Mary Lee Gannon - Executive Coach

I don’t have everything figured out but there are a few things I’ve seen enough that I know for sure.

1. We all are a product of the our DNA and our experiences. We can’t change either one but we most definitely can change the stories we attach to them that end up becoming the lens through which we see ourselves.

2. Patterns are difficult to break even when we see them.

3. Most people are good at their core.

4. Difficult people have the darkest and most deeply rooted stories whereby they continually externalize their suffering over a poor self image onto others to try to escape it. This is not sustainable which is why they have to keep doing it.

5. Hurt people have equally dark rooted stories that they internalize and identify the root cause of their suffering as something they did wrong or is wrong with them.

6. Most stories are usually flawed assumptions - not facts. Even good people get caught in a trap of continually agreeing with these assumptions until they become beliefs.

7. Flawed core beliefs steal identities. They also steal relatability, relationships, healthy choices, confidence, and self-esteem.

8. At work this looks like - not feeling good enough to ask for a promotion, feeling victimized by a toxic culture, blaming others for how you feel at work, isolation, giving up that things will change, fear of the unknown that keeps you in place. (Ironically most of these happen in personal life too.)

9. Happy people don’t hurt one another or themselves.

10. They have proactively made a choice to see the world through a lens that does not mirror disappointment back on themselves or project it outwardly in complaint.

11. Every single person that I know that lives a life of joy didn’t just get born lucky. They have committed to daily practices that keep them in appreciation of the moment - not dwelling on past or future. This helps them retire the stories that don’t serve them and keep in an intentional perspective of joy because they know it’s human nature to scan the environment for threat. We’re really good at it. We create stories around it in preparation. It’s why we aren’t extinct as a species.

12. Bracing for the impact of threat might come naturally but it is exhausting. Establishing mindful daily practices might be tedious at first but it’s invigorating. It’s why happy people keep doing it.

13. When I regularly write in my journal, take a mindful walk where I stay in the beauty of nature not rerun conversations or worry on a loop in my head, sit on my porch with an iced tea and watch the oak tree leaves wave at me in the wind, do yoga to release my joints, pray, photograph what makes me smile, crochet, meditate, paint, or any other activity that keeps me in the moment I remember my core identity as open, and whole, and loving, and loved, and relevant. It’s why I keep doing these things.

Wishing you a mindful summer.

Never once have I seen a capable professional get passed over because they didn't work hard enough.

They always work harder than everyone around them. That's exactly the problem. Management notices — and gives them more work.

The leader who advances is the one the organization is afraid to lose. Not afraid to overload. Afraid to lose.

That gap — between being taken for granted and being fought for — is what I have spent my career learning to close.

And somewhere along the way the doubt started forming for the people I coach.
Maybe I've peaked. Maybe the label they gave me is right. Maybe it's too late.
They agreed with that thought a little at a time until it felt like the truth.

It isn't.

You cannot out-strategize the core belief that has been running the show. You have to retire it — identify it, interrupt it, and replace it with your unique edge that makes you undeniable in every room that matters.

That is what The Must-Have Community is built for. A room where that work actually happens — with peers who are navigating the same terrain and a coach who has been in your room.

Two live coaching calls a month. A framework. A private community where you bring what you are actually navigating. New material every 30 days built specifically for professionals dealing with current trends in Corporate America.

Since opening in January not one member has left. That tells you something about what happens inside.

I am opening charter member enrollment at $97/month for the next two weeks. After June 12th this closes.

Comment LINK below or send me a message and I will send details to you directly.

You became the Must-Have a long time ago. You just aren't being experienced that way. Close the gap between your ability and how you are experienced here. I would love to have you in the room.

You work harder than almost everyone around you.



You always have. Urgent things. Non-crucial things. Things that needed doing and you were the one who did them. You wore that work like a badge of honor because it was the evidence you had that you were valuable.



And then the new hire got the nod. The person with less experience got the call. The one who seemed to do less got the seat at the table you had been preparing for. They didn't get laid off.



You told yourself it was timing. Politics. That your turn was coming.



But somewhere between then and now a thought started forming. Quietly. Almost too quietly to name.



Maybe I'm just not good enough. Maybe I was never cut out for this. Maybe I've lost my edge. Maybe I should start over because people here don't respect me.



