From Big Boss to Real Boss

As a kid, I set up a desk in the living room, put out a sign that read "The Big Boss," and supervised my little sister as she called numbers from the yellow pages to conduct a survey about yogurt. I felt important, purposeful, satisfied. At 15, I rode my bike to the local pizza parlor and asked for a job. The idea that I could provide something of value to other people, and that they would recognize it, felt like everything.

That drive didn't leave me when I grew up. It just ran headlong into reality. Over 20 years, I worked across organizations in advocacy for child abuse prevention, hospice care, and cultural community building. I managed difficult employees, sat through meetings that consumed hours and produced nothing, and watched good people disengage and leave. My inner Big Boss was still there. But the work of sustaining her grew harder.

When I left my last role as an employee, I expected to feel free. Instead, I found myself still flinching at email response times, overworking client projects in pursuit of perfection, and struggling to rest when I was tired. Twenty years of organizational culture doesn't untangle overnight. The patterns stay with you because they were never really about you. They were baked into systems still running on a model built to assemble vehicles, not develop people.

That realization clarified everything. The problem wasn't the people in those workplaces. It was the absence of the conditions people need to contribute fully: clarity about where the organization is heading, trust that feedback travels in both directions, and the knowledge that speaking up carries no penalty. When those conditions exist, work changes. People change. I've seen it. I've helped build it. And I founded Coalesce to do exactly that.

Many of us spend close to half of our waking lives at work. We deserve to spend that time in places where we feel heard, where our contributions matter, and where we know where we're going together.

Sarah-Kate Sharkey, Founder

A Few Things I Know to Be True

What Guides This Work

The Work Builds in Three Stages, Always

Every engagement, regardless of what a client initially calls about, begins with a question: where does this team actually need to start? The answer determines the sequence. And the sequence determines whether the work holds.

Organizations that reach for innovation before their people have found their footing tend to see those efforts stall. The three stages below aren't a philosophy. They're a pattern I've seen play out across every sector I've worked in.

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Organizational Culture Development · Team Facilitation · Strategic Planning

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