Annie K.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Johns Hopkins University

When Annie and I started working together, she was working in her dream job: serving as a senior advisor to the Secretary of Higher Education for New Jersey. She has the opportunity to positively impact hundreds of thousands of young adults, a mission she cared deeply about.

There was one problem. Annie was wildly burnt out. Yes, the workload was crushing. But, there was something deeper than that. Annie began to question if policy work was right for her. She was confused because this was supposed to be her dream job. She had just made the move from another prestigious job that had burnt her out and thought this new role would be the cure.

Annie and I focused on her burn out first. Annie set boundaries and slowly began to pull back from working around the clock. This gave her some space and energy to explore what she wanted to do next.

As Annie and I explored what she liked and didn’t like about her current role, she realized that she found research and analysis draining. Instead, she realized that she loved being a generalist, working on a wide variety of tasks over the course of a week, and using her superpowers in communication and influence to organize those around her. She had organically started to put those skills to use, serving as a de facto chief of staff to the Secretary.

Annie felt some initial resistance to embracing her generalist abilities, as there is so much societal value placed on excelling at “hard” skills such as research and analysis. She began to realize that her generalist abilities were her superpowers and that she could be wildly effective as a generalist, while working in a way that felt easy and energizing.

Through our coaching, Annie built the conviction to take a sabbatical, resigning from her policy job to give herself space to recharge and find the right next role ultimately joining the Office of the President at Johns Hopkins University as the Deputy Chief of Staff.

In her words:

“With Cydnee’s wise prodding, I learned to see myself in a completely new light, rewriting old narratives of failure and inadequacy. She helped me align my vision for my future with my values so that I wasn’t just going through the motions, and now I’ve landed a dream role and (try as much as possible) to lead my life with intention.”