Executive Coaching for Women · Leadership Training for WomenCoaching for women navigating real leadership challenges
Executive coaching and cohort experiences designed with the realities of women’s leadership in mind—from confidence and visibility to influence, boundaries, and sustainable success.
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THE UNWRITTEN RULESThe Complexities of Leading as a Woman
Leadership comes with challenges. But for women, some of those challenges are shaped by expectations that aren't always spoken or even recognized. Understanding these dynamics can help us make more intentional choices about how we lead.
The Likability Tax
Read as competent, and warmth drops. Read as warm, and authority gets questioned. Male peers rarely pay this particular tax.
The Only Woman in the Room
Hyper-visible and structurally alone at the same time, representing more than yourself in a meeting whether that was ever the plan or not.
The Credibility Reset
Earning trust all over again with every new boss, new stakeholder, new room, in a way a peer with the same title often doesn't have to.
The Second Shift
Leading all day, then coming home to a second full-time job that never shows up on a single performance review.
Understanding the Pattern Is Just the Beginning
Sometimes, simply recognizing a pattern changes how we understand our experiences. What once felt like a personal struggle may become easier to see in the context of expectations, relationships, and organizational dynamics.
But awareness also raises an important question: What do you want to do differently?
That's where coaching comes in.
Together, we explore how these dynamics show up in your leadership and identify practical ways to navigate them—whether that means communicating with greater confidence, advocating for your professional growth, setting clearer boundaries, or finding an approach to leadership that feels authentic to you.
Ways to Work TogetherCoaching and training built around where you are right now
1:1 Executive Coaching for Women
Individual coaching for women in senior or executive roles, working through the real dynamics of visibility, credibility, and advancement as they show up in your actual role.
Leadership Training for Women's Cohorts & ERGs
Group training built for a company's Women in Leadership program or employee resource group, so the group develops shared language and strategy together instead of each woman navigating it alone.
Sponsorship & Advancement Coaching
Focused specifically on the visibility and sponsorship gap, building the relationships and positioning that get someone considered for the next role, not just quietly qualified for it.
Meet Your COachHi, I’m Bethany Peters, and I help women navigate the complexities of leadership, grow in confidence, and lead more authentically.
For more than 20 years, my work has centered on leadership development—first as a leader myself, and now as an executive coach, facilitator, and educator. Over the years, I’ve coached women across roles, industries, and stages of leadership and designed leadership development experiences for leaders and organizations. I’ve had a front-row seat to the challenges that show up again and again: navigating confidence and visibility, finding your voice in rooms where you may be underestimated, balancing the demands of family and professional life, setting boundaries, stepping into greater responsibility, and figuring out how to lead well without losing yourself in the process.
I know many of these challenges personally, too. My work isn’t built only on what I’ve studied about women and leadership, but on what I’ve experienced and what I’ve learned through years of coaching women as they work through these questions in real time.
I hold a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and am a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation. I’m also certified in CliftonStrengths, Working Genius, the Enneagram, EQ-i 2.0, and MBTI.
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Work through second-guessing and strengthen your ability to trust your judgment, make decisions, and move forward without needing to have everything perfectly figured out.
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Strengthen your confidence, credibility, and presence without adopting a version of leadership that feels performative or disconnected from who you are.
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Communicate with greater clarity and confidence, whether you're speaking up in a meeting, having a difficult conversation, advocating for an idea, or giving direct feedback.
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Find strategic, realistic ways to navigate expectations, protect what matters, and make thoughtful decisions about where your time and energy go.
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Become more intentional about how you contribute, build relationships, advocate for your work, and increase your influence—without feeling like you have to constantly prove yourself.
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Navigate the very real intersection of leadership, family, caregiving, relationships, and the rest of your life—without pretending those things exist in separate boxes.
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Build intentional practices that help you manage your energy, stay engaged, and lead at a sustainable pace—especially in seasons when work and life are asking a lot of you.
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Think strategically about what's next, whether you're stepping into greater responsibility, adjusting to a new leadership role, or simply realizing that the way you've been working no longer fits the season you're in.
What we might work on together
What clients are saying
“Coaching with Bethany gave me both the mindset and the tools to lead with grounded confidence. Whether we were preparing for a high-stakes conversation, exploring strengths-based feedback, or building psychological safety on my team, she always came with thoughtful resources I could apply immediately.”
—Dorothy, Faculty Director“Bethany is an expert facilitator who knows how to create the conditions for deeper growth. She guided our group with a powerful, structured approach, surfacing things I couldn't see on my own and helping me translate those insights into stronger, more intentional leadership.”
—Stacy Bellward, marketing director
Common questions
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It works directly with the dynamics specific to being a woman in leadership: the likability and authority double bind, being the only woman in a room, having to rebuild credibility with every new stakeholder, and the sponsorship gap that affects who gets considered for advancement.
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Not a hard line. Executive coaching for women typically refers to 1:1 work with someone already in a senior or executive role, while leadership coaching for women can include earlier-career leaders and group formats like cohort training. Many engagements blend both.
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Yes. Cohort training is built specifically for this, giving a company's Women in Leadership program or ERG a shared framework and language rather than treating each woman's experience as an isolated issue.
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Both. Executive coaching tends to focus on women already in senior roles, while earlier-career leaders often benefit most from sponsorship and advancement coaching, working on positioning before the next promotion decision gets made rather than after.
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What's discussed in coaching sessions stays confidential. When an employer sponsors an engagement, any reporting back is limited to general themes or progress, never the specific content of a session, agreed on upfront before coaching begins.
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Yes. Both 1:1 coaching and cohort training are available virtually for individuals and organizations anywhere, in addition to in-person sessions for St. Louis-based organizations.
