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Welcome to The Sound Blog! Our leadership development experts create valuable posts, videos and surveys that can help you develop a successful coaching program!

Leading Coaching and Talent-Building Platform Team Up To Democratize Leadership Development at all Levels of Enterprise

Learn In, the world’s first upskilling-as-a-service platform that empowers companies to keep employee skills current among rapid technological change, is partnering with Sounding Board, Inc., the leading Coaching Enablement Platform and managed coach network that scales, manages and measures complex leadership development programs across the enterprise.

How Coaching Is Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship

Sounding Board Announces the Promotion of Senior Executives Tommy Perkins and Piyush Gupta

Sounding Board Series A Fund Raising Featured in Fortune Term Sheet

5 guiding principles for measuring the impact of learning

Sherlock Holmes is known for having solved some of the most precarious murder mysteries. Enter Kevin M. Yates, a 20+ year veteran of the learning and development industry. Kevin is The L&D Detective – Solving the Impact & Measurement Mysteries of our time. In this week’s discussion with Sounding Board’s Co-founder/President Christine Tao, learn the 5 guiding principles that Kevin employs to help solve the most important opportunity the HR community struggles with – measuring the impact of learning.

HR on the Frontlines of Learning and Leadership Development

HR Top Trends: What is Here to Stay

Learning and the new future of work

Leading Forward: How Coaching Turns Learning into Impact

Hard Times Call for Soft Skills

Introducing Leadership Labs Group Coaching

Get the latest news

The HR experts and coaches at Sounding Board write, film and create the most informative content each week to help you with the most critical topics. Join and learn more about how we help create great leaders.

How to Create Leaders that Others Will Follow

As companies aspire to be more agile, effective organizational leaders are looking for ways to build leadership capabilities in the workforce to create a competitive advantage.

Harnessing Uncertainty into Opportunity, with Dave Ulrich

Find out why HR leaders of large enterprise companies must harness the uncertainty around them. In this webinar, Dave Ulrich shares how to navigate uncertainty and create an agile organization…

Learn the secret to driving Corporate Growth & Innovation

Corporate Growth & Innovation rests on the strength of your “bench” - those employees who are ready for leadership but just need the tools and support. Now more than ever,…

Building Leaders in Chaotic Times

“Building Leaders in Chaotic Times” will explore how your company can thrive during times of chaos by building a program that shapes company culture, improves employee performance, and drives overall…

How to Integrate the Needs of Remote Workers with Business Goals

Geared to executive HR, People Leaders, Talent Managers, Change Management and Learning professionals at enterprise organizations, this webinar is a “must” for those that want to learn specific HR policies…

Leading Forward: Obtaining Buy-In on Culture & Leadership Programs

In today’s chaotic and quickly changing work environments, developing leaders and a culture that is agile, productive and innovative is more important than ever. When budgets are tight or being…

Leading Forward: Top Insights for Leveraging L&D as a Catalyst for Change

Sponsored by Sounding Board, Inc. and Degreed, the at-capacity event focused on the unprecedented changes to the workplace brought about by COVID-19 and how these chaotic times provide a chance…

Tech Crunch - Sounding Board Raises Cash As Startups Wake Up To Executive Coaching

In an unprecedented work environment defined by distributed teams and virtual-only communication, two co-founders think their 2018 bet reigns truer than ever: mentors need mentorship, too. Christine Tao and Lori…

Announcing our $13.1M Series A at Sounding Board

Today, we’re excited to share that Sounding Board has closed $13.1M in Series A funding led by Canaan Partners. Canaan is joined by Correlation Ventures, existing investors Bloomberg Beta, Precursor Ventures, and…

Seismic shift to remote work and an urgent need for leadership development drives $13.1M Series A funding for coaching platform Sounding Board

Sounding Board, Inc, the premier cloud-based coaching platform, announced the close of an oversubscribed $13.1M Series A funding led by Canaan Partners.

