Discover how true leadership is about mastering navigation rather than control. Explore the wisdom of adapting to uncertainty, recognizing hidden invitations at life's thresholds, and cultivating influence through awareness and grace.
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Influential Woman · Organizational Psychology and Executive Leadership Development
Kristin Sterling
CEO Executive Advisor, Kristin Global
Denver, CO 80221
31Years experience
1Article published
8Awards received
Her Story
About Kristin
Kristin Sterling is a CEO Executive Advisor with more than 32 years of experience in organizational psychology, industrial psychology, and executive leadership development. Her career took root in an early interest in social, racial, and economic justice and an initial path toward law and public policy, but a mentor's guidance redirected her toward organization design and human-centered leadership development, a field where she found she could create lasting change from within the institutions themselves. Since then, she has worked across more than 60 countries, partnering with executive women navigating pivotal transitions such as stepping into CEO, president, or EVP roles, or scaling from regional to global enterprise, board roles industry thought leadership. Sterling's work centers on amplifying women in leadership and building organizational cultures that are both energizing and built for the long term. She is especially known for her conviction that wellness and leadership impact cannot be separated, and much of her recent focus has gone toward helping executives, particularly women balancing demanding, high growth careers and personal responsibilities, develop integrated approaches to wellbeing so they can lead and scale at a high level without burning out. Her perspective has been shaped further through ongoing engagement with institutions including Harvard, INSEAD, and McKinsey, as well as her continued involvement with CHIEF, where she works to advance women in leadership on a broader scale. Beyond the boardroom, Sterling brings an entrepreneurial spirit that has extended well past executive advising. She holds an MS in Organization Development from UCLA and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Oregon, and among her most personally meaningful achievements is the founding of Double Barrel Wine Bar, an award-winning wine, food, and live-music venue she built by renovating a historic building in Livermore, California, into a community gathering place. Recognized with honors including the Marquee Award for Global Impact and multiple accolades for her hospitality venture, Sterling continues to advise leaders around the world to pursue bold ambitions with courage and tenacity, while never losing sight of the personal wellbeing that sustains a lasting career.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kristin
01What do you attribute your success to?
I credit my success to the breadth of experience I've gained working across roughly 60 countries with amazing teams,, which has given me a deep, firsthand understanding of leadership across cultures. Along the way, mentors helped point me in the right direction at pivotal moments, and I've always been willing to raise my hand for difficult, unfamiliar projects rather than stay in my comfort zone. My willingness to take entrepreneurial risks outside the corporate world, combined with a long-standing commitment to advancing women in leadership, has also shaped the path I've taken.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Early on, a mentor told me that the strategic, policy-oriented side of my thinking would be far better used in proactive human development work than in a government or law career. That guidance redirected me toward organization design and leadership development, a shift that ultimately defined my career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I encourage young women to protect and hold onto their boldest dreams, rather than settling only for what seems practical or expected. Be brave, courageous, tenacious, and gritty — the ideas that initially seem impossible are often the ones that create the greatest impact. I also remind them that no one succeeds alone; building a trusted circle, or what Melinda Gates and Michelle Obama have called a "trusted tribe," a personal board of directors who will celebrate wins, give honest feedback, and push you to keep growing, is essential.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges I see is that wellness is still too often treated as separate from leadership effectiveness, when in fact it's one of the strongest drivers of leadership impact. Many executives, women in particular, are forced to choose between their health and their ambitions, and too few have been given a practical roadmap for integrating the two. The opportunity ahead is to build leadership strategies where wellness, longevity, and livelihood are treated as central to sustained performance, not an afterthought, allowing leaders to be extraordinary without burning out.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Courage, ambition, and staying committed to meaningful aspirations guide both my professional and personal life. These values trace back to an early passion for social, racial, and economic justice, and they continue to show up in my dedication to inclusion, to amplifying women's voices, and to building deep, trusted relationships. Travel has reinforced for me that while cultures differ, the human need for belonging, purpose, and connection remains constant, and that same principle guides how I show up in both my work and my life.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Kristin
The Wind Doesn’t Push. It Invites. Why influential women don’t wait for certainty—they learn to navigate thresholds.
