I highly recommend Maria as an executive coach. I am extremely grateful to have her influence in my professional and personal life. Maria was recommended by a trusted family friend, and I began coaching with her as I entered into a transition period in my career. Her coaching sessions and structures gave me invaluable perspective, growth, direction, tools and confidence to make the changes I needed and to adapt to new work environments. She helped me specifically to refine and define my professional goals, develop an approach to reach those goals, and she kept me accountable to spirit and intent of that plan. I reached my goals, thanks to working with her.

— Nathan Pumplin, President/CEO, Norfolk Healthy Produce

Working with Maria has been life changing and career changing. We connected during a pivotal inflection point in my career, helping me clarify and simplify a complex decision-making process, taking into account all the different facets of my life and how they work together. Her astute insights and helpful advice helped keep me sane, empowered, content, motivated and inspired through an extended and challenging career transition. The collaboration with Maria has been invaluable and I look forward to the next time that we partner together.

— Senior, Director, Health Economics at public biotech

The clarity that I’m gaining is incredible. Thank you for coaching me to see what is available to me, both what’s already here and what I can create. It’s very cool to have a plan for moving to pure joy!

— Chera Reid, PhD

I feel the retreat provided an opportunity for team members to get to know each other better through the exercise on values, building more of an environment of trust and understanding–foundational to our team.

— JW

I wanted to say thanks again for all your help over the last 6 months. I went back and re-did my Wheel of Life from our intake today and it was great to see that I feel like I’ve made improvements in almost every area. Overall, I definitely feel happier, more balanced, and optimistic about the future. It feels really nice. So thanks again for helping me down the path!

— Lea Adams, Chief, Water Resources Division, HEC at US Army Corps of Engineers

The Step into Leadership approach is not just helpful, it’s transformative. Our team discovered we don’t have to be all things to all people, and that our compliment of strengths can be strategically tapped so that we each shine in our unique ways. I used to focus on my own gaps in leadership capacity; no longer. There’s no lack here when I look at our team as a whole. It’s a real paradigm shift that gives me great confidence in our future.

— Galen Ellis, Ellis Planning Associates

I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Maria since 2009. As a consultant with a small firm, I have relied on Maria’s deep understanding of best business practices, her knowledge of teams and the respective skills and capacities we each bring to the table, and her insights into marketing and other communication strategies that position my company for success. Without a doubt, my company and I are stronger and more resilient because of my partnership with Maria.

— Lisa Korwin, Principal, Korwin Consulting

Maria Cristini facilitated a powerful series of authentic, value-based activities that helped us build a deep level of trust and a thorough understanding of each team member’s values, assets, and needs. We have grown into a team that can engage in productive conflict. This has resulted in stronger shared leadership, sound decisions, and effective meetings. I’m looking forward to where she takes our team next!

— Sharon L. Johnson, MA Principal East Palo Alto Charter School

I appreciated the well-planned process to discover, apply and strategically use our strengths to our best advantage.

— Leslie Golden, President, Golden Associate

Group activities were great! You may be aware of your strengths, but this workshop helps you articulate them. There is something really powerful about putting your strengths into words!

— Karlene Gullone, Architect