Podcast - Drive Your Career: Christine Tao

Charu Sharma, host of "Drive Your Career" podcast recently interviewed Sounding Board's Co-founder & CEO Christine Tao about her story of starting her VC-backed company while pregnant with her second…

Featured in New York Post - Sounding Board's Christine Tao shares insight on how finding a good mentor is actually all about coaching

Until recently, only top managers were paired with an executive coach. Sessions were almost always in person, often required travel and cost thousands of dollars. At progressive companies, this has…

Time to Get Serious About Leadership

The work of leaders in peacetime is to be as prepared as possible for wartime, not just their business but themselves. Leaders participating in Sounding Board coaching have been doing…

Meet Barry Peterson, Sounding Board’s new Director of Engineering!

Sounding Board is excited to welcome Barry Peterson as Director of Engineering. Barry brings over 18 years of hands-on engineering expertise and thought leadership to the team.

5 Strategies for Setting Intentions and Visioning

The following are five reasons why setting intentions and visualizing are the most powerful tool you can engage with as we all emerge from quarantine.

COVID-19 Pandemic Pushes Leaders to Evolve Faster and Be Better

What the COVID-19 pandemic has done is expedite this revelation, exposing the default mental habits of many and, in some cases, accelerating the leadership that might have taken months or…

What got us here won’t get us there

My first coach was hired for me before I knew anything about coaching. Because I was constantly upsetting the status quo, my bosses couldn’t figure out what to do with…

In honor of International Coaching Day

In honor of International Coaching Day (part of International Coaching Week May 4-10) Sounding Board salutes the integral role that coaches play in the future of work. We thank the…

Turn Lemons into Lemonade

How are people feeling this morning? The best way to describe my emotional state and what I've observed of others has been what I've now coined "the cry-laugh". For so…

Accepting Help During a Pandemic

As we are all still sheltering-in-place at Sounding Board and working remotely like the majority of the country, the time has given way to team members who are sharing their…

The Cycle of a Pandemic: An opportunity for leaders

The cycle of a pandemic - for most of us something we have never experienced - will have devastating effects on our country and our communities for years to come.…

Jamie Dimon Walks the Talk: Leadership Development

Jamie Dimon is considered one of the best CEO’s of our time. My guess is that he is walking this talk. 20 years ago when the coaching industry was just…

Sounding Board lands investment from Degreed Co-founder as demand for leadership development accelerates amidst COVID-19

Investment from David Blake and The Future of Work Studios underscores the demand for data-driven, virtual leadership development that prepares leaders to thrive during chaotic times.

Resourcing Yourself First Makes You a Better Leader

What is radical about resourcing yourself first? Radical self-resourcing demands that you relentlessly do what it takes to ensure that you are showing up at your best – be it…

Christine Tao talks about "Building an Agile & Innovative HR Function for startups" with Hacking HR Global Online Conference and Workshop

Hear from people leaders that have seen companies and unicorns through hypergrowth across every industry: consumer, B2B, Saas, media and gaming. Our panelists have all led the HR function at…

Christine Tao on the BearStartups Podcast

The BearStartups is a podcast hosted by Michael Assadi where he interviews highly successful UC Berkeley alumni & student entrepreneurs on their story, advice, and ultimately how they turned their…

Breaking Out of Your Personal Jail: How to Get the Freedom You Crave

When I first started working, I was terrible about setting boundaries. I would work constantly, logging hour after hour to please insatiable bosses. I was convinced that the longer and…

The 4 New Year’s Resolutions to Strengthen Your Company’s Leadership Culture

The champagne is popped, the ball has dropped, now make some resolutions to empower your leadership teams in the new year.

How HR can Help Turn Managers into Strategic Leaders (Part 2: Challenges of a First Time Manager)

The transition into a managerial role for the first time is a tough one. Often times, first time managers experience many of the same challenges. During the fireside chat Christine,…

How HR can Help Turn Managers into Strategic Leaders (Part 3: Tips to be more Strategic!)

Our last two posts gave a recap and summary of some of the topics discussed during the chat along with some tips. In this post, however, we hope to provide…

How To Succeed As A New Manager

For many professionals, landing their first job as a new manager seems like the epitome of success. But in my experience, once they get a moment alone in their new…

Event Recap: How Top HR Leaders Partner With The CEO & Board To Drive Business Success

Our own Christine Tao led a Redpoint Ventures panel called Building Your Strategic Leadership Muscle, where HR experts explored the crucial role of Chief People Officers in modern business settings.