You agreed with the despairing version of these thoughts so many times it has started to feel like the truth. The 3am replay that confirms what you were already afraid was true. The Sunday night dread that starts earlier every week. The glass of wine that used to be occasional. The exercise routine that stalled. The pantry at 10pm — not because you are hungry but because the doubt needs somewhere to go. The people you love getting the residue of you — the version that is left after the performance is done for the day. The activities and friendships you keep putting off until things calm down.



Things do not calm down.



So, you start looking sideways instead of forward. A lateral move or a backward move. A different company. A fresh start somewhere the slate is clean. But something in you already knows what will happen. Two months into it the same pattern surfaces. Because you did not leave it behind. You carried it with you.



Maybe you have also carried a label someone gave you. Too emotional. Too direct. Too old. Overqualified. No executive presence. Outdated skillset. Not ready. Can't use AI. And some part of you has started to wonder if they are right.



They were not right.



This is a flawed assumption — agreed with so many times it became a core belief. And you cannot out-strategize a core belief. You have to retire it. And that's not a skill or a practice you ever learned.



Here is the truth I have never once seen contradicted in all my years coaching senior leaders:



The leader who is called on, included, and advances is not the one who works hardest. It is...



the one the organization is afraid to lose.



Not afraid to overload. Afraid to lose.



The gap between being taken for granted and being fought for has a name. I call it the Edge Gap™. And closing it changes everything. Not just your career. Your health. Your relationships. Your life.



In January, I opened a Community to help people with this where I learned something important. As the clients grew to rely on the continuity of the support and got closer, certain themes showed me that leaders in today's envorinmental uncertainty of AI, layoffs, and a challenged economy are calling for something specific. They want positioning that makes them undeniable no matter what is going on - in work and life.



So, I rebuilt the Community with a new name and focus - The Must-Have Community, addressing current career situations while addressing how career frustration shows up at home too.



Last week on one of our twice a month coaching calls, a member was dealing with a difficult neighbor. We addressed it and another member said, " I can use that. I have the same issue with my sister-in-law."



Since opening in January not one member of this Community has left. That tells you something about what happens inside.



For the next two weeks I am opening charter member enrollment at $97/month — locked in permanently for anyone who joins during this window. The link is below where you can check out all that is included.



This week I want to show you exactly what this work looks like in real life. Watch for an email on this the day after tomorrow. Or sign up now to hold your place because I keep the room small for a reason.

Details👇👇👇


P.S. Share this for someone who may need it today. We are all walking down the same road in life. Sometimes we need a hand to hold. and sometimes we are the hand that reahes out.

You said the exact right thing in that meeting.
Your colleague said it twenty minutes later.
The room responded to them.

───

That moment has a name.
It's called the Edge Gap™ — the invisible distance between your actual capability and how you're experienced by the people making decisions.

It has nothing to do with your credentials.
Nothing to do with your effort.
Nothing to do with how hard you've prepared.
It's a translation failure. And it's costing you rooms you've earned the right to lead.

───

Here's what makes it specific:
You're not behind. You're not broken. You haven't peaked.
You're a highly capable leader running a pattern that's creating a gap between who you are and how you're received — and most leaders never learn to see it, let alone close it.
That's why the executive presence workshops didn't work.
That's why the visibility strategies didn't move the needle.
That's why you're still leaving the important meetings with that feeling and reliving the memory over and over in your mind.
They were solving the wrong problem.

───

What's on the other side of closing the gap:
The meeting where your judgment is sought before you've even spoken.

Walking in steady — not braced for impact, not performing, not managing how you're coming across.

The version of yourself that shows up on your strongest days becoming the one that shows up every day.

Leadership that doesn't cost you exhaustion on the treadmill to nowhere while you hustle for your worth yet aren't advancing seriously.

───

I wrote a guide that names five specific patterns behind the Edge Gap™ — each one with a client story and the exact descriptor.
Not another presence workshop takeaway.

A diagnostic. Built on what I see consistently in the leaders who arrive capable, credentialed, and still overlooked.

If any of this is landing — it's worth ten minutes of your time.

Link in comments.

Saturday I attended a continuing education conference by Novellus Coaching Academy after which I returned home to this beautiful old gal who after an hour home essentially had a stroke and we had to say our final goodbyes.

