Executive Coach & Partner to Visionary Leaders
Deb
Deb
Katz
Disruption isn't a problem to solve,
it's a signal to heed.
Disruption isn't a problem to solve,
it's a signal to heed.
I partner with trailblazing leaders who are building what doesn't yet exist. When you're building the future, your current operating system may just be your biggest constraint.
To lead effectively, you need to be willing to disrupt and be disrupted.
Together, we surface the hidden patterns that distort your perception of reality and limit what you imagine as possible. I help you listen and respond to the signals you're overriding in your relationships and leadership.
You won't become a different person. You'll expand your capacity to navigate complexity and the unknown. You'll become more fully yourself.
"The deepest transformation begins when we stop protecting ourselves and remember who we are." — Deb
For more than twenty years, leaders have relied on Deb to deliver challenging, actionable feedback with care. Deb coaches, facilitates teams, leads Signal Forums and Intensives, trains coaches, and offers keynotes. She is a founding member of The Signal Institute and a former founding member of The Conscious Leadership Group.
Deb's expertise is in facilitating team and culture transformation. She supports leaders to own their part in creating the dynamics they complain about, then guides them to say the hard things to one another with care and without armor.
In her political activist days, Deb mobilized tens of thousands of Californians to reverse higher education budget cuts. What she learned shapes every client engagement: Transformation doesn't come from a reactive state. Nothing changes until leaders stop blaming and take responsibility.
A former cardiac and hospice nurse, Deb mastered discerning urgency from emergency, while leading people through significant life thresholds. She brings that steadiness to leaders as they reckon with who they've been and who they can become.
Training with RainbowHawk and WindEagle at Ehama Institute taught her that beneath the noise of an identity trying to secure itself is a truer, wilder nature longing to be remembered. She brings this wisdom to her clients to support developing an internal, trustworthy compass.
Deb is based in Portland, Oregon, where she might be on the river, in the garden, or getting into shenanigans with her pup Mufasa.
"Deb has held life-changing retreats for our leaders, coached us execs through myriad transformations, and fanned the growth of hundreds of our teammates. She does it with fierceness, patience, wit, grace, and an unyielding commitment to integrity." — Lisa Ravenscroft, Chief Growth Officer, Mount Anvil
"Working with Deb transformed how I lead. She helped me identify and work with patterns that were holding me back, while helping me recognize and celebrate the strengths of my natural leadership style. Her unique ability to balance fierce candor with genuine warmth creates a space where I can explore any topic, drive sustainable change within myself and my team, and expand my vision of what's possible. I draw on Deb's wisdom and support regularly in board meetings, team discussions, and hard conversations."
"Deb's heartfelt yet firm guidance has profoundly shaped my personal and professional growth. She combines empathy with challenge, which has helped me amplify my impact while finding greater joy in the journey. I am in awe of her talent for helping me see myself more clearly—as a leader, father and husband. Her partnership is instrumental in transforming our leadership team and the organization into a high-performance culture."
"This is going to sound like wild hyperbole but bear with me because it's true: working with Deb has made me a more courageous leader, a more present parent and more loving wife and friend. Her synthesis with my 360 was truly distinctive — I felt seen, called up and invited into a next level of leadership candor and clarity. She is a powerful presence and working with her, too, reminds me of my own power and agency."
"Deb asks powerful questions that challenge assumptions, illuminate blind spots, and foster growth. She has helped us strengthen communication, build a culture of trust and accountability, and unlock measurable improvements in both employee engagement and business performance. Our company is stronger, more aligned, and better prepared because of her work."
"Deb is the most potent of performance-enhancing drugs. Her guidance and role modelling fueled our organisation to build a successful business with love, aliveness, and connection. Her loving challenge will nourish the hungriest seeker. She has held life-changing retreats for our leaders, coached us execs through myriad transformations, and fanned the growth of hundreds of our teammates. She does it with fierceness, patience, wit, grace, and an unyielding commitment to integrity. Please don't hire her unless you're ready to take BIG swings. Anything else is a waste of her genius."
"Deb led my team through the most effective coaching sessions I've ever seen. She has an incredible skill set for guiding a room full of executives through challenging and insightful exercises. She's raw, talented, and authentic. Truly a gem in the world of executive coaching."
"In entrepreneurship, ideas are either vitamins or Advils. I started working with Deb thinking coaching was a vitamin—and to test Conscious Leadership for others. I quickly realized it was essential. Deb helped me see how my self-perception both served and limited me. As leaders, we often focus outward, but the highest-impact work is within. Deb never forced me to change at her pace but created space that allowed me to have more courage to take the next step. Over time, I became a better executive, spouse, and even parent."
"Deb Katz can think alongside me at the level my role requires, listening closely and challenging me. She helped me recognize that I had toned down my strengths and adapted in ways that made sense at the time, but had stopped serving me. I reclaimed my natural gifts and started trusting my instincts again. Deb is completely honest with me and fully in my corner. She is a coach, mentor, and an exceptional leader. I am a more grounded and fully present leader because of her."
Let's begin with a conversation.