Forbes.com: “Modern Leadership Coaching For New Executives: We Wish We Had This Earlier”

What got you promoted, won’t help you now. Blame disruptive cloud technologies stoking the fastest-ever pace of business change. Better yet, unite that technology with executive coaching designed to meet…

Is Your Coach a Trillion Dollar Coach?

Leadership is a difficult skill to master, which makes leadership coaching an art in itself. That’s why we were so excited to find out about Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership…

Three Mindset Shifts To Help New Leaders Excel

I often think of promoting an employee to a new executive or managerial position as what it’s like teaching someone how to drive. The driving student might have spent years…

Soft Skills For First Time Managers In The Digital Age

Soft skills have always been critical to leadership success, but in a modern digital work environment, new managers must recalibrate.

Say the Hard Things

VIDEO - While I’ve built global teams before, I’ve learned that leadership is truly a constantly evolving practice. I guess that’s why leading teams can be so fulfilling and also…

Learn More About The Sounding Board With a Curated Platform Demo

From leading remote workforces, building productive teams, to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion, Sounding Board has virtual and scalable enterprise solutions that are urgently required to adapt to rapidly changing workplace environments.

Explore:

Leadership capabilities critical to business success developed through 1:1 and group coaching solutions.
Why remote workplaces urgently require improved leadership capabilities.
How to align and measure business results from Sounding Board leadership coaching.
Sounding Board’s customizable tech-based coaching platform scalable to leaders at all levels of your organization.
Learn about pricing details and engagement models.
Get all your questions answered.

Piyush Gupta

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER

Piyush Gupta is VP of Product and Technology at Sounding Board and champions the voice of customers and users with deep empathy. Piyush envisions Sounding Board to be the first window of coaching experience for professionals and leaders worldwide. His approach is deeply rooted in proven scientific research, modeling human behaviors, and data-informed insights to deliver mindset shifts and desired business outcomes for organizations at scale. He believes that a world-class UX is key to drive simplicity that will lead to millions of professionals to access coaching for their development. Piyush co-invented the world’s first ‘landmark intelligent driving directions’ technology that led Google to redesign their routing algorithms for the Asian markets. For the next decade, he led two disruptive FinTech companies to the market leadership positions and delivered two award-winning products that serve more than 70 million users worldwide. His teams filed 20+ patents while he himself authored three patents. He is an active startup investor and advises selected AI-driven startups on business and product strategy. He is the recipient of the World Summit Award, one of the most prestigious international honors for product innovators. In addition, he is a James Swartz fellow, the most prestigious fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University funded by the founder of the iconic venture firm, Accel Partners. Piyush holds an MS in Software Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Tommy Perkins

SVP OF SALES, PARTNERSHIP & CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Tommy is at his best helping clients think through complex challenges in order to create a positive impact on their organizations. He thrives when interacting with others whether helping his team succeed or working with clients to build long-term partnerships. He has extensive experience consulting with organizations on driving their employee experience, guiding organizations through change, and working to ensure organizations are moving the needle when it comes to their results.

Most recently, Tommy was a Client Services Leader overseeing some of GP’s most prized accounts on a global level. His responsibilities included overall client growth strategy, retention, and satisfaction. He represented all of GP Strategies’ major business lines including leadership, coaching, and engagement, digital transformation, outsourced services, and technology implementation solutions.

Before GP Strategies, Tommy spent several years with TTEC Digital (formerly rogenSI) where he led the sales team, eventually becoming the regional Learning & Performance practice leader for North America. While managing the P&L and sales team he also led the largest global relationship for the firm (Deloitte Globally). During his time at TTEC, he focused on delivering blended learning solutions that incorporate technology and hands-on training. Before TTEC Digital, he spent several years dedicated to strength-based leadership disrupting the business landscape regarding performance management and employee engagement with thought leader Marcus Buckingham at The Marcus Buckingham Company / TMBC (now ADP).