At the conference we talked about grief - how although our culture doesn’t encourage it we need to talk about it to process it, how non-death grief over a layoff, retirement, termination, etc. involves the same processing as death, how stuffing down the difficult emotions only prolongs agony, and how some of corporate America doesn’t recognize that three days off for bereavement isn’t enough time to even bury someone.

I found it fortuitous to have this grief reminder just before I needed to apply it in real time. For everyone dealing with loss I see you. It’s gutting. Let yourself cry. Talk about what you miss. It honors it. People who care about you want to listen. I want to listen.

In the pet emergency room after we decided it was time, we started sharing our favorite Bailey stories. We cried through them and we laughed too. All the emotions. Still, it is heartbreaking.

Bailey was a rescue and we never knew her birthday. So, we will always honor May 9th as Bailey Day.

My wish for you if you are carrying the heaviness of a loss today is that you be gentle with yourself. Grief is love with nowhere to go. Death doesn’t kill love. It changes the context of the relationship. Love your memories. Love what you miss. Love yourself in the process.

I laugh when I think of Bailey in heaven with all the people and our other pets that she knew that are with her there. I’m sure she’s positioned herself with the best seat on the best couch and is giving the same look as in this photo - “My space.”

Yesterday I gave a virtual presentation to a national audience of leaders from the United States Veterans Administration on Anxiety and Executive Presence.

In preparation the day before, I took a long document of the points I like to share, fed it to AI, and let it create slides and a script for me to edit.

Then I practiced recording the presentation in zoom and after 43 minutes of that I didn’t even have to listen to the recording to know it didn’t sound like me, stress what I think is important, lace in the extemporaneous points that evolve in real time, or feel relatable. It just didn’t feel right.

So, I decided to scrap the entire script as well as my long document and speak from my heart with a list of 10 bullet points. A little risky but it felt better. After all, it was my experience, perspective, life lessons, and courage I was talking about.

To share the heart of that in a compelling way was important to me because I didn’t want them to suffer a stalled career when there was another way. I knew my “Why?” I also knew it had to be delivered honestly and in real time.

That required me not to run the notes over in my mind a dozen times, but to sit alone in silence and remember what I wanted to convey, what was at stake if the audience wasn’t moved by it, and what they can do today when they are. That’s when my conviction returned.

So, I get on the call with the facilitator and before I started I asked her what difficulties people were dealing with in their work. She explained the culture and challenges they have at the moment. Uncertainty was threaded through all of it.

An audience member commented in the chat how much he appreciated me taking the pulse of the room. I knew then, I was on the right track.

I spoke for an hour at a presentation that was optional where 178 people were online when I started and 178 were online when it ended.

I never looked at or thought about my notes. I searched inside myself to conjure up my best storytelling skills to weave a tapestry of truth about what happens to our nervous system when we are triggered, how to make a conscious choice when that happens, and remind them that in all of the chaos their brilliance is like the sun - it never ever dims.

The comment forms are still coming in. The facilitator said, “Already, staff have individually reached out saying, ‘I did not even realize I needed this today.’ And, “Please tell Mary Lee how good today was!’”

✅ We all have a radiance inside of us beaming to shine our brilliance to the world. Untethered thoughts and unprocessed emotions cloud that glow when we allow them to.

💡 A thought is not a belief until you agree with it.

💡 A difficult emotion is not something to fear because avoiding it turns into anxiety - the practice of failing before it happens.

Luminate the world. We need it.

♻️ Share for someone who needs it.

We don’t quit. We don’t survive. And we don’t thrive either.

We are the subset of the population that knows how to make big things happen…

While allowing ourselves to be human in the process.

That means it’s not easy. Frankly, it’s hard.

We can admit that.

Where we are going on this journey of life, and love, and fulfillment has its costs.

Sleepless nights, time away from home, tireless dedication, neglecting good eating and exercise, and sometimes pushing away from the very people we care about the most.

Then we realize that none of it works if we don’t prioritize ourselves.

So, we regain healthy habits, reconnect with people we cherish, and create that garden that we always wanted.

We smile. We laugh. We cry. We dance. We try new things.

