership in this space requires intellectual humility, strategic foresight, and emotional intelligence. Coughlin underscores the need for organizations to develop leaders with these attributes to drive meaningful transformation and, in turn, sustainable success.

Through Great Circle Associates, Coughlin remains dedicated to empowering leaders to navigate disruptive change and achieve transformative outcomes. Her philosophy of “Change at Core™” reinforces the importance of purpose-driven leadership, ensuring that organizations not only adapt to change, but also leverage it as a catalyst for growth. Her career stands as a testament to her influence in shaping the future of leadership and fostering enduring organizational success.