Tommy has had the privilege of working with some of the most well-known global brands in professional services, retail, technology, and healthcare including Deloitte, Facebook, Microsoft, Bank of America, Novartis, Gap Inc., lululemon, and Intel. Several projects he led for Deloitte were Global GNPS, New Partner Pivot, NextGen Partner Program Deloitte China, Present to Win, the RPM project on performance management, and Unconscious Bias.

Tommy holds a BS in Health Sciences from Texas A&M University, and an MBA from Universidad del CEMA.

Learn How to Build Agile and Productive Leaders Now!

From leading remote workforces, building productive teams, to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion, Sounding Board has virtual and scalable enterprise solutions that are urgently required to adapt to rapidly changing workplace environments.

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Our expert coaches combine top notch coaching, business acumen and organizational savvy to truly become your leadership “Sounding Board”. Sounding Board coaches are all industry certified and strongly vetted going through a 3 step qualification process and receiving ongoing supervision and development.

Lori Mazan

Co-Founder & CCO Sounding Board, Inc.

Lori Mazan is the Co-Founder and Chief Coaching Officer of Sounding Board, the preeminent global leadership development enterprise platform changing the face of leadership development through innovative technology for leaders at all levels of an organization. Lori is a seasoned executive coach who has guided hundreds of corporate executives through 1:1 coaching focused on business outcomes and developing critical leadership skills. Client companies advanced by Lori’s expertise include Fortune titans such as Chevron and Sprint as well as high growth and public companies like Intellikine, and Tapjoy, plus 10XGenomics, which became a public company in 2019 while top executives worked with Lori and the Sounding Board team.

Lori has spent the last 25 years coaching C-Suite executives to leadership excellence. Many of those public and private company CEO’s expressed that they would have liked this caliber of coaching earlier in their careers. Inspired by these experiences, Lori joined with Christine to launch Sounding Board as a feedback-driven, cloud-based leadership coaching platform that could maintain best-in-class leadership coaching while lowering costs to make it affordable and scalable for leaders at every level of their careers.

Before founding Sounding Board, Lori received her Masters’ in Adult Educational Psychology/Counseling from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelors’ in Psychology from the University of Virginia. Lori is an educator and has spent over 10 years as a professor of social psychology and group dynamics while acting as the interim Dean of Students at Holy Names University, She is certified by the industry’s gold standard, the Coaches Training Institute, and is a founding member of the Genentech Preferred Network of Coaches. Sounding Board is one of <3% of sole female founded startups receiving venture funding. In 2019 Sounding Board was selected as 1 of 7 startups (out of 100+ applicants) as part of SAP’s HR tech cohort, a group that represents the rising stars of the next-gen HR ecosystem.

Christine Tao

Co-Founder & CEO Sounding Board, Inc.

Christine Tao is the co-founder & CEO at Sounding Board, a Silicon Valley startup redefining how organizations are developing their leaders. Her extraordinarily rapid career growth to executive management in the media, mobile and tech sectors of Silicon Valley became her inspiration for founding Sounding Board. As she began to manage larger teams and be responsible for growing revenues, it became clear that she needed a “sounding board” to coach her on the development of her leadership skills. That’s where her Sounding Board co-founder, Lori Mazan came on the scene. A seasoned executive coach focused on leadership development, Lori coached Christine on real-world leadership skills that had a direct impact on business outcomes. Based on her positive and impactful experience with leadership development, Christine was driven to make leadership development coaching accessible to people at all levels of the organization.

Christine advises several startups, is a budding angel investor and is also a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, a foundation dedicated to investing in the success and sustainability of women entrepreneurs.

Prior to co-founding Sounding Board, Christine was a Senior Vice President of Developer Relations at Tapjoy, a venture-backed, leading mobile advertising & publishing network. She led the growth of Tapjoy’s publisher advertising business from 0 to over $100 million in revenues in less than 3 years. Prior to that she led e-commerce partnerships and strategy at YouTube. Christine holds an MBA in Marketing & Operations from Wharton and a BA in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.

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