And people look at us and laugh that we’re just trying something new again and that we got here because we’re pretty, or lucky, or know the right people.

And we smile, laugh, cry, dance, and try new things some more.

We’re different. We’re the ones that take the risks others won’t.

So, while some may characterize us, it doesn’t affect us. We don’t hear them. We know our people. We’re too busy having fun taking those risks with them.

Because getting important stuff done with all our imperfections as we remain human in the process is who we are.

Don’t get in our way. 😉

“I want to be recognized for my actual capabilities. I want leadership to see what I can really do. But they look past me.”

This is what I’m hearing from my clients in today’s corporate culture where AI is replacing people, speed to market is at rapid pace, the economy is tenuous, and talent is commoditized.

🙄 The Emitional Reality: The human longing is deep. Deeper than the recognition for work well done. You have the reasonable desire to feel the relief of being in a room where your presence registers. Where you matter.

✅ Where the air changes slightly when you speak.

✅ Where people lean in rather than past you.

✅ Where your judgment is sought not tolerated.

💨 It would feel like a slow exhale after years of bracing for impact.

🙌 The Unspoken Truth: You want to stop working so hard to prove yourself and finally be noticed and recognized for your value.

✅ You want your contribution and perspective to be obvious the way it seems to be obvious for certain other people.

🤔 You secretly wonder if there’s something you’re doing wrong or if some people just radiate authority naturally, and you’re simply not one of those people.

Spoiler Alert - No and No. There’s simply a gap between what you can do and how you’re showing up.

🥺 In The Moment: In a high stakes meeting, at a critical decision point leadership turns to other people not out of obligation but because it’s clearly the natural mood to do so.

✅ You want that for you.

✅ To answer from a place of grounded certainty.

✅ The room to settle on your idea, analysis, projection, project.

✅ For the decision to hinge on your input.

✅ To feel for the first time in a long time exactly as capable as you actually are.

If this resonates with you, May 1st starts the 90-day Spring Cohort of The Executive Edge Accelerator.

SightLine ➡️ SteadyState ➡️ InfluencePoint

This three phase process restores how leaders think respond and lead under pressure so your capability becomes undeniable in the rooms that matter.

We finally close the Edge Gap - the invisible distance between your capability and how you are experienced by others that has been keeping you overlooked, bypassed, and undervalued, despite being highly competent and able to be hired, promoted and the must-have.

After 19 years as a CEO running organizations worth up to $37 million in companies with 100,000 employees I know what you’re dealing with and the shift necessary to advance. And you don’t need another certification, degree, or self-help book.

Give me 90 days and I’ll make you undeniable.

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When someone makes you suffer it’s excruciating. Gutting. You feel like a dear in the headlights, wondering what you did to deserve this. The answer is, “nothing.”

In this episode of The Still Space Podcast - When Someone Makes You Suffer - we talk about what to do when someone purposefully sets out to destroy you or make your life miserable. This is a real-life experience of mine that I’m sharing to help you learn from it.

https://www.maryleegannon.com/podcasts/the-still-space-podcast/episodes/2149178600

You know when someone has a finesse about them that draws attention. And you know when someone doesn’t have it.

When I think about all the times I’ve commanded a room, negotiated what was needed, won support for an initiative, nailed a presentation, engaged the board to follow my lead, and been the must-have there was always one constant.

My entire being knew I could. Despite the odds.

When I think about the times I didn’t garner favor or win respect there was also one constant.

I was needing something that wasn’t forthcoming and my actions were emotional. My entire being was needy.

The art on managing your nervous system in real time closes the gap between your abilities and how you’re experienced when you’re feelings are screaming for validation.

This is just one of the essential skills I show leaders how to do in my new Executive Edge Accelerator 90-day cohort that starts May 1st so they can be the must-have despite the emotional interference.

✅ So they win the favor of their team.

✅ So they command respect.

✅ So no matter where they sit it’s the table that matters.

✅ So they are valued, included, hired, promoted.

When you know how to see yourself from a third party perspective without judging yourself, your entire persona shifts to one of personal power and undeniability.

👀 You don’t need to be right. You’re too busy getting it right.

All the information on The Executive Edge Accelerator launched this week. It’s a very small group with 1:1 personal coaching. When it’s full it closes. Let’s get you back to being undeniable.

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