Learning to Lead by Letting Go of Control and Embracing Life's Invitations
Navigating the Wind: Leadership Beyond Control
For years, I believed leadership was about creating certainty.
Build the strategy.
Reduce the risk.
Have the plan.
Control the outcome.
Nature has taught me something very different.
After countless hours mountain biking above 10,000 feet, sailing across open water, and learning to kiteboard in winds and countries I could never fully predict, I've realized that the greatest leaders are not experts at control.
They become experts at navigation.
The wind has become one of my greatest teachers.
You cannot command it.
You cannot negotiate with it.
You cannot make it arrive sooner or stay longer.
You can only learn to recognize it.
And then decide whether to move.
That realization changed not only how I approach adventure, but also how I coach CEOs, boards, executive teams, and women stepping into larger leadership roles.
Because careers aren't built through certainty.
They're built by responding to invitations.
Every Transformation Begins at a Threshold
The word threshold originally described the piece of wood at the entrance of a home—the place where one world ended and another began.
Today, thresholds are everywhere.
A difficult conversation.
An unexpected opportunity.
A new role.
A board invitation.
A company restructuring.
A career that no longer aligns with the person you've become.
Most of us think these moments require courage.
I think they require something even more important:
Awareness.
Because invitations rarely arrive wearing name tags.
Sometimes they arrive disguised as discomfort.
Sometimes as curiosity.
Sometimes as loss.
Sometimes as a possibility that feels just beyond reach.
The question isn't whether opportunities exist.
The question is whether we've become quiet enough to notice them.
The Wisdom of the Wind
A kite never argues with the wind.
It learns from it.
Experienced sailors don't waste energy wishing the wind were different.
They trim the sails.
Experienced leaders do the same.
They stop asking, "Why is this happening?" and begin asking, "What is this moment inviting me to become?"
That single question changes everything.
Resistance consumes energy.
Navigation creates momentum.
The most influential leaders I've worked with don't have fewer headwinds than everyone else.
They simply interpret them differently.
They recognize that resistance often reveals direction.
Influence Is Navigation
Influence isn't about having all the answers.
It's about helping people move through uncertainty.
The executives who create lasting impact often aren't the smartest people in the room. They're often the calmest. The most curious. The most adaptable. The ones willing to adjust their course without abandoning their destination.
That's navigation.
It requires:
- Confidence without rigidity.
- Vision without certainty.
- Strength without force.
The wind teaches all three.
Women Often Stand at Invisible Thresholds
Many accomplished women I've coached aren't asking, "Am I capable?"
They're asking questions that are much harder to admit:
Do I belong at this table?
Can I lead differently than those before me?
Is this next chapter really mine?
Those aren't questions of competence.
They're questions of identity.
And identity shifts don't happen overnight.
They happen one threshold at a time.
One conversation.
One decision.
One brave introduction.
One moment of saying yes before complete certainty arrives.
The women who become influential aren't necessarily the ones who feel fearless.
They're the ones who stop waiting for fear to disappear.
They move anyway.
Navigation Requires Letting Go
One of the hardest lessons the wind teaches is that progress often requires releasing something first.
An old title.
An outdated definition of success.
The need to be chosen.
The need to have every answer.
The need to prove ourselves.
You cannot catch new wind while gripping yesterday's sail.
Every meaningful transformation asks us to loosen our hold on something familiar before we discover what is possible.
That isn't loss.
It's alignment.
The Invitation Hidden Inside Every Threshold
John O'Donohue wrote beautifully about thresholds—not merely as places we cross, but as sacred spaces where we become someone new.
Perhaps that is why so many meaningful moments feel uncertain.
We aren't simply changing circumstances.
We're changing ourselves.
Nature understands this instinctively.
Trees don't resist spring.
Birds don't apologize for migration.
Rivers don't argue with gravity.
The wind never announces where it is going.
It simply moves.
Perhaps leadership is less about creating perfect conditions and more about developing the wisdom to recognize when life is quietly inviting us toward a larger version of ourselves.
Toward greater contribution.
Toward deeper alignment.
Toward becoming.
Because influence isn't measured by how tightly we hold the wheel.
It's measured by how gracefully we learn to navigate changing winds.
The invitation is already here.
The threshold is beneath your feet.
The only remaining question is:
What is the wind asking of you today?
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