Soft on People. Sharp on Nonsense.
Leadership Development Wellington
For Leaders Done With Performing
Tired of corporate whack-a-mole
Stop translating honesty into system-speak and start leading with clarity. Cor Coaching helps you find your truth.
You’ve done the leadership courses. Sat through the culture workshops. Read the books with noble titles and noble intentions.
Still, here you are: playing corporate whack-a-mole, where the rules keep shifting and the real conversations never happen.
Because you’re not just leading a team — you’re holding complexity. You’re navigating uncharted territory.
You’re trying to shift something real in a system that resists change.
Cor Coaching offers leadership development and systemic culture work that’s emotionally intelligent, radically human, and sharply tuned to complexity.
Through archetypal tools, embodied reflection, and strategic coaching, we help leaders and teams unstick stuck systems — and work in ways that feel aligned, not performative.
What Working Together Opens Up For You
Not answers in a box. Not another leadership script to memorise. But a place to return to your own clarity — and move forward from there.
From navigating complexity alone → To having a trusted compass during chaos. You've been carrying the big questions and quiet tensions — this is where they're met, not managed.
From leadership as performance → To grounded, systemic leadership. Stop checking boxes and managing optics. Start leading from your core truth.
From analysis paralysis → To decisive action, rooted in truth. Using your whole self—not just your head—to make choices that hold both integrity and viability.
From silent exhaustion → To sustained resilience. This is a space to finally be held, not just hold.
And while no two clients walk the same path, this is what often emerges when we do this work together:
Making difficult decisions without constant second-guessing
Creating team cultures where real conversations can happen without defensiveness
The ability to separate what's yours to carry from what belongs to broken systems
Managing internal voices that hijack clarity during high-stakes moments
Leading from your values rather than just reacting to systemic pressures
Tools for navigating organisational politics while maintaining integrity
A clearer internal compass — especially in moments of complexity or contradiction
Language for what they’ve been feeling but couldn't yet name
Our Guiding Principles
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This is our central principle. We lead with empathy, compassion, and a deep respect for the human experience. We believe that people are not the problem; the systems, patterns, and unspoken tensions are. We will not engage in blaming or victimisation.
We will, however, fearlessly challenge ineffective strategies, false harmonies, and misaligned systems that hold people back.
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We recognise that leadership isn't just about what's visible on a resume or an org chart. We see the unseen work of a change manager threading connections across silos, the quiet emotional labour of a strategic advisor holding everyone's tension, and the bone-deep grief of a community leader translating pain into policy-friendly language.
Our work is built on acknowledging and valuing this invisible labour.
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Our work is a cultural mirror — a space where questions are not punished and where people can speak truths that matter.
We help clients navigate without translating honesty into system-speak or softening the story to stay in the room.
We hold space for the emotional truth, even when it's messy.
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We believe that true traction comes from alignment, not from top-down compliance. We will help clients find a felt alignment that can hold when the dust settles.
Our focus is on fostering trust and clarity, not on simply prescribing solutions or controlling outcomes.
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We will not bypass reality or engage in performative change. We will face the messy truth head-on, just as our clients do. At the same time, our work is powered by the belief that something better is possible.
We work with fierce hope to create more humane systems and leave things better than we found them.
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We believe that creativity isn't a bonus — it's a tool for liberation. We encourage you to move beyond tired rules and find new, more human-centred ways of working.
And we do it with humour, lightness, and a good dose of fun, because meaningful change doesn’t have to be a joyless, sterile process.
A Different Kind of Space
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You've felt it — that inner sense that there's a more authentic way to lead. One that doesn't ask you to trade truth for influence, or connection for control.
You've caught glimpses of it. You're already working toward it. But when you're managing constant complexity, the path forward isn't always clear.
This is work that meets you in that uncertainty. Not to map it all out — but to help you navigate it with more clarity and confidence.
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You don't need another framework. Another model. Another tidy set of tools that promise transformation — until real life gets messy.
And you definitely don't need fixing.
What you might need is a space where real conversations can happen. The ones that don't fit inside strategy decks or quarterly reviews. The ones about what's actually happening beneath the role, beneath the metrics.
This isn't conventional coaching. We use creative tools, movement, and pattern recognition to access insights that traditional leadership development misses. There will be laughter. There will be unexpected connections. We might use cards to identify cultural patterns or take a walking session to think differently about challenges.
This work is deep, but it's also practical. Sometimes that means questioning what no longer serves you and finding new approaches that actually fit.
It starts with honest conversation. With space to think clearly. With permission to lead from what you know to be true.
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You could keep managing complexity. Keep balancing competing demands, navigating politics, carrying the weight of it all — and wonder if you'll ever have the energy or time to lead in a way that truly matters.
