AJ STARK is an accomplished Executive Coach[1], an ex-Amazon Director of World-Wide Customer Service, and a seasoned Global Executive with experience building, leading, and scaling high-growth organizations. She has guided a client base of hundreds of c-suite executives from around the world across technical, operations, and business disciplines to reach new heights personally and professionally. She is a certified coach and facilitator most notably for Amazon’s award-winning[2] Day 1 Director program for L8 senior leaders. Her long list of credentials includes certifications in Executive Presence and Organizational Mindfulness which are critical to leading at scale.
EXECUTIVE COACHING
AJ understands firsthand that leaders cast a long shadow in an organization, defining culture through their decisions and behaviors. It takes leadership with awareness, intention, and discipline to achieve high-performance while building resilient cultures that can innovate and scale as quickly as their business needs.
AJ’s passion is to see leaders she serves unlock their potential and multiply it! AJ uses her unique combination of skills and experience to help clients reflect, discover, grow, and thrive. She challenges and equips them to be the best leaders they can be. She also designs and facilitates custom workshops, e.g., Day 1 Culture, Founder’s Mentality, communication, conflict management, executive presence, mechanisms, and more.
Her ideal clients are proven, high potential leaders who want to level up (or even feel stuck) as they seek to increase their impact and strive to take on bigger, more complex leadership remits. AJ also specializes in coaching globally diverse and underrepresented leaders including neurodivergent[3]. AJ’s top areas of expertise include:
- Leading through others in a scalable and sustainable way – Being a Multiplier
- Communicating and leading through change, boldly, and effectively
- Understanding, role modeling, and stewarding Day 1 culture
- Earning trust with stakeholders, peers, and partners to rapidly deliver across a complex, matrixed environment
- Building the best teams through recruiting, onboarding, developing, and retaining diverse and bar-raising talent
GLOBAL EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE
AJ has spent her career building and scaling highly effective cultures that deliver exceptional employee and customer experiences including:
- Large global organizations at scale across a wide variety of industries (Tech, Retail, Customer Service, Mobile, Consumer Packaged Goods, Consumer Electronics) spanning 45+ countries and 20+ languages
- Learning & Development ranging from frontline employees to senior executives
- Coaching, Facilitation, Assessments and Workshops to level up global leadership teams and executives
- Organizational Mindfulness practices to increase focus, attention, judgment, and overall leadership effectiveness
- Customer Obsession products, mechanisms, and programs
- Process Improvement, Change Management, Communications, and Social Media at scale globally
- Recruiting, onboarding, and retention of diverse and bar-raising talent
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy, toolkits, and programs
- University Programs world-wide including internships and leadership development programs
Unlock your POTENTIAL starting with a free discovery session with AJ. All coaching conversations are 100% confidential.
A bit more about AJ:
AJ and her husband of over 30 years are empty nesters with two wonderful adult children. AJ’s son is on the autism spectrum which inspired her to help propose, fund, and open a charter school designed to meet the unique needs of students on the autism spectrum. AJ loves the outdoors and adventuring with her family and her golden doodle named “Sota” short for Minnesota where she lived prior to relocating to the Seattle area. She cherishes every day and has a contagious ability to bring perspective, fun, possibilities, and inspiration to even the most difficult of situations.
A few quotes of Recommendation:
While I have had several great mentors in my career; AJ’s executive coaching is the most enriching experience I have had. My overall approach to the daily challenges I face, and my decision making has greatly improved because of AJ’s coaching. She always challenges me to think differently. Her practical suggestions and guidance have made me a better leader and balanced human being. Director of Technology – Amazon
AJ’s coaching changed me as a leader and a person. Every session was really impactful in driving clarity on my thoughts, providing right resources, prompting me to take actions towards reaching my most important personal and professional goals. I was promoted to L8 at Amazon and her coaching set me up to take on new and bigger challenges. ~ Worldwide Capacity Planning Executive – Intuit & ex: Amazon
If you want to amp up your executive presence, confidence, and impact, AJ is the coach for you! With AJ, I deepened my self-awareness and applied learnings to create lasting habits that scaled my leadership. ~ APAC Director – Amazon
AJ helped me enhance my understanding of leadership perspectives, shedding light on how to level up my presence and impact. This guidance prepared me for promotion and new opportunities, and it also increased my confidence and fulfillment personally and professionally. ~Product Management Tech Leader – Amazon
AJ understood and valued my unique skills and challenges as an introverted leader on the autism spectrum. She challenged and equipped me to build trust and influence by applying listening, empathy, and self-management practices. ~Engineering Director – Amazon
AJ Really listened and played back our comments and challenged us to think in new ways. it was very helpful that she was an Amazonian who so fully understood our challenges.
Patient, understanding and reflective – AJ really mirrored our thoughts and insights back to us and sought clarity and enhanced our thinking with her own resources.
AJ is amazing at getting us to think deeply and open up. She creates a great environment for making us feel safe in sharing and learning from each other.
AJ did a phenomenal job creating a space of psychological safety and encouraging vulnerability. I spent a large portion of the week outside of my comfort zone.
AJ was open and vulnerable which created a safe space for the whole room. She is an excellent storyteller and captivating the room every time she spoke. She was positive, encouraging, and made us think outside the box. She was able to get people to do self-reflection and really think about how to be our best selves.
AJ was great in facilitating our group discussions. She came across as a vulnerable leader, and that allowed the group to open up more to each other. She had useful insights to share throughout the training and did a great job keeping us on time while not rushing through the discussions.
[1] Credentials: International Coaching Federation ACC, Institute of Organizational Mindfulness, Strategos Black Belt, Amazon 360 & Bar Raiser.
[2] Brandon Hall Group Learning and Development Gold Award for Innovative Learning & Develop Program.
[3] a person whose brain processes information differently, e.g., Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Attention Deficit (ADHD/ADD), and Dyslexia.