What is the cost of just carrying on? It's the talented people who leave, missed opportunities for genuine innovation, and the quiet, bone-deep exhaustion of leadership without clarity.
Or, you could create space where the important questions don't get pushed aside.
About Me (And Why This Work Exists)
Kia ora, I’m Cordula!
Leadership isn’t just a role. it’s a weight. A paradox. You’re expected to hold the vision, manage the politics, translate the strategy, and somehow stay human through it all. And let’s be honest — no one really does it alone.
I’ve spent over 20 years inside the public sector. Not theorising change — doing it. From Intelligence training delivery to international capacity building. From multi-agency strategy tables to grassroots system reform. From leading teams with heart to navigating government culture with a raised eyebrow and a backup plan.
I’ve worked across the New Zealand Customs Service, Oranga Tamariki and Te Puna Aonui — shaping culture, decoding complexity, and asking better questions than some rooms were ready for.
My thing? Untangling the real from the performance. I care about what actually works, what actually matters, and what gets lost in the endless chase for optics over outcomes.
My coaching approach is simple, but not always easy: meet what’s true, stay with what matters, and reclaim your clarity.
This work honours your nervous system capacity. We move at the speed of trust — not urgency — and work with the whole of you, including the part that needs to pause, breathe, and process.
So no, this work won’t hand you a glittery five-step model. But it will give you tools. Language. Laughter. Sharp reflection. And yes — tools like the Emotional Culture Deck and my very own Nimacor™ Deck that bring unspoken dynamics into the open where they can finally breathe.
And maybe a ritual or two involving a hot cup of tea or some rogue stickers.
Because real leadership isn’t about perfection or polish. It’s about presence. Pattern recognition. And having the guts to lead without performance.
If you’re looking for something safe and shiny, this probably isn’t it. But if you’re ready to get real — without losing yourself — then we’ll get on just fine.
What Others Have Said After Working Together
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"Hatch really valued the risk culture workshops delivered by Cordula using the Emotional Culture Deck approach. Cordula created a safe and engaging space for our team to reflect on how they were feeling and how this influences culture and risk. This has helped us to develop a togetherness after bringing two seperate businesses together.
Our team gave very positive feedback, noting that they enjoyed the opportunity to think about work in a different way and to use that to connect with colleagues. Overall, the workshops provided real value in supporting cultural integration and encouraging a more people-focused view of risk and organisational culture. We would certainly recommend Cordula."
- Rachel P, Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance
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"You have an outstanding ability to connect with people and form lasting relationships. Your ability to show genuine empathy and understanding meant that I felt at ease to openly chat with you and be honest."
Former Colleague
Frequently avoided questions
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Perfect. That means we’re starting with curiosity, not prescription.
This work doesn’t require a fully formed brief—just a sense that something’s ready to shift. We untangle it together
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We’ll reflect. But not in circles.
Every session holds space for clarity, direction, and momentum—without bypassing the messy bits.
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That’s usually the clearest sign that you do.
If leadership feels like a never-ending sprint, this work offers a breath—a recalibration—so you’re not just reacting, but choosing.
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It is messy. But it doesn’t have to be isolating.
Clarity, connection, and culture don’t just happen—they’re built. We do that together, without pretending it’s simple.
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Staying in patterns that drain you.
Letting the noise drown out your instincts.
Missing the chance to lead in a way that actually fits who you are—beneath the role.
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Resistance is just information.
It shows us where trust is frayed, where fear is speaking. We make space for those dynamics instead of muscling through them.
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Culture isn’t a memo. It’s a pattern of relationship.
This work strengthens the foundations—trust, emotional fluency, shared clarity—so what you build doesn’t vanish when the strategy changes.
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You might be right. But readiness doesn’t always mean consensus.
Sometimes it starts with one person holding clarity—gently, firmly, without needing permission. That alone can shift more than you think.
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Only if presence, trust, and cultural clarity count as soft.
(They do. And they’re also how anything real gets done.)
Research shows that leaders who foster psychological safety and authentic relationships build stronger teams, drive engagement, and foster better collaboration.
This work might be gentle, but it isn’t vague. It meets reality with both heart and edge.
When You’re Ready…
A global pandemic. The shifting tides of geopolitics. The unravelling of traditional structures. The world is asking more from us — faster, louder, and with fewer certainties.
We don’t get to wait for stability. We lead in the in-between — through ambiguity, constraint, and moments that demand both strategy and soul.
The question isn’t: “Is it the right time?” It’s: “What is the cost of just carrying on?”
So, here’s how we begin: Follow what’s stirring
A conversation. No pressure. Just space to see what’s real, what’s possible, and what’s quietly asking to change.
If you’re still reading, you already know something’s stirring. Follow that.
Because staying human — truly human — in the midst of all this messiness? That’s not a nice-to-have. That’s the kind of thriving the future actually needs.